One-Two Punch From Ginny & Clarence | Could Trump’s Favorite Issues Get A Second Life At SCOTUS?
April 8, 2021
DYNAMIC DUO
|Dylan Byers with NBC News reports on JUSTICE CLARENCE THOMAS and his wife, GINNY THOMAS, once again taking on political issues from their respective platforms. For Clarence, it’s the Supreme Court. For Ginny, it’s her computer. Byers notes that last week, Ginny sent an email out to her network asking folks to help raise awareness for a new website fighting “corporate tyranny” and social media’s growing power over political speech. Just five days later, her husband issued a similar warning about the power of social media giants over speech when he handed down a concurring opinion for a ruling regarding DONALD TRUMP’S Twitter presence. Byers: “The one-two punch from the Thomases adds to what remains a major rallying cry for conservatives: a perceived censorship of Republicans by major tech companies, especially in the wake of Trump’s election loss and the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Twitter permanently removed Trump from the platform days later, citing ‘the risk of further incitement of violence.’ It also gives new life to long-standing questions about whether Virginia Thomas’ activism presents a conflict of interest for her husband.”
WE GOT YOU, BRO
|Issues like social media governance were an interest of former president DONALD TRUMP, but now that he’s out of the White House it’s possible his pet issues could get a second life among conservatives at the Supreme Court. There’s the JUSTICE THOMAS Twitter example, as well as JUSTICES ALITO and GORSUCH recently making their they hope to address whether state officials and courts have the power to change election rules. John Kruzel with The Hill writes, “It’s unclear the degree to which politics or public opinion may have motivated the conservative trio to publicly state their interest in legal issues underlying these hot-button topics, and they did not explicitly say how they would rule in potential disputes. But their avowed interest in the controversial areas may further incentivize litigation against some of Trump’s nemeses, from Silicon Valley behemoths to state election officials, the likes of whom Trump has falsely blamed for his 2020 election defeat.”
POD DU JOUR
|The podcast Dissed, hosted by Anastasia Boden and Elizabeth Slattery, has a new episode out that looks into the legal response to government measures that were implemented to help stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus. They take a look at what a pair of Supreme Court rulings from 1905 — Jacobson v. Massachusetts and Lochner v. New York — mean for the modern quest to tackle COVID. Guests of the pod include Richard Epstein, David Bernstein, and Stephen Vladeck.