A FAREWELL TO REINHARDT, AN ENCOURAGEMENT FOR SOTOMAYOR | Gorsuch Fulfilling Conservatives’ Hopes And Dreams | RBG Spotted at New York Opera
April 12, 2018
TOP-ED
|Linda Greenhouse with The New York Times covers the late JUDGE STEPHEN REINHARDT who was greatly troubled by the Supreme Court’s rightward turn. She remembers their one and only conversation which she describes as “awkward” because, as she learned, they both had different baselines or frames of reference for understanding the liberalism—or lack thereof—at the high court.
SCOTUS, SONIA, HUGO, MON DIEU!
|And now that Reinhardt has passed, Linda Greenhouse looks to JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR as perhaps “the most interesting figure in today’s judicial pantheon.” More and more often, Sotomayor is the lone dissenter — especially in criminal cases. So Greenhouse leaves the passionate justice with words of comfort for her future at the court, and in remembrance of Stephen Reinhardt. “In Victor Hugo’s words: ‘On résiste à l’invasion des armées; on ne résiste pas à l’invasion des idées.’ Or in the standard (and more poetic) English translation: ‘Greater than the tread of mighty armies is an idea whose time has come.'”
LIVING ON A PRAYER
|“Conservatives have long worried that judges, once sworn in as a justice on the Supreme Court, will move to the left over time.” It’s known as the “Greenhouse effect” (yes, same Greenhouse who wrote today’s top-ed). But as Cleta Mitchel points out in The Hill, there has been no need to worry that such an effect will take hold on the newest justice, conservative stalwart JUSTICE NEIL GORSUCH. One year in to his SCOTUS tenure and he hasn’t so much as flinched on his originalist and textualist philosophies.
SPOTTED
|The Supreme Court’s eldest justice was at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on Monday night to see Plácido Domingo’s performance in Verdi’s “Luisa Miller.” Emily Heil with The Washington Post reports on the NOTORIOUS RBG spotting which included a pre-opera dinner at the venue’s Grand Tier Restaurant.
SCOTUS VIEWS
Why Judges Are Above The Law
Slate“The idea here is to protect judges from having to worry about potential litigation arising from their decisions, a possibility that might lead them to approach their jobs too cautiously. If we want a judiciary that issues rulings without fear of punishment, the argument goes, absolute immunity is a necessary trade-off. The obvious problem with this doctrine is that the judges who stand to benefit from a system that ensures their legal lack of accountability are the ones who decide whether they themselves should get immunity.”
To Save Abortion Rights, We Have To Think Beyond Roe
The New York Times“Conventional understanding of pro-choice politics tends to fixate on Roe v. Wade as the center of the fight for abortion rights. But though Roe faces genuine peril down the road if the Trump administration gets another Supreme Court appointment, state-level restrictions that aim to shut down abortion clinics are chipping away at the rights of millions of Americans this second. Legality doesn’t mean much without access. If abortion and reproductive health care are important to you, this is your fight.”