A SUPREME RE-SHAPING | Anti-Union Challengers On Verge Of Victory | RBG, Judicial Rock Star, On Tour

February 8, 2018

TIME’s Tessa Berenson looks into the president’s plan—at the urging and support of SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL and White House counsel DON MCGAHN—to pull the strings necessary to reshape our courts in a way not seen since the Reagan era. “This plan to change America for generations isn’t happening by chance. Trump’s team has created a streamlined process in the White House and Senate that maximizes the opportunity he’s been handed. They’ve razed congressional customs and carefully nurtured the relationship between the President and conservative legal scholars. In the process, McConnell, McGahn and a constellation of advisers have unclogged the judicial pipeline, pushing nominees onto the courts faster than ever before. The result, McConnell believes, could be Trump’s most consequential bequest.”

“This year, the high court is poised to announce its most significant expansion of the 1st Amendment since the Citizens United decision in 2010, which struck down laws that limited campaign spending by corporations, unions and the very wealthy.” That’s David Savage with the Los Angeles Times looking ahead to the big union case coming before the justices this month, which threatens the financial foundation of public employee unions in 22 “blue” states. He notes, “Like Citizens United, the union case is being closely watched for its potential to shift political power in states and across the nation.”

Richard Wolf with USA Today reports the anti-union challengers in the upcoming SCOTUS case are sitting pretty as it is likely that the justices will strike down the “fair share” fees at issue in the case.

Yesterday the Pennsylvania Supreme Court offered up a fairly lengthy explanation of its decision to strike down its state’s congressional map. The 139-page opinion explained the map violated a portion of the constitution which says, “Elections shall be free and equal; and no power, civil or military, shall at any time interfere to prevent the free exercise of the right to suffrage.” The court opinion reads, “By placing voters preferring one party’s candidates in districts where their votes are wasted on candidates likely to lose (cracking), or by placing such voters in districts where their votes are cast for candidates destined to win (packing), the non-favored party’s votes are diluted. It is axiomatic that a diluted vote is not an equal vote, as all voters do not have an equal opportunity to translate their votes into representation.”

Adam Liptak with The New York Times writes on the eldest Supreme Court justice who has taken herself on a tour fit for a woman with a nickname as killer as “NOTORIOUS RBG.” She’s like a “judicial rock star” with a “taste for the road” as she buckles up for nine appearances in only three weeks. Liptak notes, “They follow a pattern: a thunderous standing ovation from an adoring crowd, followed by gentle questioning from a sympathetic interviewer. Justice Ginsburg mixes familiar stories with insights about the Supreme Court and the law. She lands a couple of jokes. She promises not to step down so long as she can ‘do the job full steam.’ She describes her friendship with JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA, who died in 2016. The audience swoons, and the show moves on to the next venue.”

On Wednesday, JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR told a crowd at Brown University that pay inequality is one of the biggest issues facing the nation. She also shared, “When I started, (law) firms of 300 and 400 had one or two female partners, and they were touting how progressive they were. What a joke, right? They told me that over time, we would reach equality. Well, I started in 1979, and there’s still only one-third women as federal judges, and we’re a lot of women in the profession. So, what’s happening?”