U.S. Supreme Court: Post-Ginsburg Edition

"reliably pro-business, pro-leftwing social policy vote." I just threw up in my mouth.

I feel...optimistic?

As to his replacement: If all Democrats hang together – which I expect they will – they have the power to replace Justice Breyer in 2022 without one Republican vote in support.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) January 26, 2022

That said, I did stop to check if there were any Democratic senators in states with Republican governors where state laws allow the governor to fill a senatorial vacancy on a non-interim basis (i.e., no special election) and with no requirement to appoint someone of the same party as the vacating senator.

There are three: Sherrod Brown (OH), Maggie Hassan (NH), and Jeanne Shaheen (NH), all of whom are under 75 years old and, as far as I know, in good health.

Campos a week later:

(1) I was told last week by somebody in the know that this was likely to happen. Today this same person tells me that an important component of Breyer’s decision and its timing is the nonsense that’s gone down at the SCOTUS in the last few weeks, specifically the handling of the Texas abortion litigation, and the mask kerfuffle. (Good job Neil Gorsuch!).

(2) The big question of course is whether the GOP’s evil but not-insane wing, led by Master of the Dark Arts Mitch McConnell, will take this as an opportunity to score cheap bipartisan comity points with the ever-clueless “liberal” establishment, by going along with the inevitable.

The answer to this question, of course, turns largely on whether the inevitable continues to look truly inevitable. Will there be the conservative equivalent of your typical “as a liberal Democratic law lady I vouch for Justice Kavanaugh’s brilliance and car pooling skills?” Again, there will be some of that iff the nomination looks like a fait accompli.

This in turn brings us to

(3) I’m putting the odds of a fake scandal, and probably a fake sex harassment scandal, erupting over the nominee as “much higher than all but the most cynical observers think.” For example I see some cult zealot or three claiming that the nominee made him/them “uncomfortable” in some amorphous way, by [insert bizarre and totally unverifiable or refutable set of accusations here]. Listen to me now and believe me later is what I’m saying. Everything with these people is payback, plus a lot of them are genuinely crazy.

(4) Of course none of this matters if every Democrat senator makes it absolutely clear at all times that they are voting for the nominee. If that happens, all the bullshit from the Scream Machine — and there will be a lot, starting with “whispers” about how this woman of color just isn’t very smart, because you know how affirmative action works — won’t be able to get traction. But if there’s anything less than a consistent united front (looking at you, Krysten), look out.

Nominate four, seat four and when a lawsuit challenging the legality occurs, bring it all the way to the 6-6 court

Nice thought. Chances are all of the new liberal judges would recuse themselves.

Certiorari "before judgment" is supposed to be an exceptionally rare practice through which #SCOTUS bypasses courts of appeals to expedite full review of merits cases. From Aug. 2004–Jan. 2018, #SCOTUS granted *0* such petitions. Today’s grant in the UNC case is the *15th* since.

— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) January 24, 2022

Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett 3 days after RBG died! and she was confirmed 27 days later. Biden today just promised to nominate someone by the end of February, a month from now

I know the timelines for the two nominations are different, but it would be nice to see some fire around this from the White House

I expect they're figuring out a strategy to blunt the intense negative media campaign against any black woman they nominate. They're probably busy testing the water with Democratic senators since they notoriously can't afford to lose even one. Maybe approaching a couple of Republican senators, too, in case they can bust one loose from Mitch's grip. Nothing comes easy these days.

https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2022-01/27/20/asset/0993aa7da167/sub-buzz-651-1643315598-12.jpg?downsize=700%3A%2A&output-quality=auto&output-format=auto
Boop.

there was an intense negative media campaign over Amy Coney Barrett and they just did it. and nobody is talking about it anymore

there was an intense negative media campaign over Amy Coney Barrett and they just did it.

There was never the slightest doubt the Republicans had enough votes to confirm her from the instant RBG died. They had enough of a cushion the outcome was ordained. (see what I did there) The Dems have to keep weird-ass Sinema on board, among others, and every Dem senator knows their leverage is nearly infinite.

Truly shocking - the Court tonight, 5-4 and without explanation, reinstates an execution that a district court and a unanimous court of appeals concluded should not proceed https://t.co/BnFpfmiAzI

— Kate Shaw (@kateashaw1) January 28, 2022

Not truly shocking with this court Law Professor Shaw.

The shocking thing I suppose is that Barrett sided with the liberals.

....but didn't join Kagan as a concurrence.

I suppose being in the majority of a 6-3 court means you can make a game out of taking turns having the others provide cover for you.

Saw somewhere the thought that she may have been spooked at the prospect of actually OKing the execution of someone the state went out of their way to pursue.

BREAKING: By a 5–4 vote, with Roberts joining the liberals in dissent, the Supreme Court halts a lower court order that required Alabama to redraw its congressional map, which diluted Black votes in violation of the Voting Rights Act.

