U.S. Supreme Court: Post-Ginsburg Edition

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

i seriously doubt RFK will be running the FDA or if he is, it won't be for long

I really, really hope clearer heads prevail re: RFK Jr., but Trump did say he would let him "run wild"

don't look forward to the underground drug networks that will have to be created if he does just so people can get vaccinated

Trump is urging Republicans to somehow block any more judges from being appointed by Biden and confirmed by the Senate to the 47 vacancies.

Eileen Cannon was confirmed by a lameduck Republican McConnell Senate in November 2020—by a bipartisan vote of 56-21, with the support of 10 Democrats (23 senators were absent or otherwise didn’t vote in that post-election, lame-duck session)—Cannon began her judicial service that month. She was only 39 years old.

Then once Trump gets in for his 2nd time --

waiting in the wings are dozens of Republican-nominated judges who in January would be eligible to retire on full pay but were most likely delaying doing so until there was a Republican president who could appoint their successors.

There are 83 such judges, according to Russell Wheeler, a scholar at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution who tracks judicial nominations.

Once Trump takes office, he will probably be able to fill most of those slots.

GOP won't pursue Supreme Court ethics rules

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-will-name-conservative-judges-may-even-pick-majority-supreme-cou-rcna179130

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/4992094-gorsuch-invokes-pnut-the-squirrel-in-federalist-society-dinner-keynote/

It’s bad enough that Gorsuch did multiple Fox News interviews for his book and is referencing Fox News stories at his Federalist Society keynote address, but did retired justice Breyer have to go to the Federalist Society Event and talk and normalize those folks . I recall Breyer had a dumb op-ed awhile back though offering this same mush so I guess I should not be surprised

https://ballsandstrikes.org/legal-culture/tom-goldstein-trump-prosecutions-supreme-court/

A response to the SCOTUS blog lawyer head who just wrote a NY Times opinion piece saying that all the cases against Trump whether in state court or federal court, should be dropped because Trump got elected again

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/03/us/supreme-court-ethics-rules.html

Interesting insider information article that confirms how most of us likely felt each justice would view things.

James Burnham, a former clerk to Justice Gorsuch, published an essay with warnings similar to the ones that his former boss had made in private. Ethics enforcement could “destabilize a legal system that has long protected us all,” he added in an interview.

Guy doesn't realize how his privileged Republican take can be read.

"us"

wish his sinus node would be destabilized

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/12/04/supreme-court-transgender-rights-case/#link-3KEP264JE5AGVE76V53CA7PSLM

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. used the phrase “a girl who wants to live like a boy” at one point

Alito also used to be alive

The wisdom of spectators:

“I care about gender-nonconforming kids just like me,” Turner said. “I’m a gay man, and I was a very feminine boy. When I was in second grade, I cried about wishing I was a girl because I wanted to have a purse. And thank goodness I wasn’t told that I was in the wrong body. I was told that you can have a purse — boys can be feminine, girls can be masculine, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

“I relate to the kids that are experiencing gender dysphoria, and I think that they’re frequently gay or lesbian, or they will grow up to be, and they’d be better off without medicalizing,” he said.

Are people really told by professionals that they’re in the wrong body? Because I’m inclined to believe that opinion is put forward by the patient experiencing gender dysphoria.

This is almost certainly going to be upheld. I think it's time to reconsider the "gender-affirming care is primarily a medical issue" approach (as opposed to a minority rights /sex-based discrimination issue) as, from what I'm reading, that's the logic the conservatives are using to uphold the TN law

I really think the Conservative mind sees everything as a money-making scam, because projection, as well as their inability to think outside of a moneymaking framework. So therefore doctors who specialize in gender-affirming care are pushing kids into it for $$$

but the law explicitly allows puberty blockers, hormone treatments, and cosmetic surgeries for minors so long as they aren't used for gender affirmation

The Tennessee law is fine with boys getting puberty blockers if will help them affirm their manhood, but not with girls getting them for psychological and mental health reasons.

Justice Jackson apparently did make the minority rights and equal rights argument

The conservative majority don’t want to consider trans people a minority deserving of protection against discrimination

Macho boys are a minority deserving protection.

Exactly . The Supreme Court majority knows better than a bunch of lib doctors who deserves protection

Waiting for Red States to pass the "Laughing at Dead CEOs" act next

https://i.imgur.com/Fn4jhba.gif

Alito/Thomas/Kavanaugh all dying in same car accident, Biden squeezes all three replacements through before January. Manifesting it

Interesting dream. Alas , Manchin & Sinema would have to sign off. I see that Schumer made a deal a little while ago with Republicans to let 4 court of appeals slots to sit empty until Trump comes in in exchange for Republicans not blocking some lower level District Court judge slots. Apparently Schumer didn’t think he had the votes to get Dem selected judges in those higher slots

Dems bringing a knife wet noodle to a gun fight as usual.

Dems Supreme Court judicial ethics report issued

Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose two additional trips from a billionaire patron that had not previously come to light, Senate Democrats revealed on Saturday after conducting a 20-month investigation into ethics practices at the Supreme Court.

