Georgia Was A Peach For Dems | What It Means For SCOTUS, Biden, and Maybe Breyer
January 6, 2021
BY THE SKIN OF THEIR TEETH
|“It’s finally over: Five full days after the actual year 2020 ended, the 2020 elections have ended too. And they ended with a bang early Wednesday morning. With slim but decisive victories, Democrats RAPHAEL WARNOCK and JON OSSOFF in one fell swoop turned both of Georgia’s US Senate seats Democratic, according to projections by Vox’s election partner Decision Desk.” Vox covers Democrats successfully taking a razor-thin majority in the Senate, with KAMALA HARRIS providing the tie-breaking vote when she assumes office as vice president later this month. Vox writers make note of the winners and losers from the Georgia races. Among their list of losers is SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL. And among their winners are possible candidates for the Supreme Court should JUSTICE STEPHEN BREYER (age 82) retire.
WASTING NO TIME
|Alex Thompson with POLITICO reports, “Left-wing activists are already pressuring Supreme Court JUSTICE STEPHEN BREYER to take advantage of a possible Democratic majority in the Senate and retire.” Now that Democrats have control over the Senate — slim as it may be — Thompson says liberal groups are “keen on ensuring that their minority stake on the Supreme Court doesn’t worsen.”
A WHOLE NEW WORLD
|Bloomberg explains what JOE BIDEN will be able to accomplish with Democrats controlling the Senate. MITCH MCCONNELL losing his iron grip on judicial appointments opens up new opportunity for Biden to shape the courts so long as Democratic senators are united.
SCOTUS VIEWS
It’s Time For The Supreme Court To Curb One Of Its Worst Precedents
The Washington Post“The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has risen to the challenge of making one of the Supreme Court’s worst precedents worse. On Friday, however, the Supreme Court will consider whether to hear the case the 9th Circuit botched. It concerns whether Jim and Cliff Courtney have a right to run a boat service on a lake in Washington state, or whether the brothers have only such rights as the state government acknowledges. The case implicates a decision the Supreme Court made 148 years ago, and that it made worse with a decision 83 years ago.”
OTHER NEWS
Exxon, BP Take More Climate Liability Cases To Supreme Court
Bloomberg Law“Oil and gas companies filed two new climate-related petitions at the U.S. Supreme Court last week, expanding the burgeoning climate docket just weeks before the justices hear arguments in a related case against the industry. Lawyers for Exxon Mobil Corp., BP Plc, Chevron Corp., and others on Dec. 30 urged the high court to take up a pair of appellate decisions that allowed state and local governments to pursue litigation against the companies in state court.”