June 21, 2018
TIME TO PAY UP PAL
|The Supreme Court decided today that states can require online retailers to collect taxes, with the justices splitting 5-4 in their decision. JUSTICE ANTHONY KENNEDY wrote the opinion and noted that technological advances had made obsolete the high court’s 25- and 50-year-old precedents requiring sales tax collection only from physically present businesses. But the dissent — penned by CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS — argued the court shouldn’t be doing the work of Congress, even if its own precedent is open to question. JUSTICES STEPHEN BREYER, SONIA SOTOMAYOR and ELENA KAGAN joined in dissent.
POWER TO THE PRESIDENT
|The Supreme Court this morning expanded presidential control over pivotal jobs in federal agencies, ruling that the way the SEC selects its in-house judges is unconstitutional. The justices overturned a lower court ruling that had endorsed the SEC’s in-house judge hiring practice that operated autonomously from the president.
TOP-ED
|In her latest, Linda Greenhouse with The New York Times makes the bold claim that the case this term that is most likely to “reveal to us the heart and soul of the Roberts Court” isn’t the travel ban case, it’s Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “I’ve just made a bold claim for a case that’s not at the top of most people’s Supreme Court watch lists. What about Trump v. Hawaii, the case on the validity of the president’s Muslim travel ban, also due for a decision in the coming days? That case is extremely important, of course, but here’s the difference: There was no way the court was going to avoid a case presenting fundamental questions of presidential authority. But Janus is a case, it’s fair to say, of the Supreme Court’s own creation.”
POLL DU JOUR
|Speaking of the Janus case, a new poll reveals nearly two-thirds of Americans believe workers should be able to choose whether or not they pay union dues. Pollsters also asked whether respondents or members of their households were part of a union. Among those who said yes (52 percent) supported giving workers a choice in paying union dues. Kate Stringer with The74 reports.
SAY YOU WILL, SAY YOU WILL SAVE ME
|David Cohen and Vicky Hausman opine in The Hill that this week’s partisan gerrymandering decision is an important reminder to Democrats that the Supreme Court can’t save them. They argue, “The Supreme Court has told the American people they will not be saved by judicial decree. It is up to us to shine a light on the importance of state legislatures and the outsized impact they have on American democracy. The makeup of Congress for the next ten years depends on it.”
ED BOARD OVERTURE
|The Editorial Board of The Washington Post doesn’t think SCOTUS can dodge responsibility for clarifying the constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering forever. At some point, they say, the justices are going to have to “confront the damaging effects of gerrymandering and admit the practice has become so unjust that it violates constitutional principles such as equal protection and free association.”
TODAY IN HISTORY
|On this day in 1989, the Supreme Court ruled that burning the burning the American flag as a form of political protest was protected by the First Amendment.