Trump Hoping For Saves From SCOTUS | Justices Won’t Block Surgery For Transgender Inmate
May 22, 2020
LEAN ON ME, WHEN YOU'RE NOT STRONG
|Mark Sherman with The Associated Press reports PRESIDENT TRUMP is counting on the Supreme Court to help stymie investigations and lawsuits aimed at his presidency. Sherman describes the various Trump-related disputes that have made their way to SCOTUS, including the cases regarding his financial records and tax returns that were argued earlier this month. The high court may soon be also asked to kill a lawsuit alleging that the president is illegally profiting from his luxury hotel near the White House. “The Supreme Court has so far refrained from definitive rulings in these clashes. But Trump has been the chief beneficiary of the court’s actions because they have prevented investigators from obtaining what they are seeking.”
NOPE, SORRY, NOT TODAY
|Yesterday, the Supreme Court rejected a request from Idaho prison officials to block court-ordered sex reassignment surgery for a transgender prisoner. JUSTICES THOMAS and ALITO noted that they would have granted the prison officials’ request. The transgender woman, Adree Edmo, has been treated for gender dysphoria, and when a prison psychiatrist denied her request for reassignment surgery, Edmo sued and won. She claimed that failure to provide the surgery violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, and the Ninth Circuit agreed. [
JUST GETTING STARTED
|Tucker Higgins with CNBC reports the Supreme Court will soon weigh in on several major cases that could have sweeping implications for U.S. politics and the economy. The outcomes of those cases will impact the future of LGBTQ workers’ rights, the hundreds of thousands of Dreamers, women seeking abortions, and DONALD TRUMP himself. Higgins writes, “The decisions are also likely to bring to the fore the high stakes of November’s elections for the president and Senate — the body that confirms federal judicial appointments, including justices. With just six months before Election Day, the GOP hold on the Senate has recently shown signs of weakness, suggesting that Democrats may have a chance at seizing control of the chamber. While the White House and Congress are focused on the next coronavirus stimulus package, decisions from the court over the next few weeks could also shape the political landscape for years to come.”
HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND
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OTHER NEWS
Trump Officials Ordered To Pay More Legal Costs Over Blocked Citizenship Question
NPR“The Trump administration failed to turn over hundreds of emails and other internal documents before going to trial over the now-blocked census citizenship question — and a federal judge says it has to pay for it. U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman of New York — the first judge to block the administration’s plans to include the question last year because of its ‘sham justification’ — is now ordering the administration to cover the attorney’s fees and other costs related to a legal dispute over the previously undisclosed documents.”
Trump Lawyers Urge Supreme Court To Reject Border Wall Case
BloombergLaw“The Trump administration is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to steer clear of green groups’ complaints about environmental waivers for the U.S.-Mexico border wall. Government lawyers told the justices they should deny a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity and other groups that say the waivers are unconstitutional. The dispute centers on the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, or IIRIRA, which allows the Department of Homeland Security to waive the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, and other laws to construct barriers and roads along the border with Mexico.”