New Liberal Group Pushes For Court-Packing & Other Reforms | The Hard Road Ahead For Biden As He Faces Courts Post Trump
January 27, 2021
IT'S ALL RIGGED
|A new coalition of liberal groups called “Unrig the Courts” is launching this week with the goal of building momentum and support for structural changes to the federal judiciary. Zoe Tillman with Buzzfeed reports on the group and writes, “They’re advocating adding seats to the Supreme Court and the lower courts, and imposing term limits and more stringent ethics and transparency rules for the high court’s justices. Adding more judgeships, or ‘court-packing,’ is the most politically explosive item on their list.” Unrig the Courts and its eight member organizations argue court-packing is the only way to undo DONALD TRUMP’S imprint on the Supreme Court and restore balance after Republicans stole a seat that was supposed to be filled by then-PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA’S appointee, MERRICK GARLAND.
SPEAKING OF RIGGING THE GAME
|The German auto giant, Volkswagen, has asked the Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that it says opens up car makers to a flood of emissions regulations from local governments that could clash with existing federal rules. Sara Randazzo with The Wall Street Journal notes it’s the latest “turn in litigation that has dogged Volkswagen” since admitting in 2015 that it had rigged millions of its vehicles in order to evade emissions tests. “At issue is a June decision by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that ruled two counties have authority alongside the federal Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the updates that car manufacturers make to emissions systems in vehicles after they are sold…Volkswagen argues it shouldn’t have to pay those fines because the court decision misinterprets the federal Clean Air Act, which it says gives sole regulatory authority over manufacturer changes to car emissions to the EPA and California.”
THIS WON'T BE EASY
|Tuesday, a federal judge prevented PRESIDENT BIDEN’S 100-day pause on deportations from going into effect. Joan Biskupic with CNN suggests this could be a preview of what’s to come for Biden as he faces a whole new system of courts reshaped under former PRESIDENT TRUMP. “The short-term order by the Texas-based judge could also force a confrontation up to the US Supreme Court, where the Biden legal team already faces hard choices over how aggressively to press new legal positions before the nine justices – six of whom are conservatives, with three appointed by former President Donald Trump.”
BUT I DON'T WANNA
|John Kruzel with The Hill explains why it should come as no surprise that CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS is sitting out of DONALD TRUMP’S second impeachment trial. Kruzel notes Roberts “apparently believes the Constitution has let him off the hook” of having to preside over a trial for someone who is no longer president. The move has stirred up even more controversy around the ordeal, with Senate Republicans questioning the legitimacy of the hearing without Roberts present and others arguing it’s a conflict of interest for Democratic SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY, president pro temp, to preside instead.
SCOTUS VIEWS
With Court Appointments And GOP Legislatures, Roe Vs. Wade Is Under Attack
LA Times / Daily Pilot“Americans overwhelmingly support the rights protected by Roe vs. Wade: the right to privacy and the right to reproductive freedom, including safe and legal abortion care. Despite this support, Roe vs. Wade has never been more at risk than it is today. Since 2016, Republican-controlled state legislatures have passed hundreds of laws restricting reproductive healthcare and the federal government has mounted an onslaught of attacks on women’s reproductive rights. Over the last four years, the Trump administration reinstated the global gag rule, implemented the Title X domestic gag rule and enabled employers to deny insurance coverage for birth control for nearly any reason.”
OTHER NEWS
Goldman To Supreme Court: Make It Easier For Defendants To Escape Shareholder Suits
Reuters“Goldman Sachs informed the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday that the court’s 2014 ruling in Halliburton v. Erica P. John Fund has been, well, a flop. But the bank told the justices they can change that! What the Supreme Court needs to do, Goldman’s lawyers at Paul, Weiss, Rifkin, Wharton & Garrison argued in the bank’s opening brief in Goldman Sachs v. Arkansas Teacher Retirement System, is remind lower courts just how much leeway defendants are supposed to have in opposing shareholder fraud class actions.”