ROSES ARE RED, VIOLETS ARE BLUE, SCOTUSDaily IS HOT TODAY, WHAT ELSE IS NEW

February 14, 2018

It might be Valentine’s Day but not everyone is feeling the love—not even for the most basic of democratic processes. In Pennsylvania, a Republican lawmaker wants to impeach the Democratic justices on the state supreme court who invalidated the state’s congressional map. But it isn’t just Pennsylvania where lawmakers are fed up with fighting with their judicial foes. In The New York Times, Michael Wines reports, “Rather than simply fighting judicial rulings, elected officials in some states across the country — largely Republicans, but Democrats as well — are increasingly seeking to punish or restrain judges who hand down unfavorable decisions, accusing them of making law instead of interpreting it. Civil liberties advocates and other critics have a different take: The real law-flouting, they say, is by politicians who want to punish justices whose decisions offend their own ideological leanings.”

ICYMI, yesterday Pennsylvania’s Democratic GOVERNOR TOM WOLF rejected the congressional map that was court-ordered to be re-drawn by the Republican-controlled legislature. Wolf released a statement in which he said, “Like the 2011 map, the map submitted to my office by Republican leaders is still a gerrymander. Their map clearly seeks to benefit one political party.” Now that the governor has rejected the new map, it goes to the state’s top court to create new boundaries that would be used for the November midterm elections.

For the second time in two months, a federal judge has stepped into an intense political fight over immigration policy, issuing a nationwide injunction that orders the Trump administration to keep in place the DACA program which protects young undocumented immigrants from deportation. In many ways this second ruling echoes the sentiments of the first, but it also provides additional reasons for why DACA should remain in place as the case continues through the courts.

Marcia Coyle and Tony Mauro with The National Law Journal remember “The Boss” (Nino, not Bruce) and take a look at how JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA remains a powerful influence on our nation’s highest court.

Roses are red, violets are blue, all of TRUMP’S judicial picks are white, except for just a few. Among the president’s first 87 judicial nominees, 80 of them are white. Richard Wolf with USA Today reports, “The demographics signal a return to the 1980s, when 94% of PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN’S confirmed judges were white. Since then, minority enrollment in law schools has nearly tripled.”

If you ask Jonathan Adler who writes for the Volokh Conspiracy, regardless of whatever else DONALD TRUMP is or isn’t doing, he “continues to announce excellent judicial nominees for federal appellate courts.” And apparently he’s making these picks with some sign-off from Democrats. Adler notes, “Although news stories tend to suggest the White House refuses to consult with Senators about potential judicial picks, this week’s nominations tell quite a different story. All of the appellate nominations announced this week enjoy the support of their home-state Senators, including those from states with deep-blue delegations.”

For USA Today, Jim Obergefell—the lead plaintiff in the landmark Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges—argues LGBT Americans owe SCOTUS for a happy Valentine’s Day. “It’s a day to honor and embrace the legacy of love created by a series of landmark Supreme Court decisions that recognize the virtues of all loving relationships in the eyes of our government. It’s a moment to remind ourselves that we are free to love whom we love, to celebrate and embrace that love, and to understand what it truly means to achieve equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The greatest Valentine’s Day messages aren’t found in a greeting card or scribbled on the back of a heart-shaped box. They’re enshrined in decision after decision that the court has set forth, decisions that protect our dignity and common humanity.”