SCOTUS STAYS EXECUTION OF ALABAMA MAN | Supreme Court Outbursts During State of the Union | Pennsylvania GOP Lawmakers Appeal to Justices
January 26, 2018
TO DIE ANOTHER DAY
|The Supreme Court yesterday halted the execution of an Alabama man convicted of murdering a police officer in 1985. His lawyers had petitioned asking the high court to spare the man’s life because he’s suffered several strokes that left him unable to remember the crime. “The application for stay of execution of sentence of death presented to Justice Thomas and by him referred to the Court is granted pending the disposition of the petition for a writ of certiorari,” the Supreme Court said, without elaborating on the reason for its decision. JUSTICES CLARENCE THOMAS, SAMUEL ALITO and NEIL GORSUCH said they would have allowed the execution to proceed. And while at least five justices had to vote to grant the stay, justices don’t have to share their votes, so the exact tally is not known publicly.
SASSY ALITO AND SLEEPY RBG
|On this week’s episode of The Washington Post “Can He Do That?”podcast, PRESIDENT TRUMP’S first State of the Union gets discussed — including a list of suggestions for what we should look out for. As the tried and true SCOTUS nerds we are, we know that sometimes the audience reactions are just as important as what the president shares in his speech. In the past, we’ve seen a sleepy JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG and we’ve seen JUSTICE SAMUEL ALITO literally shake his head with disapproval for a president’s comments about Citizens United. Let’s see if we get any more outbursts from the Supreme Court section next Tuesday.
TO THE TOP
|Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania are appealing their state’s supreme court decision all the way up to SCOTUS, asking justices to stop the ruling which found that Pennsylvania’s congressional map was unconstitutionally gerrymandered. The filing asks the Supreme Court to put a hold on the ruling while it considers Republicans’ arguments in the case. This would effectively keep the current map in place and stop the re-drawing of it as ordered by the state supreme court.
TWEET IT UP
|The National Law Journal compiled reactions from prominent lawyers to the news that White House counsel DON MCGAHN vowed to quit if PRESIDENT TRUMP fired ROBERT MUELLER — as he apparently threatened to do this summer. Read the tweets which range from “So what?” to “Impeachment!” to everything in between.
OTHER NEWS
Federal Judge Appears Receptive To Emoluments Lawsuit Against Trump
The Washington Post“A federal judge on Thursday appeared skeptical of an effort by the Justice Department to throw out a lawsuit against President Trump alleging his company’s business with state governments and foreign countries violates the Constitution. U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte seemed receptive to arguments from the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia, who said that payments to Trump properties from those entities could amount to illegal gifts.”