SENATE CONFIRMS CONTROVERSIAL JUDGE TO 6TH CIRCUIT | The Woes Of Aging Judges | Fro Yo Friday The SCOTUS Way
July 21, 2017
GREATEST TRAGEDY OF OUR COUNTRY
|Thursday, the Senate confirmed a federal judge who once equated abortion with slavery, calling them “the two greatest tragedies in our country.” Kentucky lawyer,JOHN BUSH, was confirmed 51-47 to a lifetime post on the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He is the most controversial judicial nominee PRESIDENT TRUMP has put forward thus far.
HOW OLD IS TOO OLD
|Out of more than 1,200 active and senior federal judges, 16 percent will be 80 or older by the end of 2017, and 39 will be at least 90. VICE’s Aaron Kase considers issues relating to the aging of judges and justices who sit comfortably in their seats as lifetime appointees. The tenth, third, and fifth Circuits have all initiated wellness programs, while several other circuits have said that they are studying the issue, or use other informal methods to address judicial disability. GABE ROTH, executive director of Fix the Court, has pushed for other circuits to establish wellness committees of their own.
HOOP IT UP
|“A U.S. Supreme Court decision widely greeted by defense attorneys as a ‘game-changer’ hasn’t exactly dealt them a slam dunk in the courts.” Amanda Bronstad with The National Law Journal covers the fallout from the SCOTUS decision in Bristol-Myers Squibb v. Superior Court of California.
FRO YO FRIDAY
|In The Wall Street Journal, Jess Bravin takes a deep dive into the longstanding Supreme Court tradition of having the most junior justice on cafeteria duty. JUSTICE NEIL GORSUCH is now on duty, and as Bravin writes, “Despite lifetimes spent salivating over a seat on the high court, most new justices find themselves unprepared for the challenge of running the cafeteria, which long has been dogged by a reputation for mediocre food and a perennial struggle to turn a profit.” And yet, there was one justice who rose to the occasion. JUSTICE ELENA KAGAN successfully championed the installation of a frozen yogurt machine, complete with a toppings bar that could quench any craving. She’s truly a woman after my own heart.