SHUTDOWN DOESN’T FAZE SCOTUS | Notorious RBG Says It’s About Time For #MeToo | ROE V. WADE TURNS 45 TODAY
January 22, 2018
THE SHOW MUST GO ON
|It’s Day 3 of the shutdown, and it looks like we’re about to get a deal that would re-open the government. But while Congress and the White House spent their weekends struggling to come to a workable resolution, it’s been business as usual over at the Supreme Court. Andrew Hamm with SCOTUSblog explains shutdowns in recent years haven’t interfered with the court’s work, nor should the present shutdown. Tony Mauro with The National Law Journal also reported over the weekend that when the government shuts down, it’s basically a “non-event” for SCOTUS which always marches on.
NO, NO, NO, NOTORIOUS!
|There’s a good reason why JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG is known as the Notorious RBG, as she reminded us all over again with an appearance she made this weekend. A new documentary focusing on her life and career premiered this weekend at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, and RBG was there to see the film and celebrate its screening. NPR’S NINA TOTENBERG interviewed the justice before a festival crowd where Justice Ginsburg commented on the current #MeToo movement and noted, “It’s about time.” She said, “For so long women were silent, thinking there was nothing you could do about it. But now the law is on the side of women or men who encounter harassment, and that’s a good thing.”
TO ALL THE TEACHERS THAT TOLD ME I'D NEVER AMOUNT TO NOTHING
|Justice Ginsburg also shared one of her own #MeToo experiences of sexual harassment, which involved a time in college when a professor gave her an advanced copy of a test. “I knew exactly what he wanted in return,” she said. “And that’s just one of many examples.”
YOU'VE BEEN GINS-BURNED
|The final notable tidbit from the notorious justice was her reaction to her recurring character on Saturday Night Live as played by KATE MCKINNON. The SNL RBG character is known to throw shade at pretty much anyone who deserves it. She throws a jab and then declares, “That’s a Ginsburn.” These “burns” are usually followed by Kate McKinnon doing an iconic dance that looks something like a shimmy and a shake. During her interview with Totenberg, Justice Ginsburg commented on the portrayal and said, “I would like to say ‘Ginsburned’ sometimes to my colleagues…I liked the actress who portrayed me.” Someone’s day got made. Here’s lookin’ at you, Kate.
FOR THE LOVE OF FROGS!
|The Supreme Court announced this morning that it will take up a case involving a dispute over Louisiana timberland that the federal government called critical habitat for an endangered frog found only in Mississippi. A lower-court ruling upheld a federal agency’s designation of the land owned by the Weyerhaeuser Co. and others as the only potential breeding ground outside Mississippi for dusky gopher frogs. The frog spends most of its life underground and travels to above-ground ponds only to breed.
POLICE OVER PARTYGOERS
|Justices today sided with police over partygoers in a dispute about arrests at a 2008 house party that was turned into a makeshift strip club. Supreme Court JUSTICE CLARENCE THOMAS wrote in an opinion that police reasonably concluded that the revelers “were knowingly taking advantage of a vacant house as a venue for their late night party.”
HELP ME OBI WAN, YOU'RE MY ONLY HOPE
|Friday, the justices agreed to decide the legality of PRESIDENT TRUMP’S travel ban (now in its third version), which could be the final hurdle in a year-long legal battle over the immigration and homeland security policy. This is now the second time the court decided to take up the case — the first being pushed aside when the ban was revised by the administration in September. The case is known as Trump v. Hawaii.
CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?
|Wouldn’t it be nice if we could wake up, in a world where SCOTUS allowed live audio of its arguments? I think even the Beach Boys would agree with the suggestion. GABE ROTH with Fix the Court argues that the travel ban case is the perfect time for justices to finally enter the digital age and allow live audio of its proceedings. In his statement released last week, Roth notes, “We know that the high court has the capability to digitally stream audio from its courtroom, and the American people want to listen live to major cases, as was demonstrated by the astounding number of individuals who tuned in for earlier versions of this case in the lower courts.”
TODAY IN HISTORY
|On this day in 1973, the Supreme Court legalized abortions using a trimester approach in the landmark case of Roe v. Wade.
TOP-ED
|FREAKY FRIDAY
|Late last week, paramedics were called to the home of JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYORwho was experiencing symptoms of low blood sugar. As a child, the justice was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, which she controls through a combination of synthetic insulin injections, glucose tablets and regular checks of her blood sugar. Josh Gerstein and Lorraine Woellert with POLITICO report that despite the scare, Sotomayor returned to work that day and participated in all her planned events over the weekend.
IF YOU ONLY READ ONE STORY ON SCOTUS TODAY
|Read what Chris Geidner with Buzzfeed had to say about CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS. Since joining the court in 2005, the chief justice has moved into a more moderate position on the court, which could have some “potentially dramatic consequences.”