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) February 7, 2022

i see our future has arrived and it has a big dollop of Jim Crow on it

just want to check back on this article and see how well it has aged

https://www.aei.org/articles/justice-john-roberts-was-right-things-have-changed-in-the-south/

Here's a horror story we should read on Halloween:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/02/14/amy-coney-barretts-long-game

The Supreme Court said Wednesday that it will consider a renewed request from New York City teachers and staff to block a vaccine mandate due their religious objections, despite an earlier denial by Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

The teachers had previously asked Sotomayor -- who has jurisdiction over lower courts in New York -- to consider their emergency request. Sotomayor denied the request without referring the matter to the full court, likely because she did not think her colleagues would be interested in granting the application. The court has been reluctant to get involved in state and local vaccine mandate disputes.
But the New York group then took the unusual step of directing a new request to conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, who referred it to the full court to consider. Supreme Court rules allow a party to make a renewed request to "any other justice" after a denial from the justice who has jurisdiction over the lower courts involved in the case. The rules state, however, that such a renewed application is "not favored."

Maskless anti-vaxer Gorsuch at work

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/16/politics/sotomayor-gorsuch-new-york-vaccine-mandate/index.html

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/2/17/2080743/-Gorsuch-overrules-Sotomayor-again-demonstrating-the-Supreme-Court-has-to-be-expanded-to-be-saved?detail=emaildkre

holy shit

interested to see the religious argument for not masking (actually not interested in this)

excited for our forthcoming smallpox epidemic

but it will be divinely inspired smallpox epidemic so it's ok

BREAKING: The Supreme Court will decide whether LGBTQ non-discrimination laws that "compel an artist to speak or stay silent" violate the First Amendment. https://t.co/YlxSXnMjCI pic.twitter.com/isF4Px7yUi

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) February 22, 2022

Motion to fire up new thread U.S. Supreme Court: Post-Roberts Edition

overruled, with roberts, thomas, alito, gorsuch, kavanaugh, and barrett in the majority, and sotomayor, kagan, and breyer in disisent

that's just how it is here

I had to read Stern's article to understand "speak or stay silent."

America has a long and storied tradition of gay bashing

Consider a photographer who refuses to shoot a Muslim wedding; a florist who refuses to sell flowers for a Bat Mitzvah; a hairdresser who refuses to provide services to Black people; a chef who refuses to cater a quinceañera.

SCOTUS could exempt them all from civil rights laws.

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) February 22, 2022

I feel like I should know this, but are there really current state civil rights laws that require non discrimination in things like wedding photography?

don’t see how providing wedding photography is different than baking a wedding cake, making floral arrangements or creating a web page

ADF is a well-known Southern Poverty Law Center-designated extremist group. As Joe My God said, “it’s likely that Smith’s is yet another fake company created by the Alliance Defending Freedom in order file a peremptory challenge. In other words, she’s never refused any LGBT clients because she’s never had any attempt to hire her.”

The web page, according to Stern, is more recognizably "speech" than baking.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/22/magazine/clarence-thomas-ginni-thomas.html

Some of this has been previously reported but this article adds more details re Clarence & Ginni Thomas and right wing craziness

don’t see how providing wedding photography is different than baking a wedding cake, making floral arrangements or creating a web page

― Dan S, Wednesday, 23 February 2022 03:19 (seven hours ago) link

I hadn’t realized that public accommodation laws were this broadly defined - I assumed it was places with a physical location open to the public.

I'm as despairing as everyone else, but I really think they might just do a limited ruling that allows discrimination against LGBTQ+ people...which will be horrible and egregious and despicable and personal, obv, but essentially rolling back all civil rights laws doesn't seem prudent in any way, shape, or form.

https://www.denverpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Supreme_Court_Clarence_Thomas_21940.jpg?w=640

Conflict of interest? Our interests are completely aligned!

The only upside I can see is that maybe all us sick queers can move somewhere else.

I'd love asylum in Portugal

I hadn’t realized that public accommodation laws were this broadly defined - I assumed it was places with a physical location open to the public.

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Wednesday, February 23, 2022

why should services offered on the internet be treated any differently than Masterpiece Cakeshop or Arlene's Flowers?

President Biden has selected Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as his nominee to the Supreme Court, two people familiar with his decision said, choosing a well-regarded federal appeals court judge who if confirmed would make history by becoming the first Black woman to serve as a justice.

In Judge Jackson, 51, Mr. Biden selected a liberal-leaning jurist who earned a measure of Republican support when he nominated her to the influential federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., last summer. If confirmed by the Senate, she would replace Justice Stephen G. Breyer, the senior member of the court’s three-member liberal wing, who announced last month that he would retire at the end of the current court term this summer if his successor was in place.

Congrats, KBJ!

Nice.

https://fop.net/2022/02/fop-national-president-patrick-yoes-statement-on-nomination-of-kentaji-brown-jackson-to-scotus/?fbclid=IwAR1mygAcxof5AwY36Br_JFO14vMdL74SbE_r2LVE_mUnFAWywRoqAxltmWQ

Strike against her afaic.

the first South Floridian to get nominated!