Biggest Decisions Of The Term Still To Come | Are We In The Final Days Of The Constitutional Right To Choose?
June 23, 2020
SO MUCH MORE TO COME
|Ian Millhiser with Vox makes note of six major questions SCOTUS still needs to resolve by the end of its term. He writes that although liberals have been cheering their victories on DACA and LGBTQ workplace rights, it’s very possible the court will take a sharp right turn when it comes to abortion access, presidential immunity and religion. In fact, he argues the religious right could be one of the biggest winners of the term.
ICYMI
|The Supreme Court yesterday ruled 8-1 to limit the SEC’s power to recoup ill-gotten profits from financial fraud. In its ruling authored by JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR, SCOTUS said recoveries couldn’t exceed the wrongdoer’s net profits and should be done with the aim of benefiting the victims of fraud.
ON THE AGENDA THIS WEEK
|Justices will meet via phone Thursday to discuss whether House Democrats can obtain grand jury material from former special counsel ROBERT MUELLER’S investigation. Ariane de Vogue with CNN reports, “The material at issue includes portions of Mueller’s report that were redacted to protect grand jury information, underlying grand jury testimony and exhibits that related to certain individuals and events described in the report. A federal appeals court in March sided with the Judiciary Committee, saying that lawmakers had a ‘compelling need’ to view the secretive detail.”
HUSH MONEY
|Zachary B. Wolf with CNN takes a look at the possible outcomes of the cases at SCOTUS regarding PRESIDENT TRUMP’S tax returns and financial records. He notes, “It’s the court decision that probably strikes more fear in President Donald Trump’s heart than any other. The Supreme Court will decide as soon as this week whether Trump’s accountants must turn his financial records and tax returns over to House Democrats and New York prosecutors investigating hush money payments. Is he worth as much as he says he is? Where is he getting money from? What are his international business deals? Does he pay taxes at all? Or does he manipulate the tax code, as he’s bragged of doing, to get out of it? All of these questions could be answered by viewing the tax returns he’s gone to such lengths to keep from public view.”
ARE WE DOMMED?
|“As spring turns to summer, the calendar is finally beginning to release us from the grip of the U.S. Supreme Court’s sadistic habit of saving its most consequential decisions for the end of the term.” That’s Ed Kilgore writing for the Intelligencer about whether SCOTUS will doom the constitutional right to an abortion when it hands down its much-anticipated case regarding abortion access in Louisiana.
BARR THE BAG MAN
|Is the Supreme Court sick of WILLIAM BARR? Dahlia Lithwick with Slate suggests that the “disgrace Barr has brought upon himself and his Justice Department is starting to wear on the one institution that can hold him to account: the U.S. Supreme Court.” She chronicles his descent from Washington insider to “authoritarian bag man” and argues that Barr may have met his match in CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS.