A HAIL MARY FOR MERRICK | The Women of SCOTUS and the Ceilings They’ve Shattered | Trump’s Top Contenders
December 16, 2016
YESTERDAY AT SCOTUS
|The justices on Thursday indicated they might be willing to make a big constitutional ruling this term when they issued a “highly unusual” order in a pending immigration case. A ruling in this case has the potential to limit DONALD TRUMP’S powers to detain noncitizens who may be eligible to be removed from the country. Cristian Farias with The Huffington Post notes that the new order asks the federal government and the ACLU to file a new round of briefs “addressing whether the Constitution would require a hearing in front of a judge – or even a release, if the government fails to present strong enough evidence that the person shouldn’t be released – if a detention lasted six months.”
IF YOU CAN'T TAKE THE HEAT
|In each case the justices have decided this year, they have decided less than they could have. Richard Wolf with USA Today reports that it has been “a display of judicial minimalism that wins applause from across the political spectrum but leaves often important questions unresolved.” Wolf notes that it’s officially official, the Supreme Court is playing “small ball.”
WHO RUN THE WORLD
|Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick writes that in troubled times, the women of the Supreme Court are the role models American women need. She looks to the four women of SCOTUS – JUSTICES SANDRA DAY O’CONNOR, RUTH BADER GINSBURG, SONIA SOTOMAYOR, and ELENA KAGAN – as sources of strength and inspiration. “They have taught me almost everything I know about women and power,” she writes. “This has been one of the most difficult times I can recall for women in public office. It is shattering to contemplate starting again to relitigate fights over our bodies, access to contraception, equal pay, respect in the workplace, the right to love and marry the partner of our choosing, and the right to be unafraid of sexual violence and casual threats. We have a long climb ahead. We also have the accumulated lives and wisdom of four extraordinary women who did this climb before us and who will do it with us again.”
A HAIL MARY
|“PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA may be giving up on U.S. Senate confirmation of CHIEF JUDGE MERRICK GARLAND, his nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, but a New Mexico lawyer is making one last appeal—this time to the high court itself.” Marcia Coyle with The National Law Journal reports that after already fighting this battle unsuccessfully in lower courts, STEVEN MICHEL on Thursday filed an emergency application for an injunction that would require SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL to schedule a vote on Garland’s nomination before the end of Obama’s term in office. Michel argues that although the injunction is a long shot, he says, “The issue is unsettled and my position is that the current situation warrants that form of extraordinary relief.”
YOU'RE STILL A CONTENDER
|CNN’s Pamela Brown and Eugene Scott report JUDGES DIANE SYKES and WILLIAM PRYOR are among the top contenders to fill JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA’S seat on the Supreme Court, according to multiple sources familiar with the process. One of DONALD TRUMP’S transition aides told reporters yesterday, “The President-elect, he had previously put out a list of 20 very qualified individuals from which he would select. I know that they have continued to narrow that list down. He himself has said that’s probably a shorter list of 5 or 6 folks that are near the top of that, that’s being narrowed down to. And again, but this is another one where it’s an absolute utmost priority, so we need to make sure we get this one right.”
SOMETHING NEW
|In The Washington Post, Eugene Volokh addresses an intriguing new Supreme Court petition that deals with a dispute over who gets to run a religious organization, the control of the organization’s property, and the unusual rules that apply to such disputes.
OTHER NEWS
Delaware's Current Death Row Inmates Will Now Get Life Sentences, State High Court Rules
Buzzfeed“The Delaware Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that death sentences handed down previously in the state must be converted to life sentences without the possibility of parole.”