SCOTUS Relaxes Paper Filing Requirements | Trump Threatens To Adjourn Congress To Push Through His Nominees
April 16, 2020
TOTAL AUTHORITY
|Josh Bresnahan with POLITICO reports on PRESIDENT TRUMP threatening to invoke a never-before-used authority to push through dozens of executive-branch nominees while Congress remains out of Washington because of the coronavirus crisis. “The full Senate won’t return to Washington until at least May 4, although the body is holding pro forma sessions in the meantime, in part to prevent Trump from making recess appointments. If Trump does attempt to adjourn Congress, that would take place at least 10 days before the Senate is back, a length of time that would comport with a 2014 Supreme Court decision on the issue, administration sources suggested.” That SCOTUS decision also suggested that “very unusual circumstances” could demand exercise of recess-appointment power.
TOP-ED
|Deborah Pearlstein argues in The Atlantic that a functioning legislature has never been more necessary, and so Congress should be exploring how it can operate and vote remotely. She notes, “Even the Supreme Court has embraced remote oral arguments for its upcoming cases. Indeed, Congress itself recessed last month with resolutions related to remote-voting capabilities pending in both the House and the Senate. Yet a vague belief seems to persist among some on Capitol Hill that remote voting raises ‘serious constitutional concerns,’ or, more specifically, that the Constitution requires members’ physical presence to do the nation’s business. This is false. There is no such constitutional requirement.”
SAVING PAPER
|“The U.S. Supreme Court altered another of its traditions in response to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic by moving to limit paper filings, joining the chorus of federal courts across the country also sorting out new ways to operate.” Kimberly Robinson with Bloomberg Law reports on Wednesday’s announcement from the high court that certain initial filings will only be required in a single paper copy instead of the typical 40. “In their open-ended order, the justices additionally eliminated the need to file any paper version of certain run-of-the-mill filings, like requests for routinely granted extensions and blanket consents to amicus, or friend-of-the-court briefs.”
WHO WHAT WEAR
|“Justice is supposed to be blind. But in courtrooms, decorum matters. Judges typically dress in somber black robes. Lawyers, plaintiffs and defendants are encouraged to dress modestly to signify credibility. Does that change when court hearings are moved online to enable social distancing during the spread of the new coronavirus?” That’s Jacey Fortin writing in The New York Times about how dress codes for judges and lawyers are being challenged in this era of virtual proceedings.
BACK AT IT
|Owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop and the man who was at the heart of a Supreme Court case about a same-sex wedding cake, JACK PHILLIPS, is back in court again. This time he’s being accused of unlawfully refusing to serve a transgender woman who requested a trans-themed birthday cake. Nico Lang with NBC News reports.