The Justices Are Getting Vaccinated | Trump’s Lasting Mark On The Federal Judiciary
January 15, 2021
SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS
|Justices are in the process of getting their COVID-19 vaccinations, according to SCOTUS spokeswoman KATHY ARBERG. Justices are getting the Pfizer vaccine, and earlier this week we learned CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS has already received both doses. Greg Stohr with Bloomberg reports, “Roberts, who turns 66 on Jan. 27, is one of five justices whose 65-or-older status puts them at increased risk should they become infected. JUSTICE STEPHEN BREYER is 82, JUSTICE CLARENCE THOMAS is 72, JUSTICE SAMUEL ALITO is 70 and JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR is 66. Arberg didn’t say which justices beyond Roberts have been fully vaccinated.”
MADE HIS MARK
|Lawrence Hurley with Reuters notes PRESIDENT TRUMP has left a lasting mark on the judiciary, successfully pushing it to the right through his many, many appointments. Trump appointed 54 judges to the federal courts of appeals during his four years in office — just one fewer than PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA did in his eight years. Hurley writes, “Although Supreme Court rulings have the greatest impact on the law, it hears fewer than 100 cases a year, typically leaving the final word to the 13 appeals courts. Trump’s judicial appointees already are having an influence not just on voting rights but on other contentious issues including guns, abortion and LGBT rights.”
STANDING INVITATION
|Earlier this week, the Supreme Court allowed the government to once again restrict access to the abortion pill and require it be provided in-person, even as COVID-19 surges across the country. Leah Litman writes in Slate, “Some may be inclined to write off the court’s decision since the incoming Biden administration could change the specific regulation at issue in the case, which required women to pick up mifepristone in person from a medical facility. But the decision serves as a standing invitation to states to impose yet more draconian restrictions on abortion.”
TOP-ED
|Jonathan Turley writes in USA Today about the possibility of a “retroactive” impeachment trial for DONALD TRUMP. “I can see the value of establishing that a president was not just accused but convicted of unconstitutional acts,” he writes. “There is also the value of disqualification of such an individual from future office. However, what was an intriguing academic puzzle is now a pressing constitutional concern.”