AAPI Legal Groups Put Their Focus On SCOTUS | The Supreme Court, George Floyd’s Murder, And What Congress Should Do Next
May 26, 2021
HOPING FOR HISTORY
|“As lawmakers quietly brace for a battle over the next opening on the Supreme Court, some in the Asian American legal community are already looking ahead to the vacancy after that – and what may be the next opportunity to make history.” John Fritze with USA Today reports AAPI legal groups are gearing up for the first Asian American or Pacific Islander Supreme Court justice. They’re hoping PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN will tap one of the several AAPI appellate judges if he has the chance to do so after fulfilling his campaign promise to put a Black woman on the high court. Fritze writes, “Eleven appellate judges identify as Asian American or Pacific Islander, including SRI SRINIVASAN, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Srinivasan made Obama’s short list for the Supreme Court in 2016, a fateful nomination that instead went to Merrick Garland before fizzling in the Republican-controlled Senate.”
IT ALL COMES BACK TO SCOTUS
|On the anniversary of GEORGE FLOYD’S death, David H. Gans writes in Slate that the Supreme Court bears responsibility not only for Floyd’s murder but also for the loss of so many other lives at the hands of police. Gans argues, “Congress must begin the work of repairing our system of constitutional accountability by undoing the court’s decimation of one key law. Known as Section 1983, the law allows individuals to go to court to redress violations of constitutional rights by state and local governments and their agents. The Supreme Court, though, over the years has eviscerated it by inventing doctrines found nowhere in the text or history of the law.”
TIME FOR A CHAT
|John Kruzel with The Hill reports the Supreme Court will consider taking up a challenge to Harvard’s use of racial criteria in its admissions process. Yesterday, justices scheduled the affirmative action case for discussion next month during their private weekly conference on June 10. Kruzel notes that if four or more justices agree to grant review, then arguments in the case could be scheduled for next term.
IT'S GOING DOWN
|Julie F. Kay and Kathryn Kolbert write in Slate that Roe v. Wade is very likely to fall, but for supporters of reproductive rights, there is still plenty that can be done to preserve (and even grow, they say) reproductive freedom. They write, “Influencing those in state legislatures and in Congress who will determine the next round of abortion laws is critical. Saving abortion rights from the ax requires those who value reproductive freedom to be politically active in many capacities. Voting in every election—not just the presidential ones—and all the way down ballot, including legislative and judicial candidates, is key.”
SCOTUS VIEWS
God Save The Clarence Thomas Court
The Wall Street Journal“For Clarence Thomas, any chance he might become chief justice has long since passed. But at 72, he is coming into his own. For circumstances have now made it as plausible to speak of the Thomas court as the Roberts court.”
The Supreme Court Must Undo The Harms That Flowed From Its ‘Roe v. Wade’ Overreach
The Washington Post“Roe and Casey should be overturned, and the issues of abortion rights returned to the states from which they were ripped in 1973. The repudiation of those cases should be accompanied by an admission of human error and the limits of the court’s power to adjudicate every or even most debates. The sunk costs of five decades of judicial misadventure do not oblige the court to continue in error.”