U.S. Supreme Court: Post-Ginsburg Edition

Who bets Crow gives Thomas a little kickback each month from his mom's rent?

Meanwhile Dem senators keep trying to get others to investigate when they have the authority to do so themselves:

It would be best for the Chief Justice to commence a proper investigation, but after a week of silence from the Court and this latest disturbing reporting, I’m urging the Judicial Conference to step in and refer Justice Thomas to the Attorney General for investigation.

— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) April 14, 2023

Yeah but congressional investigations have exactly zero teeth. Congress been investigatin' shit forever and I am not familiar with a single recent instance of a congressional investigation resulting in consequences.

The Mueller report did not result in impeachment and the Senate didn't convict Trump after either of his two impeachments, but you be hard pressed to say they were all 'without consequence'.

This is all just so goddamn weird

It is, it's like a rejected script for Succession.

there's something to be said for not being willing to go down without a fight and make sure you hit your enemy in the head so they remember it next time.

my only objection is the tendency to blame the party that has no ability to stop the wheels in motion for the result, but not doing anything at all just signals to everyone "cool, we can do this and nobody will give us any trouble".

and then there's government agencies that can do things and fuck it up, like the FDA, who should have issued a notice of non-enforcement discretion re: mifepristone by now, and the DOJ, who was inexcusably late filing their appeal to SCOTUS for the mifepristone case this morning, when they need a stay by 12:00 am.

Astonishing. As @JudiciaryDems wrote, the Chief Justice must investigate how such conduct could take place at the Court under his watch. And if the Court does not fix these clear abuses, Congress must. https://t.co/DQCP6Lylnm

— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) April 13, 2023

Durbin , head of Judiciary Committee, a profile in lack of courage. Senator Blumenthal is also tweeting that if Justice Roberts doesn’t act, Congress must do something .

Endorsing Paul Vallas right before he loses in Chicago, keeping Feinstein on Judiciary and creating a new problem for Dem confirmations, keeping blue slips after Rs wiped their mouths with them… great year for Durbin https://t.co/g1aYJkETFN

— David Weigel (@daveweigel) April 15, 2023

Over the last two decades, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has reported on required financial disclosure forms that his family received rental income totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars from a firm called Ginger, Ltd., Partnership.

But that company — a Nebraska real estate firm launched in the 1980s by his wife and her relatives — has not existed since 2006.

That year, the family real estate company was shut down and a separate firm was created, state incorporation records show. The similarly named firm assumed control of the shuttered company’s land leasing business, according to property records...

The previously unreported misstatement might be dismissed as a paperwork error. But it is among a series of errors and omissions that Thomas has made on required annual financial disclosure forms over the past several decades, a review of those records shows. Together, they have raised questions about how seriously Thomas views his responsibility to accurately report details about his finances to the public.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/04/16/clarence-thomas-ginger-financial-disclosure/

in retaliation for all of the bad press, in one of the next cases before the court, Clarence will get four other conservative justices to join him in ruling that the Federal Government does not exist

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/17/politics/clarence-thomas-amend-disclosure-gop-megadonor/index.html

Thomas is going to amend his 2014 filing on the property sale, and feels he should be excused for how he did it because .

a reminder that last term, Justice Thomas authored the opinion that says *when your state-appointed lawyer* fails to introduce evidence of your innocence in state court, that's *your fault* - and it's illegal for a federal court to consider the evidence. https://t.co/Ixj6jDMZF5 https://t.co/hJT4irqHoH

— Leah Litman (@LeahLitman) April 17, 2023

OK cool so that's tha

Motherfucker is guilty as hell, and nothing will happen to him.

Corey Robin, who wrote an essential book about Thomas:

As New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie pointed out, “Corruption is much more than a cartoonish quid pro quo.” When money talks, the words need not take the form of “Do this, and I’ll give you that.” Money buys a lifetime of conversation between men of power. In that fraternity of words and wealth, stories are swapped, trust is gained, respect is earned, ideas are shared and preferences become policy.

As a description of the problem of Clarence Thomas, however, corruption too has its limits. Morally, corruption rotates on the same axis as sincerity — forever testing the purity or impurity, the tainted genealogy, of someone’s beliefs. But money hasn’t paved the way to Thomas’ positions. On the contrary, Thomas’ positions have paved the way for money. A close look at his jurisprudence makes clear that Thomas is openly, proudly committed to helping people like Crow use their wealth to exercise power. That’s not just the problem of Clarence Thomas. It’s the problem of the court and contemporary America.

Thomas’ positions have paved the way for money.

Too true. But the constant tangible rewards Thomas gets for his conservatism through contact with the wealthy helps to prevent any widening of his perspective, but instead tends to shelter it, narrow it and radicalize it even further.

As we go through the waiting-for-a-huge-unscheduled-ruling-from-#SCOTUS fire drill for the third time in eight days, a reminder that this is not how the Court has historically operated—or how it should.

That’s a big theme of my book on the “shadow docket,” which comes out 5/16: https://t.co/YtNnX7hl9j

— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) April 21, 2023

He makes good points even if he’s pushing his book. He’s referring to expected ruling today/ tonight re abortion pill lower court rulings

oh great

(re: your 2nd sentence)

#BREAKING: #SCOTUS *stays* Judge Kacsmaryk’s mifepristone ruling in full pending appeal.

