Happy Valentine’s Day From SCOTUSDaily!
February 14, 2017
HOW SWEET IT IS
|To be loved by you. Consider this a special love letter to you, the readers of SCOTUSDaily, who have remained loyal to your crazy nerdy love of Supreme Court news and commentary. Your tips, suggestions and constant readership is ever-appreciated. Happy Valentine’s Day to you and your loved ones.
YOU CAN KISS IT GOODBYE...FOR NOW
|In a filing submitted to Seattle federal court on Monday, the DOJ suggested it’s not going to immediately turn to the Supreme Court to ask for DONALD TRUMP’S travel ban to be reinstated.
STORMY WEATHER, STORMY WEATHER
|The immigration order banning travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries just got another love bite with a Virginia judge ruling yesterday that it likely violates the rights of state residents. Bloomberg’s Andrew M. Harris and Erik Larson report: “The ruling in Virginia is confined to state residents and institutions, and won’t apply nationwide as requested be state Attorney General Mark Herring. Still, it bolsters the freeze ordered in the Washington case and multiplies hurdles for Trump in fulfilling a campaign promise to shut U.S. borders to countries with ties to terrorism. Legal challenges to the ban have also been filed in Brooklyn, New York, Washington, D.C., and Maryland.”
DON'T TAKE THIS THE WRONG WAY
|As Ilya Somin in The Washington Post points out, the preliminary injunction issued in Virginia federal district court is especially notable because it is the first judicial ruling against the order based on the issue of religious discrimination.
BABE, I'VE GOT YOU BABE
|Virginia isn’t alone. It has lots of friends standing up to the travel ban — even while the Trump administration determines how it plans to proceed with its policy. Buzzfeed’s Chris Geidner and Zoe Tillman report on continued challenges to the now infamous EO.
THE SHAPE OF YOU
|Josh Katz with The New York Times reports that aging judges and vacant seats in the federal courts gives DONALD TRUMP enormous power to shape American courts. Turns out, Ole Donny could be responsible for appointing a greater share of federal court judges than any first-term president in 40 years.
LOVE THE WAY YOU LIE
|In a keynote speech at Claremont Institute’s 2017 annual dinner over the weekend, JUSTICE SAMUEL ALITO spent a great deal of time “criticizing his bêtes noires, including environmental regulation, affirmative action, the ‘media elite,’ the European Union, and emergency contraceptives.” Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern notes that the strangest part of his speech was when Alito started criticizing executive agencies implementing federal regulations. He pointed to the Environmental Protection Agency and reminisced on an old case — Massachusetts v. EPA — when he argued that carbon dioxide is not a pollutant. And while Alito seemed confused about the role of carbon dioxide in climate change, he was apparently even more confused about the case, misremembering key details of its outcome and consequence.
LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD
|Matt Flegenheimer with The New York Times reports that the fight over PRESIDENT TRUMP’S Supreme Court pick poses a serious quandary for Senate Dems. Should they appease their base or honor the process of SCOTUS nominations?
DON'T DO ME LIKE THAT
|Monday on the Senate floor, SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL dragged JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG into the fight over the Supreme Court nomination. He brought up RBG’s opening statement during her 1993 confirmation hearing in which she outlined the questions she would not answer. A not yet notorious justice: “A judge sworn to decide impartially can offer no forecast, no hints for that would show not only disregard for the specifics of a particular case, it would display disdain for the entire judicial process.” McConnell argued yesterday that Democrats are casting the “Ginsburg standard” aside and setting a higher bar in their assessment of SCOTUS nominee, JUDGE NEIL GORSUCH.
TALE AS OLD AS TIME
|“For PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, who has in recent weeks crossed several lines in his denunciation of federal judges who suspended his travel ban, the standard narrative seems to offer a clear warning: tangle with the judiciary at great political risk. But that’s not what history suggests.” Joshua Zeitz for POLITICO Magazine looks at the historical precedent FDR established for presidents to bend the judiciary to their will.
DES BEAUX-ARTS
|Yesterday, JUSTICE STEPHEN BREYER gave a talk about the artistry of courtroom sketches. Except he did the thing entirely in French. Breyer once told an interviewer that he learned to parle en français by reading the works of MARCEL PROUST while working as an intern at a law firm in Paris. Moi aussi, Monsieur. Moi aussi.
SCOTUS Reviews
Conservative Supreme Court justices are only concerned about calling balls and strikes, except when they are striking out
The Washington Post“‘Conservative’ Supreme Court justices like to pretend they are not about personal whims and preferences, but don’t count on that when you need it. Some of them would prefer to sit back and indulge their lazy, ignorant, anti-environmental hostilities that aren’t ‘conserving’ of the most fundamental basics of human survival.”
OTHER NEWS
Trump's Supreme Court Pick Wants to Gut Legal Rule That Environmental Groups Rely On
The Huffington Post“Environmentalists are the ones vigorously defending the legal doctrine that is based on Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council. And the leading critic of the so-called Chevron deference is Judge Neil Gorsuch.”
Yale and Harvard Law Deans Pull No Punches in Op-Ed on Trump
The National Law Journal“The deans of Yale Law School and Harvard Law School have joined the growing chorus of lawyers publicly condemning President Donald Trump’s attacks on the judiciary.”
Supreme Court Nominee Neil Gorsuch Copies and Pastes
Roll Call“Gorsuch, 49, has turned in a Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire with some portions apparently copied and pasted from a similar questionnaire from a decade ago, when the Senate confirmed him on a voice vote to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit.”