FOR FLAMING FEMINISTS EVERYWHERE | The Self-Awareness Of SCOTUS | Sotomayor Mourns A Former Mentor
July 26, 2019
CHEERS TO FLAMING FEMINISTS
|“JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG has reached hero status among the left and in the Democratic Party. But this week, she has made it clear that she is not on board with their criticism of the Supreme Court, her colleagues or proposals to change the place.” Robert Barnes with The Washington Post reports on RBG’s recent comments at a Wednesday evening conversation with one of her former law clerks. She said SCOTUS “remains the most collegial place” she has ever worked and that she would like to see “patriots on both sides of the aisle” turn down the temperature on Supreme Court nominations. “My hope is that we will return to the way it once was,” when a “flaming feminist” like herself could be approved almost unanimously by the Senate.
A SCOTUS SELF-AWARE
|At a judicial conference in Washington state on Thursday, JUSTICE ELENA KAGAN said justices are aware of how decisions made along partisan lines can damage the credibility of the Supreme Court. She also said it was actually easier to reach consensus when the court was divided 4-4 after the death of JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA. “When you go 4-4, we did more work,” Kagan said. “How do we break the tie?” That’s tougher to do when conservatives hold a 5-4 majority, she said. AP’s Nicholas K. Geranios reports.
MAKING OF A JUSTICE
|Thursday, JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR attended the funeral of one of her mentors, former Manhattan District Attorney ROBERT MORGENTHAU where she said that he made her the human being and legal mind she is today. More than 1,000 mourners attended the service, with notable attendees including New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., as well as journalist Dan Rather, former Mayor David Dinkins, former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, former U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, former New York police commissioner Ray Kelly and actor Tony Danza.
HEY, MUST BE THE MONEY
|In The Atlantic, Richard L. Hasen explains why it’s possible, if not likely, that what is left of campaign-finance limits could get killed off at the Supreme Court in the near future. There’s a case SCOTUS could take up and, depending on the ruling, make it even easier for big money to influence political outcomes. Hasen writes, “It could hasten a world in which individuals could give unlimited sums directly to candidates, buying all the ingratiation and access they want. The court has been moving in this direction; the question is whether it wishes to act now, or delay the inevitable a bit longer.”