JUSTICES READY TO CLARIFY RIGHT TO COUNSEL | Hot New Book On Scalia | Bipartisan Report Says Our Republic Is At Risk
January 18, 2018
NOT THE HERO IN THIS STORY
|Yesterday, the Supreme Court justices seemed unwilling to side with a lawyer who conceded his client’s guilt despite his client claiming innocence. Justices on both sides of the ideological spectrum seemed to think the lawyer’s strategy of admitting guilt to avoid the death penalty for his client doesn’t pass constitutional muster. JUSTICE NEIL GORSUCH invoked the Sixth Amendment which guarantees us all a right to the “assistance of counsel.” Gorsuch noted, “Can we even call it assistance of counsel? Is that what it is when a lawyer overrides that person’s wishes?”
HOT NEW BOOK REVIEW
|Tony Mauro with The National Law Journal takes a look at a new book from Bryan Garner who writes on his partnership with the late JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA. Mauro says the book, “Nino And Me,” is a “fascinating and three-dimensional portrayal” about the good, if not sometimes turbulent times Garner had with the justice.
IS OUR DEMOCRACY DOOMED?
|Jennifer Rubin with The Washington Post covers a new bipartisan report from Protect Democracy and Stand Up Ideas that reveals democracies all over the globe are under attack, with PRESIDENT TRUMP accelerating these troubling trends here at home. In the report, the strength of our democratic institutions are measured, including our judiciary which has suffered various assaults from the White House in the past year or so. Rubin writes, “Several aspects of the report are striking. First, no conservative or liberal of good will should have a problem with the vast majority of items. While the GOP remains in the grip of Trump, Democrats would be well-advised to adopt virtually all the proposals and run on a reform agenda that not only would undo Trump’s damage but also bolster creaky democratic institutions.”
SCOTUS VIEWS
The Supreme Court's Coming Decision Could Put Unions Past The Point Of No Return
The Hill“A reimagining of the labor movement is called for. The leaders of tomorrow’s labor movement would do well to discard a collectivist, coercive model and instead promote services potential members want while honoring the rights of individuals to make their own choices.”
The Next Tax Reform: Internet Sales Tax
The Hill“The Wayfair case pits the ‘Kill Quill’ movement against internet retailers. As riveting as it sounds, this isn’t a new Quentin Tarantino film about sales taxes. The Kill Quill movement is a group of state tax administrators, brick-and-mortar retailers and their allies, whose goal is to overturn the ruling in the 1992 Supreme Court case of Quill Corp. v. North Dakota. With the current court agreeing to hear the Wayfair case, Quill looks to be on its last breath.”
OTHER NEWS
They Argued That Prostitution Is A Constitutional Right. Nice Try, Said Federal Court.
The Washington Post“The Supreme Court’s 2003 ruling in the case Lawrence v. Texas is one of its best-known in recent memory. In a 6-3 decision, the justices invalidated every remaining sodomy law in the United States, rendering the country’s archaic and largely unenforced bans on same-sex sexual activity unconstitutional. ‘Intimate conduct’ between consenting adults was a fundamental right protected by the Constitution’s due process clauses, the high court found. How far the definition of ‘intimate conduct’ stretched wasn’t spelled out in the ruling. But a California-based sex worker advocacy group decided to test its limits.”