SCOTUS NEEDS TERM LIMITS | New Report on Justices’ Recusals in OT16 | Gorsuch Runs To San Fran, Can’t Hide From Travel Ban
July 18, 2017
TOP-ED
|In the Los Angeles Times, Ben Feuer opines that the time has come for the Supreme Court justices to have 18-year term limits. He suggests we implement a scheme of regularized judicial appointments put forward by two Northwestern University law professors. Feuer: “The plan has the advantage of potentially being achievable by statute, rather than requiring a constitutional amendment. Of course, a justice might unexpectedly die, retire, resign or be impeached. But for the most part, Supreme Court appointments would become more quotidian, like other executive or judicial nominations. The public, the press and Congress would know what to expect and when to expect it.”
SO MANY RECUSALS!
|Fix the Court just released a report detailing the reasoning behind all of the justices’ recusals in OT16. However, FTC wasn’t able to determine the reasoning behind eight recusals, including one each from JUSTICES KENNEDY and THOMAS, who throughout their tenures have rarely recused themselves from cases at the cert. or merits stage.
GET READY FOR GRANDMA
|The State Department issued a memo to all diplomatic outposts on Friday reflecting the latest ruling from Hawaii and now making grandparents of U.S. citizens from six Muslim-majority countries eligible for U.S. visas. The memo updated the definition of “close family” and reversed the department’s previous, narrow definition. Now, “grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces, and cousins” are eligible for visas.
I LOST MY HEART IN SAN FRANCISCO
|You can run but you can’t hide, JUSTICE GORSUCH. Thousands of miles away from Washington D.C., the newest Supreme Court justice was in San Francisco yesterday at a judicial conference where he couldn’t escape discussion of the president’s travel ban. Sitting next to the justice was an Alaska high school student who read an essay she wrote that compares the Muslim travel ban to Japanese internment. Gorsuch was one of the three justices who argued in favor of completely reinstating the ban.
SNOOZE FEST
|Lost amid the uproar over DONALD TRUMP’S travel ban, Farhana Khera and Johnathan J. Smith in The New York Times point that that the Trump administration is still stealthily carrying out the ban with the expectation that we’ll all be too bored to look at the specifics of its implementation. They write, “It’s doing so through deceptively boring means: increasing administrative hurdles and cementing or even expanding the current travel restrictions that are not under review at the court. The collective impact of these changes will be that a permanent Muslim ban is enshrined into American immigration policy.”
LAST DANCE, LAST CHANCE
|“JUSTICE ANTHONY M. KENNEDY, the greatest judicial champion of gay rights in the nation’s history, will turn 81 on Sunday. Rumors that he would retire in June turned out to be wrong, but he will not be on the Supreme Court forever. Gay rights groups hope to score one more victory before he leaves the court. The goal this time is nationwide protection against employment discrimination.” That’s Adam Liptak with The New York Times noting that before Kennedy steps down from the bench, gay rights groups are doing what they can to squeeze just one more win out of him.
AND ON THAT NOTE
|SCOTUSDaily would like to wish a happy early birthday to JUSTICE ANTHONY KENNEDY! Kennedy joined the bench in 1988 after being confirmed 97-0.