AN ARTFUL DODGE ON IMMIGRATION | SCOTUS Sets New Record | Gorsuch Already The Conservative Anchor
June 27, 2017
AN ARTFUL DODGE
|If you had to pick the biggest story from 1 First Street yesterday, you’d likely land on the justices’ ruling on PRESIDENT TRUMP’S travel ban. Richard Primus writing for POLITICO explains why that ruling was an “artful dodge” providing partial victories to both sides of the debate. The decision was also a very deliberate non-ruling. “The court did agree to hear the case, but it also all but guaranteed that it would never render a decision on the merits. That’s because of the timing of the hearing. It won’t happen until the court’s next session, in October. By then much of the order will have expired already.” And as Primus points out, this decision says more about the internal workings of the court than the future of immigration policy in America. “It might suggest an internal division about the importance of the institution’s interest in hanging together at an unusually unstable time in the Republic’s history. With considerable uncertainty about what lies ahead, the court’s pragmatists would probably like to hang together as much as possible. By writing separately today, three justices signaled that they are not so invested in that project. Let the chips fall where they may.”
WHAT'S LEFT UNSAID
|“The last day of the Supreme Court’s term was notable not only for what was announced but also for what wasn’t.” In his coverage of yesterday’s big decisions from SCOTUS, Mark Sherman with The Associated Press notes that the one big piece of news that was missing yesterday was an announcement of JUSTICE ANTHONY KENNEDY’S retirement.
THERE WAS KENNEDY, AND EVERYONE ELSE
|Marcia Coyle with The National Law Journal shares what happened inside the Supreme Court on its final day yesterday. She notes that with the anticipation of his possible retirement, all eyes were locked on JUSTICE ANTHONY KENNEDY.
RECORD-SETTING SCOTUS
|Adam Liptak with The New York Times reports that the Supreme Court justices just set a modern record for consensus with their October 2016 term. “The last term was marked by a level of agreement unseen at the court in more than 70 years. That was a consequence of a lack of divisive disputes on social issues and hard work by the justices, who often favored exceedingly narrow decisions to avoid deadlocks.”
THREE LITTLE WORDS
|For The New York Times, Miriam Jordan reports that with three little words, the Supreme Court altered the discussion of refugees and Muslim immigrants seeking resettlement in the United States. Those three words = “bona fide relationship.” Jordan writes, “Those who can show a ‘bona fide relationship’ with a ‘person or entity’ in the United States will not be affected by MR. TRUMP’S 120-day halt to refugee admissions or his 90-day ban on travel from six majority-Muslim countries, according to the court’s order. Those refugees or travelers must be admitted, at least for now. However, those who have no family, business or other ties can be prohibited, the court said.”
ALL I DO IS WIN WIN WIN NO MATTER WHAT
|The Editorial Board of The New York Times opines that as someone who cares a whole lot about winning, PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP wasted no time declaring the Supreme Court’s ruling on his travel ban a “clear victory for our national security.” But as the NYT Ed board points out, “‘Victory’ for anyone in this case is far from clear.” NYT also notes, “All the legal jockeying shouldn’t obscure the fundamental foolishness of the policy itself. Despite Mr. Trump’s groundless claim that the ban is necessary to protect national security, no one from the affected countries has been responsible for a fatal terror attack in the United States in the past two decades.”
SPLITS THE BABY
|“All immigration policy involves splitting the baby — admitting some who want to enter the United States while excluding many — in one form or another; the high court is likely to delimit the terms of that exercise later this year. Still, it’s notable that the administration, which has argued so passionately that a travel ban is urgently required on the basis of national security, never asked the court to adjudicate the ban’s lawfulness on an expedited basis. That alone gives the lie to the supposed urgency that MR. TRUMP has said compelled his executive order in the first place.” And that’s the Editorial Board of The Washington Post and their take on the Supreme Court’s ruling on the president’s travel ban.
ADDING FUEL TO THE FIRE
|Carolyn Thompson with The Associated Press explains why the Supreme Court’s ruling yesterday feeds the growing debate over school voucher programs. She notes, “Education Secretary BETSY DEVOS and other proponents of school voucher programs are praising a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said a Lutheran church was wrongly denied a state grant for its preschool playground. But opponents say the ruling is far from an endorsement of the use of public money for religious schools.”
AMERICA'S FAVORITE EDUCATION LADY
|In a statement released yesterday, Education Secretary BETSY DEVOS said the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer “marks a great day for the Constitution and sends a clear message that religious discrimination in any form cannot be tolerated in a society that values the First Amendment…We should all celebrate the fact that programs designed to help students will no longer be discriminated against by the government based solely on religious affiliation.” Emma Brown with The Washington Post explains why DeVos is so stoked on SCOTUS.
THE BEST IS YET TO COME
|“While the Supreme Court’s ruling is not a broad ruling that strikes down the Blaine amendments, supporters of school voucher programs are already cheering the decision as boding well for the expansion of school choice. They are looking for that opportunity in a Colorado case the justices may agree to hear, Taxpayers for Public Education v. Douglas County School District.” Valerie Strauss with The Washington Post considers whether the SCOTUS decision in Trinity Lutheran will indeed expand school choice programs, and how we can expect this issue to evolve in the coming years.
A NO-BRAINER
|Writing for CNN, Ilya Shapiro explains why the Trinity Lutheran case was a pretty easy one. “Today’s decision makes clear that Trinity Lutheran’s playground improvement is no different than the government provision of police or fire protection to houses of worship and other religious institutions.”
MAKING DADDY PROUD
|“JUSTICE NEIL GORSUCH didn’t wait long to assert his place on the far right of the U.S. Supreme Court. Less than three months after being sworn in, the DONALD TRUMP appointee marked the end of the court’s term Monday by signing onto a barrage of opinions involving guns, gay rights, religion and the president’s travel ban. With each, Gorsuch aligned himself with arch-conservative JUSTICE CLARENCE THOMAS.” Bloomberg’s Greg Stohr reports that Gorsuch wasted no time becoming the Supreme Court’s new conservative anchor, making the president very, very proud of his pick.
YOU WANNA BET?
|Believe it or not, there is new news from the Supreme Court today! In a surprising move, the justices announced this morning that they will hear New Jersey’s appeal to offer legal sports betting, overruling the U.S. Solicitor General’s opinion that the case was not worthy of its time. Typically, the justices give great weight to the solicitor general’s input, but it looks like they wanted to go in a different direction this time around.
OTHER NEWS
Who Can Get Around the Travel Ban?
The Associated PressAP explains how the Supreme Court provided guidance on who exactly can get around the travel ban now that it’s been allowed to go into effect.
Mom of Cross-Border Shooting Victim 'Still Waiting for Victory'
NPR“Two-thousand miles away from the Supreme Court’s vaulted ceiling and marble friezes, 60-year-old jobless mother Maria Guereca sat in her $20-a-month, one-room apartment with a fan and a hotplate — beside a picture of her dead son. On Monday, the court gave Guereca, who lives in Juarez, Mexico, a partial victory, saying a lower court erred in granting immunity to an agent who shot and killed her son.”
Why Big Business Keeps Winning at the Supreme Court
The Washington Post“The Supreme Court has undergone historic change over the past year or so. It lost its most distinctive voice, added a new justice after an unprecedented political battle and now faces rumors about swing Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s impending retirement. Yet one thing remains constant on a dynamic Supreme Court: corporations and business interests win.”