U.S. Supreme Court: Post-Ginsburg Edition

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/supreme-court-biden-administration-title-ix-rule/

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/09/us/politics/german-princess-alito-castle-visit.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Jk4.6HTS.KM6DlIJ5uvMF&smid=url-share

Alito received gifts and opera tickets and more from right wing German princess

i bet you can't guess which german music festival this was

i'll give you clue: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichsb%C3%BCrger_movement love love love it!

I wonder if every rich person who got a fashion spread in 80s magazines is now a fascist like "Princess TNT"

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhux4Dz15ZBcSv6TpzBkhR7xC5igrHDLQYyXrVAtnZXsYK3wBe0QuPRRVNR-hmZW84D7e29NhHODqEbvApogGSrkcNXBSEGqKIrGLx2Mpv4Y7vqOk3hN7oUIpLj8OkDKJTzltN4bpDoeSQ/s1600/111262884.png

Alito in addition to the opera tickets made stock deals and some payments back

He is likely still not disclosing all the trips he has taken with “friends.”

Yes , Justice Jackson got Beyonce tickets earlier. An enforceable ethics code and gift restrictions are needed for the Supreme Court

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/sep/09/samuel-alito-supreme-court

Samuel Alito is the only Supreme Court member with a stake in more than two dozen individual companies — a distinction that should force his recusal from major business cases before the Court.

Alito or his wife own tens of thousands of dollars of stock in companies including…

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 9, 2024

There's a good reason why such assets are usually managed as a blind trust.

I think it makes sense to ban justices and politicians from holding stocks in individual companies, but also "tens of thousands" is not necessarily a crazy number where I'd assume he's in the pocket of these organizations. I'm positive there are members of congress with stakes in companies in the millions.

yeah, I don't disagree with that post but it applies to like 95% of elected representatives and federal judges.

Justice Roberts is delusional . New NY Times article with background info on recent cases including the immunity ones:

In his writings on the immunity case, the chief justice seemed confident that his arguments would soar above politics, persuade the public, and stand the test of time.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/15/us/justice-roberts-trump-supreme-court.html

More from the NY Times article-

“It’s a strange, sprawling opinion,” said William Baude, a University of Chicago law professor and a former clerk to the chief justice. “It’s hard to tell what exactly it is trying to do.”

Others said the ruling was untethered from the law. “It’s certainly not really tied to the Constitution,” said Stephen R. McAllister, a law professor at University of Kansas and former clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas.

But inside the court, some members of the majority had complimented the chief justice even as they requested changes. Two days after the chief justice circulated his first draft in June, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh responded to what he called an “extraordinary opinion.”

In a final flourish, he wrote, “Thank you again for your exceptional work.”

Soon afterward, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch added another superlative: “I join Brett in thanking you for your remarkable work.”

Roberts and the rest are in such a MAGA conservative bubble.

Unrelated aside - Jay Willis wrote on Bluesky that Gorsuch did appearances for his book this summer on programs hosted by Ben Shapiro, Megyn Kelly, Hugh Hewitt, & Fox & Friends

Roberts allowing Alito to stay on Trump cases despite knowing of the flag controversy for years

Remember, CJ Roberts knew about the Alitos’ upside down flag controversy shortly after it happened, and he assigned the Jan 6 case to Alito anyway — showing he saw no problem with it. He only took over the opinion from him once news of the flag leaked.

A rotten institution. https://t.co/HHpXwWKeM6 pic.twitter.com/69GObgCs8a

— Secrets and Laws (@secretsandlaws) September 15, 2024

A Trump-appointed judge upended labor law Tuesday in granting an injunction in favor of a company arguing that the National Labor Relations Board is unconstitutional.

Judge Mark Pittman in Texas issued the injunction for Findhelp, a tech company headquartered in Austin accused of unfair labor practices. The NLRB is a federal government agency that enforces labor law practices as well as collective bargaining.

The preliminary injunction cites the recent Supreme Court decision in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy, which weakened federal regulatory agencies. Findhelp argued that the NLRB’s judge system, which hears cases, violates the separation of powers, and Pittman agreed in granting the injunction. This does not bode well for the NLRB, and signals a long legal fight between big business and unions, divided along ideological lines between conservatives and liberals. The case could go all the way to the Supreme Court, where it would meet a pro-business majority handpicked by Donald Trump himself.

Conservatives and their corporate allies have been attacking the NLRB for quite some time, with Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Starbucks, and Trader Joe’s all mounting legal cases against the agency in an attempt to destroy it. Trump’s time as president was four years of pro-business practices, appointing corporate-aligned attorneys to the Department of Labor and weakening laws that would have expanded worker pay and strengthened unions.

fucking hell. this is class warfare with the Federalist Society replacing the Pinkerton Detective Agency.

America is a center-right right-to-work country.

it is til you say otherwise

Trump appointed federalist society district judges are out of control

US Supreme Court ones too—

Stern and Lithwick re John Roberts memo and other revelations in NY Times article mentioned above in this thread

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/09/scotus-john-roberts-image-fail-phony-false.html

Public policy law 360 News has a new paywalled article about a federal judiciary group reviewing allegations that Clarence Thomas failure to report luxury gifts and travel is a tax law violation, but attorney general Garland is hesitant to move forward and Thomas’ lawyer says it’s ok to get gifts from friends.

