JUSTICES STAY EXECUTIONS FOR TWO MEN | Trump Pissy About DOJ Position on SCOTUS Case | Pro-Life Puzzler Out Of California
March 21, 2018
A SUPREME STAY
|The Supreme Court today “gave a boost” to a Texas death row inmate looking for funding to advance his claim that his lawyers made errors that would have otherwise allowed him to avoid execution. Lawrence Hurley with Reuters reports on the unanimous ruling from justices.
ICYMI
|The justices heard arguments yesterday in a case out of California that calls into question a state law requiring pro-life pregnancy centers to provide their patients with information about where and how they can access abortion procedures. The justices, though, didn’t seem all too keen on the law. Some were worried that the law places an undue burden on the centers, and targets only those institutions in the state. However, JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG, ANTHONY KENNEDY and SONIA SOTOMAYOR also pointed out that the court has in the past upheld laws that require doctors to inform patients seeking abortions about alternative options — effectively the reverse of what the California law requires.
HOW TO SAVE A LIFE
|Last night, the Supreme Court granted a stay of execution for a Missouri inmate who argued that a medical condition of his could result in undue suffering when put to death by lethal injection. His rare medical condition causes weakened and malformed blood vessels, tumors in his head and throat and on his lip, and vein problems. His execution was previously stopped in 2014.
THE MORE THE MERRIER
|SCOTUS said unanimously yesterday that group lawsuits over initial public offerings (IPOs) can indeed be brought in state courts. Many companies had wanted these suits to be restricted to federal court where judges have more experience with the federal laws that govern IPOs and other security deals. The decision comes as a loss for companies in their longtime feud with trial lawyers over the cost and ease of class-action litigation over alleged security violations.
TODAY IN HISTORY
|On this day in 1972, the Supreme Court ruled that Tennessee’s minimum residency rule for voters violated the Constitution’s equal protection clause. POLITICO’s Andrew Glass reports that the law had required voters to maintain a one-year residence in the state and a three-month residence in the county as a precondition for voting.
DON'T STOP ME NOW
|Never satisfied with a loss, PRESIDENT TRUMP today criticized his Justice Department for not pushing the Supreme Court to hear the Arizona case in which a judge allowed the state to issue driver’s licenses to Dreamers protected by the DACA program. On Twitter the president wrote: “Department of justice should have urged the Supreme Court to at least hear the Drivers License case on illegal immigrants in Arizona. I agree with @LouDobbs. Should have sought review.”
NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW
|A judge in New York yesterday affirmed what we’ve long known to be true in this country: no one in above the law, not even the president. Justice Schecter of the NY State Supreme Court ruled that PRESIDENT TRUMP will have to face up to former “Apprentice” contestant, SUMMER ZERVOS, who claims he sexually harassed her after appearing on his reality TV show. The ruling could subject Trump to extremely broad questions about this case, and similar ones, and he might be forced to testify under oath and provide documents.
OTHER NEWS
A Pro-Life Puzzler
Slate“At the end of the day, what matters most about NIFLA is that the court rules consistently. If California can’t compel abortion disclosures at CPCs, then Mississippi cannot compel abortion providers to falsely tell their patients that terminating a pregnancy causes breast cancer and infertility.”