This means there will be no change in the access to or availability of the medication anytime soon.

— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) April 21, 2023

#BREAKING: #SCOTUS *stays* Judge Kacsmaryk’s mifepristone ruling in full pending appeal.

This means there will be no change in the access to or availability of the medication anytime soon.

— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) April 21, 2023

Fuck I'm sorry for double post.

I feel like a weight just lifted.

This isn't the end of the line as it's pending appeal but

7-2 decision

Lemme guess who the 2 were.

You are correct

that's good news

BREAKING: Supreme Court stays order banning mifepristone. This means mifepristone remains 100% legal and accessible in states where it is legal.

Thomas and Alito dissent.https://t.co/Fmn64gkbOS pic.twitter.com/Vv9HqB1PbB

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) April 21, 2023

Having the first of many beers in celebration.

Alito dissent is so whiny

That dude is the human embodiment of whining.

whew

What remains of Alito's hair is the embodiment of whining.

and: CA5 set the case/appeal for expedited briefing. it will be interesting to see whether this SCOTUS order affects what CA5 does/rules/says in the government's appeal.

(some judges might take this as a hint/treat it as persuasive/predictive...)

— Leah Litman (@LeahLitman) April 21, 2023

When lemons and limes have tequila shots, they lick Sam Alito first and suck on him after.

— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) April 22, 2023

stop, now I'm hard

Seems as good a time as any to re-up this great piece: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/09/05/justice-alitos-crusade-against-a-secular-america-isnt-over

In other Supreme Court news this past week, they heard a case concerning what is free speech and what is criminal stalking. However at the hearing, rather than focusing on the facts at issue re a man who sent thousands of unsolicited facebook messages to a woman, the conservative justices talked out the speech of professors in college classes and the students who hear them

https://www.fastcompany.com/90881970/supreme-court-to-decide-when-social-media-stalking-illegal

This article was written before the hearing

The Slate article written after the hearing -

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/04/counterman-colorado-supreme-court-threats-stalking.html

The justices’ message was clear: Stalking is not the problem; sensitivity is. To them, stalking is quite literally a state of mind: If the stalker didn’t mean for his conduct to be frightening, then it isn’t. All the target has to do is understand that; she just needs to lighten up, take a joke, accept the compliment, grasp the lesson. Just because someone has made objectively terrifying statements is no reason to overreact and get law enforcement involved; victims should wait for the stalker to do something really frightening before they jump to conclusions.

I haven’t dug into the facts of the case to see if she blocked the guy and he somehow created another account and continued to stalk her

So a stalking victim should lighten up and holla back but if the wrong person pulls into your driveway you can murder them.

x-post back to Alito dissent-

Law Professor Vladeck substack excerpt:

But then there’s the bolded passage—and the remarkable assertion that “the Government has not dispelled legitimate doubts that it would even obey an unfavorable order in these cases.” You’ll note that Alito cites to precisely zero authority either for the “legitimate doubts” or for the government somehow having an obligation to “dispel” those doubts. Yes, members of Congress (from both parties) have suggested that the Biden administration shouldn’t follow an adverse ruling in the mifepristone case. But not only has no one in the executive branch even hinted that such a move was remotely in the cards; the White House specifically poured cold water on the idea. Near as I can tell, it’s been 162 years since the last time a President directly ignored a court order—and, right-wing fever dreams notwithstanding, I don’t exactly see President Biden or Attorney General Garland as likely heirs to the Merryman precedent.

Against that backdrop, it’s hard to imagine where Justice Alito got these “legitimate doubts” from (except, perhaps, right-wing media). Suffice it to say, before a Supreme Court Justice (let alone one with prior executive branch experience) publicly levels such a charge against the incumbent administration, it might behoove them to provide some evidentiary support.

https://stevevladeck.substack.com/p/24-justice-alito-and-the-shadow-docket?r=2k6pc&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2023/04/samuel-alito-is-not-mad-do-not-write-that-he-was-mad

Nine days after Gorsuch was appointed to the Supreme Court, the head of Greenberg Traurig—a major law firm that’s before the Court all the time—bought land he’d been trying to sell for two years. Gorsuch did not report the identity of the purchaser. https://t.co/P4WH4VNnps

— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) April 25, 2023

Dem Judiciary committee chair Durbin probably won't subpoena Gorsuch to testify for same lame reason he just offered for not subpoena'ing Thomas

NEW: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin says he didn't invite Justice Clarence Thomas to testify re ethics because he thought Thomas would ignore the invitation. via @KellyGarrity3 https://t.co/DRbtBr2jvA

— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) April 23, 2023

Just good old fashioned log rolling.

durbin sucks badly but every single democrat should be railing on the blatantly corrupt supreme court

BREAKING: Chief Justice Roberts declines Senator Durbin’s invitation to testify before the senate judiciary committee pic.twitter.com/aiG2OE4iQq

— Steven Mazie (@stevenmazie) April 25, 2023

That's a lot of words to say "fuck you I won't do what you tell me"

I'm shocked.

Just great, as they say.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgttPt_1IG0