Here’s an earlier July article about this :

https://www.salon.com/2024/07/11/experts-doj-has-sufficient-evidence-to-probe-clarence-thomas--but-garland-wont-go-for-it/

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-supreme-court-justices-other-judges-can-stay-corporate-owned-homes-without-2024-09-24/

US Judicial Congress committee loosens judicial rules to help Clarence Thomas

3 Dem Justices dissented from execution decision yesterday . Majority didn't care prosecutor now had doubt

Pay Attention to Who Benefits From the Conservative Justices’ Selective Empathy

Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Stern

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/09/marcellus-williams-execution-supreme-court-due-process-hypocrisy.html

Senator Wyden bill to reform US Supreme Court and add 6 justices

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/09/26/supreme-court-reform-15-justices-wyden/

https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-introduces-sweeping-court-reforms-to-restore-public-trust-as-supreme-court-faces-legitimacy-crisis

Good timing to drop this the day after the current Court killed a man who was likely innocent.

I missed this completely deranged decision https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/26/supreme-court-bribes-gratuities-corruption-mayor/ which is in the news now because it's apparently going to be the basis of Eric adams's defense. essentially: if the quid and quo don't happen in a particular order, it's a gratuity, not a bribe, and gratuities are fine. great stuff.

The 5-4 episode on that case (Snyder v. United States) was, if possible, even more damning than usual.

SCOTUS blog on some cases the Supreme Court will of will not hear this fall . Also amazingly Supreme Court is allowing for now new epa rules on mercury to stay in effect while a circuit court hears republican states challenge to the reg

https://www.scotusblog.com/

court under scrutiny for receiving bribes narrows the scope of the federal anti-bribery law, shocking xp

Bribes are people, my friend

The Court majority also as noted upthread got assistance from the judicial conference to after the fact let bribe like behavior such as billionaires providing vacation homes for judges as acceptable non-restricted actions

Hopefully Stern analysis of this ghost gun hearing at US Supreme Court is correct

Easy call: The Supreme Court will likely uphold the Biden administration’s restrictions on the sale of ghost guns, thereby preventing the resurrection of an industry that has essentially collapsed. Probably by a 6-3 vote.

— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) October 8, 2024

Do not sleep on the Loper Bright/Chevron kicker, c/o Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, today: https://t.co/Aj4spfR0aQ pic.twitter.com/bQcDDQJDX0

— Chris “Law Dork” Geidner (@chrisgeidner) October 8, 2024

Justice Jackson snuck in a dig I think at the conservative majority re their overthrow of deference to an agency interpretation via Chevron, at the ghost gun regulation case hearing the other day

TS: the corrupt power to make and unmake laws, or being right

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-kavanaugh-white-house-cheat-confirmation-sham-1235129234/

I am paywalled from this Rolling Stone article about how the Orange Man’s White House kept the FBI from doing a complete investigation into Kavanaugh when he was nominated

'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less. ' and so every legal issue must end in a lawsuit before scotus, seems possible.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/07/opinion/supreme-court-legitimacy.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Rk4.4lMe.qq8KupwUC6aY&smid=url-share

Supreme Court has only itself to blame opinion piece

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/10/clarence-thomas-kill-richard-glossip-supreme-court-arguments.html

Clarence Thomas in death penalty case is more determined to defend prosecutors who may have screwed up, than find the facts

An environmental lawyer I follow on bluesky just concluded her thread re today’s oral argument with this:

Okay argument finally done after almost two hours. Impossible to say whether I'm cranky because my blood sugar is low or because it's not looking good for the ol' Clean Water Act

An environmental lawyer I follow on bluesky just concluded her thread re today’s oral argument with this:

Okay argument finally done after almost two hours. Impossible to say whether I'm cranky because my blood sugar is low or because it's not looking good for the ol' Clean Water Act

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-allows-virginia-purge-noncitizens-voter-rolls-ahead-elec-rcna177673

So while Virginia does allow same day registration and provisional ballots for those who may have improperly knocked off Virginia registration list because they missed checking a box, they will have to know that they can do this and hope Virginia election officials suggest it and help. Republican governor Youngkin’s win on this with the 6 members majority will just encourage more Republican governors to mess with registration and other election matters close to election time

Who may have been

Seeing some calls for 70 year-old Justice Sotomayor who has diabetes issues to resign now under Biden, but the problem is that Manchin might not support a successor and Tulsi Gabbard (who is becoming a Republican ) won't either.

Meanwhile at the lower court level we have to hope that Biden and Senator Durbin can get more Dem judges approved through the lame duck period (and that might require Manchin & Gabbard votes also). MCconnell as you may recalled shoved Fed Society Trump butt kisser Aileen Cannon onto a District court job in the lame duck period between Trump's loss to Biden and Biden taking the presidency.

when you say gabbard, are you talking about sinema?

Oops ! Yes

Machine and Sienna aren’t agreeing to anything that will cost them a buck in the future

And Biden hasn't nominated enough folks, and accounted for time vetting, voting and debating . Durbin moving slow too, plus I think the blue check rule still in place for District court slots (Senators get a sign off -- good luck getting that from Republican ones )

Vacancies in the Federal Judiciary

118th Congress

Last updated on11/09/2024

Total Vacancies:47

Total Nominees Pending:17

https://www.uscourts.gov/judges-judgeships/judicial-vacancies/current-judicial-vacancies

chevron strike-down silver lining - harder for RFK jr to make the fda do what he wants?