COURTS AS TRUMP’S POLITICAL PLAYGROUND | The Clarence Thomas Effect | New Book Details Justices’ Dealings With White House
July 10, 2019
COURTS AS POLITICAL PLAYGROUNDS
|Tessa Berenson with TIME reports that as PRESIDENT TRUMP gears up for his re-election campaign, he’s already reverting to his tried and true strategy of making the courts a battleground for his political gain. She writes, “Trump has tangled with courts since his days as a New York real estate mogul, facing 4,095 lawsuits over three decades in business. During the 2016 campaign, he shocked the legal establishment with attacks on a U.S. District Court judge presiding over class-action lawsuits over fraud at Trump University over his ethnicity and baseless speculation that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was murdered.” As president, his feuding with the courts continued with cases over his Muslim travel ban, his involvement in his Washington D.C. Trump hotel, his attempt to end DACA, and, of course, his famous “feud” with CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS. Berenson notes, “As he seeks a second term in the White House, Trump has sought to turn these legal tangles into a bonus, painting the courts as an obstacle to his agenda.”
TOP-ED
|In USA Today, DNC Chairman Tom Perez responds to PRESIDENT TRUMP’S continued pursuit of putting a citizenship question on the census despite the Supreme Court rejecting his administration’s rationale for doing so. Perez writes, “Trump’s determination to deceive the public, steal resources and representation from our communities, and trample on the rule of law should offend Americans across the ideological spectrum.”
BLOCK ME NOT
|Yesterday a federal appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP cannot block Twitter users he disagrees with because it violates the First Amendment. A unanimous panel of judges on the NY-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit found the president’s use of Twitter for official purposes means that blocking users for being critical amounts to discrimination based on their viewpoints.
THE LOUDEST SILENCE
|For The Atlantic, Emma Green describes “The CLARENCE THOMAS Effect” and how the notoriously quiet justice actually has the most far-reaching influence in the Trump era. For a long time his writings and perspective on the law have been dismissed by court watchers and critics as “largely irrelevant.” But with time, his ideas have “gradually gained influence among other justices” — particularly as the court has grown more and more conservative in its makeup. But Green writes that Thomas’s legacy will take shape long after he’s done writing opinions at the Supreme Court. “Personnel is policy. Thomas’s vast network, more than that of any other justice, has defined President Donald Trump’s administration and the federal judiciary Trump has built. Through his clerks and mentees, the notoriously silent justice may end up with an outsize voice in the legal system for years to come.”
BURN BOOK
|Axios reports on a new book from Carrie Severino and Mollie Hemingway that has “some colorful, behind-the-scenes details” about how JUSTICE ANTHONY KENNEDY broke the news to PRESIDENT TRUMP about his retirement. The book also discloses that the White House held a secret mock hearing for BRETT KAVANAUGH after allegations of sexual assault against him broke.
SCOTUS VIEWS
The Courts Still Don’t Understand Trump’s Twitter Feed
Bloomberg“It’s gratifying when the courts stand up to President Donald Trump’s abuses of executive power. But the federal appeals court that held Tuesday that Trump can’t block users from his personal Twitter account doesn’t fit into that paradigm. Although its decision will be hailed by some as a win for free expression, it’s actually based on a misconception about our social media accounts — one the U.S. Supreme Court is going to have to fix.”
Trump and Twitter, Together Forever
The New York Times“Twitter is now less likely than ever to throw Mr. Trump — the most egregious breaker of its rules, its troll extraordinaire — off its platform. Still, it’s worth thinking about what would happen if Mr. Trump’s prime vehicle for spewing, and for governing, was removed from his PR toolbox.”
OTHER NEWS
Cory Booker Wants To Block The Use Of Census Citizenship Data To Draw Voting Districts
NPR“Sen. Cory Booker is proposing a preemptive strike against using a citizenship question on the 2020 census in a way that, he says, could give Republicans a political advantage. The Democratic presidential hopeful from New Jersey is introducing a Senate bill on Wednesday that would ban the U.S. Census Bureau from including citizenship information among the data the bureau is required to provide to redistricting officials after a national head count.”
Appeals Court Skeptical Obamacare Can Survive
POLITICO“A panel of federal appeals judges aggressively questioned whether Obamacare can survive during Tuesday afternoon oral arguments in a case that could upend the 2010 health care law. Two Republican appointees on the three-judge panel frequently interrupted attorneys to question whether the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate is unconstitutional and if not whether the entire law could stand without it. The ACA’s future appeared murky after two hours of oral arguments at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but it’s not clear if the judges were ready to uphold a federal judge’s earlier decision invalidating the law.”