The findings were part of a 93-page report released by Democratic staff members of the Judiciary Committee along with about 800 pages of documents. It said the two trips, both of which had been previously unknown to the public, took place in 2021 and were provided by Harlan Crow, a real estate magnate in Texas and a frequent patron of Justice Thomas’s.

One trip took place that July by private jet from Nebraska to Saranac, N.Y., where Justice Thomas stayed at Mr. Crow’s upstate retreat for five days. The other came in October, when Mr. Crow hosted Justice Thomas overnight in New York on his yacht after flying him from the District of Columbia to New Jersey for the dedication of a statue.

From The NY Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/21/us/politics/clarence-thomas-trips-disclosure-investigation.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

So I am watching the Kennedy Center Honors now on network tv and after showing honoree Bonny Raitt I think, they cut away to the crowd and I see Justice Roberts; and then after Dave Chappelle does a routine in tribute to the Apollo Theatre , then suddenly show f'in Brett Kavanaugh there . Ugh

They probably get free tickets, too.

luv 2 be friends w supreme court justices and fly them on my planes

https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/biden-made-the-judiciary-more-diversebut-not-more-liberal-d3cf7679

Paywalled article I haven’t been able to read . Sub heading saying Biden appointments largely took the place of other like minded appointees, seems to suggest that article is saying Biden appointments replaced retiring Dem judges

That's fine. Better this outcome than Trump filling them.

Paywalled article I haven’t been able to read

you probably already know, but you can just copy paste that link into https://archive.ph, and then it gives you a link like this which you (and others)) can read: https://archive.ph/hqLwI

potentially ethically not cool for all the people/journalists/bloggers who don't have any money and are trying to paywall to support their business, but in the case of the wall street journal, imo, fuck them

https://wapo.st/4fUKkYO

Durbin still to be top ranked Dem in Republican led Judiciary committee. This opinion piece argues that Durbin wasn’t aggressive enough while Dems had power and didn’t communicate to the public well enough, so that his Dem Rhode Island colleague Sheldon Whitehouse should have been chosen instead. But alas Schumer cares more about seniority norms than about sending strong messages to the public

The strong message of Sheldon Whitehouse

The strong message of Whitehouse

https://a.co/d/etpvo8t

Justice Alito confirmed President-elect Trump called him, telling ABC News, “one of my former law clerks asked me to take a call from President-elect Trump regarding his qualifications to serve in a government position.  I agreed to discuss this matter with President-elect Trump,… https://t.co/xZzDyYItz5

— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) January 8, 2025

Alito and Trump just happened to talk about a former clerk getting a job in Trump administration around the same time Trump was filing a motion to block his NY sentencing hearing, and filing in the 11th Circuit to block release of classified docs report

I often call Alito about helping with traffic tickets, he's a real resource for the American people

Wow, Barrett and Roberts sided with the 3 libs to deny Trump’s request to postpone his NY sentencing hearing scheduled for tomorrow. While NY judge has already stated Trump won’t get jail time, Trump will have to appear virtually or in person tomorrow to hear the NY judge announce the sentencing determination.

5-4 decision

He wanted the NY decision dismissed as well and it didn’t happen. I guess Trump will be hate tweeting Barrett and Roberts even though he won’t be facing anything real tomorrow

Case coming to Supreme Court after dumb 5th Circuit ruling that certain healthcare mandates under Affordable Care Act violate the Constitution because the federal officials who put them in place were not allegedly appointed correctly.

The challengers also urged the Supreme Court to take up the case, even as they argued that the 5th Circuit’s ruling was “well-reasoned and correct.” They pointed to the Supreme Court’s typical practice of granting cases where an act of Congress was deemed unconstitutional by a lower court.

The Texas business, Braidwood, sued over the mandates because the company had moral objections to covering the HIV prevention medications – known as PrEP. The company also objected to paying for insurance that covered screenings for sexually transmitted diseases and other treatments related to conduct the employer morally opposed.

The lawsuit was first filed in 2020, and at the time, the Trump administration defended the Affordable Care Act’s requirements.

Representing the company is Gene Hamilton, an alum of the first Trump administration Justice Department, who now, alongside Trump adviser Stephen Miller, leads the legal advocacy organization America First Legal. Also representing the challengers is Jonathan Mitchell, who argued on Trump’s behalf in the Colorado ballot access case before the Supreme Court last term.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/10/politics/obamacare-supreme-court-hiv-prep-cancer-screening-heart-statin/index.html

The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the mandates in question, based on the recommendations of the US Preventive Services Task Force, violated the Appointments Clause of the Constitution because its members are not appointed by the president with Senate confirmation. The 5th Circuit’s ruling was directed at no-cost coverage requirements implemented after Obamacare’s enactment in March 2010.

The head of Braidwood is a real piece of work.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Hotze

Wow. A nut like this gets to ask the Supreme Court to amend Obamacare to meet his concerns. Oy veh. America.

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2025/01/16/supreme-court-lawyer-tax-evasion-poker-.html

lol

Damned if we do, damned if we don't

Some legal experts say the purges underway appear to be custom-made opportunities for the Supreme Court’s Republican-appointed majority to strike down the statutes any legal challenges would be based on, furthering its trend in recent years of expanding presidential authority.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/29/us/politics/trump-firings-officials-legal-test.html