NEW POLL SHOWS VOTERS WANT TERM LIMITS | Gorsuch Flexes Libertarian Muscle And Liberals Are Totally Cool With It | Why Gorsuch Deserves An Apology
June 25, 2019
POLL DU JOUR
|A new Fix the Court/PSB poll out today shows 77 percent of voters want to end life tenure at the Supreme Court. In addition, the poll results indicate voters are more supportive of 18-year term limits than they are of court-packing. Executive Director of Fix the Court, GABE ROTH, said of the poll’s results, “Unaccountable judges serving for decades and inserting their personal politics into American law is likely not what our founders intended when drafting the Constitution’s ‘good behavior’ clause. Term limits is a reform that would address the court’s hyperpartisanship, and as the polling data show, it’s one that both parties can get behind.”
SAME BUT DIFFERENT
|ICYMI, the Supreme Court yesterday struck down part of a 1980s-era crime law that adds longer prison terms for offenders who carried a gun during a “crime of violence.” The justices were divided 5-4, but not necessarily along expected ideological lines. JUSTICES GORSUCH and KAVANAUGH found themselves on opposite sides of the ruling. David Savage with the Los Angeles Times notes, “The dispute highlights a sharp difference between President Trump’s two appointees. Gorsuch is a libertarian who is skeptical of the government, and Kavanaugh is a more traditional law-and-order conservative.”
FRIENDS IN LOW PLACES
|Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern also covers yesterday’s ruling in which he says Gorsuch got to “flex his libertarian muscle.” Stern wonders if Gorsuch’s vote reflects a lack of faith in the government applying the law fairly. He writes, “It may be that Gorsuch wants to tear down much of modern American governance, but the liberal justices aren’t afraid of relying on his vote in the meantime to snatch progressive victories. After all, it was JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG, the senior-most justice in the majority, who assigned Davis to Gorsuch. She plainly trusted him to do the job right, and neither she nor her progressive colleagues had any apparent compunction about joining his staunchly libertarian opinion. Gorsuch has his own fairly radical reasons for questioning state power. But when his views align with those of the liberals, it allows the court to bolster constitutional protections that progressives hold dear.”
TOP-ED
|Jonathan Turley argues in The Hill that Washington owes JUSTICE NEIL GORSUCH an apology “for their attacks on someone who is building a new legacy that could be one of the most lasting on the Supreme Court.” He said the justice’s opinion in the 5-4 decision striking down an ambiguous law regarding gun offenses was the latest example of Gorsuch going his own way, and departing “from the right of the Supreme Court to do what he considers to be the right thing.” Turley writes, “There remain significant cases to decide this term, including cases on gerrymandering and a controversial citizenship question being added to the census. I cannot predict how those cases will turn out, but I am sure of one thing, which is that Gorsuch deserves an apology.”
CHANGING NORMS
|This week the Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative legal advocacy group, launched a $1.1 million ad campaign calling on Democratic presidential candidates to release their list of Supreme Court picks. An ad released today targets JOE BIDEN and says, “Trump released his list. Why won’t you?”
CONGRATS POTTY MOUTHS
|The Supreme Court yesterday struck down a federal law barring the registration of “immoral or scandalous” trademarks as an infringement of the First Amendment. Read why Mark Joseph Stern with Slate thinks this outcome killing “naughty trademarks” means the Supreme Court should also kill partisan gerrymandering.
A COG IN THE MACHINE
|The justices still have to weigh in on the census case that could result in a citizenship question being added to the 2020 questionnaire. Ronald Brownstein with CNN explains how this case puts the interests of CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS on a collision course. Where Roberts lands on the issue will test whether his fear of SCOTUS becoming nothing more than a “cog in the Republican political machine” remains a prevailing force in his approach.
SCOTUS VIEWS
The Travel Ban Shows What Happens When the Supreme Court Trusts Trump
The New York Times“A year ago, the Supreme Court upheld, by a 5-4 vote, President Trump’s imposition of a ban on travel from several predominantly Muslim countries. The court’s decision was gravely disappointing the day it was handed down. A year later, it looks even worse — particularly because it rested on three premises pushed by Trump Administration lawyers that have proven thoroughly unfounded. The false premises should act as a cautionary tale: This term’s Supreme Court case on whether to allow a citizenship question on the 2020 census was similarly argued on what may turn out to be false premises.”
These Four Letters Spawned Five Supreme Court Opinions
CNN“The United States Supreme Court on Monday gave the green light to individuals and businesses seeking to register racy and offensive trademarks, striking down — on First Amendment grounds — a law giving the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) the power to deny registration for marks it deems ‘immoral’ and ‘scandalous.’ This result is a clear victory for free speech, but it also shows that some of the justices are hesitant to protect all forms of offensive expression.”
The Supreme Court Protects Words It Is Embarrassed To Use
Bloomberg“Nobody on the Supreme Court wanted quite to pronounce the word that everybody was thinking when the justices handed down their decision essentially ordering the Patent and Trademark Office to register “FUCT” as a trademark. Wait, what?”
OTHER NEWS
After Long Delay, U.S. Supreme Court May Act On 'Dreamers' Immigrants
Reuters“The U.S. Supreme Court in the coming days will have a last chance before its three-month summer break to decide whether to take up President Donald Trump’s long-stalled bid to end a program that shields from deportation hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.”