SCOTUS PUTTING THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE | Nina Totenberg’s Stunning Career Covering The Court | Why Breyer’s Comments Yesterday Were Too Little Too Late
June 11, 2019
CART BEFORE THE HORSE
|Robert Barnes with The Washington Post reports that SCOTUS is “making more headway” on its next term than on the decisions still outstanding in the current term. He notes that yesterday the high court only announced decisions in three minor cases, which leaves two dozen they’ll have to address before the end of June.
PAST TIME
|NPR’S Nina Totenberg covers the Supreme Court refusing yesterday to hear the case of a Yemeni prisoner being held indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay. She notes JUSTICE STEPHEN BREYER released a two-page “statement” which she says “called attention to the case, declaring that it is ‘past time’ to examine the indefinite detention of prisoners there.”
GETTING TO KNOW NINA
|Speaking of Nina Totenberg, she was interviewed by Lisa Ryan for The Cut about everything from her morning and evening routines, to her friendship with JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG, to her breaking coverage of ANITA HILL. On RBG, she says the justice gave her some of the best advice of her life, and Ginsburg was also eager to get the tea on Totenberg’s dating life.
WITH NO END IN SIGHT
|In his statement released yesterday, JUSTICE BREYER said it is time “to confront the difficult question left open by” a 2004 ruling allowing the indefinite detention of Guantanamo detainees captured after the 2001 American invasion of Afghanistan. Charlie Savage and Carol Rosenberg with The New York Times call out the difficult question: “In a war that effectively has no end, is it lawful to hold a person in perpetual detention, until he dies of natural causes decades after his capture, because he was once part of an enemy force — though never charged with committing a crime?” They explain why this is different than other habeas corpus lawsuits brought by detainees, as well as Breyer’s history on issues relating to detainment at Gitmo.
TOO LITTLE TOO LATE
|But Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern argues JUSTICE BREYER’S comments yesterday are 15 years too late. He notes, “In 2004, Justice Stephen Breyer cast the decisive vote in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, allowing the government to detain alleged terrorists indefinitely without trial.” But now that Breyer wants to confront that “difficult question” left open by that 2004 judgement, there’s not much the Supreme Court can do. Stern: “The power of indefinite detention is a weapon that presidents can wield recklessly and brutally. In Hamdi, the Supreme Court turned over this weapon to the executive branch, which continues to use it in a predictably appalling and arbitrary manner…The Supreme Court can no longer be trusted to enforce due process, despite Breyer’s pleas. If Congress doesn’t put a stop to this unconstitutional cruelty, no one will.”
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
|Yesterday justices signaled that they plan to meet Thursday to discuss whether to take up a case for next term regarding the DACA program. Ariane de Vogue with CNN reports, “The nation’s high court has sat for weeks on the government’s request to reverse lower court opinions that have blocked the Trump administration’s attempts to rescind the program known as DACA.” But Thursday’s meeting could move the case forward and result in justices taking up the issue for next term.
OTHER NEWS
International Child Custody Battle Between Ohio And Italy Will Get Supreme Court Hearing
USA TodayBig Law Supreme Court Veterans Land 5 New Cases For Next Term
The National Law Journal“The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday granted certiorari in five cases on varied topics ranging from the death penalty to ERISA. But they all had one common thread: at least one veteran high court advocate represented a party in the case. Three former U.S. solicitors general are involved in the granted cases, as well as some of the best-known advocates before the Supreme Court including Williams & Connolly partner Lisa Blatt, who has argued 37 cases before the court, more than any other woman.”
Daughter Of Fierce Kavanaugh Defender Amy Chua To Clerk For...Brett Kavanaugh
Slate“In the summer of 2018, before the country knew who Christine Blasey Ford was, a simple case was being made for Brett Kavanaugh among a certain group of progressive elite: Judge Kavanaugh should become Justice Kavanaugh because he’s just such a darn swell guy. One of the most prominent figures to make that claim was Yale Law School professor and famed Tiger Mom Amy Chua, who wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal in July 2018 titled ‘Kavanaugh Is a Mentor To Women: I can’t think of a better judge for my own daughter’s clerkship.'”