SCOTUS Asked To Balance Nation’s Physical And Spiritual Health | New Report On Republican Efforts To Pack Courts With Conservatives
May 28, 2020
BALANCING ACT
|“The coronavirus has left the Supreme Court with a difficult task: balancing the nation’s physical and spiritual health. As all 50 states ease restrictions put in place to combat the pandemic, churches and other religious institutions are seeking equal treatment. Legal battles in several states have led to showdowns in California, Illinois and elsewhere on the eve of Pentacost Sunday, when churches largely shuttered since before Easter are eager to greet worshippers.” Richard Wolf with USA Today covers the bubbling disputes over gathering to worship in a pandemic — one from California already at justices’ door. “The dispute over reopening churches involves the Constitution’s protection of religious freedom, but it also breaks down into a battle over numbers and percentages. If retail stores can open at 50% capacity, the argument goes, how can states such as California set different limits for religious gatherings?”
PLACES OF WORSHIP V. PUBLIC HEALTH
|Ian Millhiser with Vox also takes a look at the case out of California in which a church is arguing that the state’s stay-at-home order violates the Constitution when applied to places of worship. Millhiser notes that even a temporary emergency order in the matter “would have sweeping national implications.” He also writes, “It is very likely that the Court will take up this case, South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom — or at least one like it from another place of worship that claims it has a right to hold in-person services during the coronavirus pandemic. Lower federal courts have split on whether churches have a constitutional right to hold services despite the pandemic, and the Supreme Court typically steps in to resolve conflicts among federal appeals courts. What happens to states’ power to regulate in-person religious gatherings if the court does rule in the church’s favor is unclear, but it is likely that more gatherings will occur that could spread the virus.”
CONSERVATIVE COURT PACKING
|Yesterday, Senate Democrats unveiled a new report on Republican efforts to pack the courts with conservative judges and the outsized influence of LEONARD LEO in shaping the courts. Senate Minority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER said in a statement that the report “exposes a twisted web of dark money and special interest groups who behind the scenes are investing millions and millions” to ultimately rewrite the Constitution. Julie Tsirkin with NBC News writes, “The report comes as Democrats inch closer to the November election when they will try to retake both the Senate and the White House. The senators acknowledge that while it’s not unusual for Republican presidents to appoint conservative judges, the scale and speed at which Trump has done so, is remarkable. The Senate has confirmed around 200 of Trump’s judicial picks.”
KEEP IT GOING
|“The oral arguments during the weeks of May 4 and May 11 were conducted by telephone and the audio was streamed live. Millions of people listened, especially on May 12, to the arguments in the cases involving subpoenas directed to President Donald Trump’s accountant and banks. Those who listened to these or other arguments heard well-prepared justices asking tough questions to superb lawyers. I would think that the public’s image of the court only was enhanced by listening to these arguments.” That’s Erwin Chemerinsky writing for the ABA Journal that SCOTUS should permanently embrace the technology reforms it’s been using during the pandemic. He says, “I hope the court will continue this innovation and broadcast all arguments and all proceedings in open court. The high court is a government institution grappling with issues that affect the country and people’s lives, often in profound ways. People should be able to listen, and hopefully, watch its proceedings.”
SUPREMELY BROKEN SYSTEM
|Mark Joseph Stern with Slate writes on the brutal killing of GEORGE FLOYD, the 46-year-old black man who was pinned to the ground Tuesday by a white officer. The officer’s knee was pressed into Floyd’s neck and Floyd repeatedly begged the officer to stop. “I cannot breathe,” Floyd said over and over. The officer didn’t stop and now Floyd is gone forever. Stern notes the killing of black men at the hands of white police officers is by no means new. He writes, “For as long as law enforcement has existed in the United States, white officers have murdered black people. After the Civil War, Congress sought to address the problem by letting victims and their families sue abusive government officials. But the Supreme Court has butchered that law to prevent countless victims of police brutality from seeking justice through one of the only state-sanctioned avenues available to them. At their conference on Thursday, the justices will have an opportunity to begin unraveling the catastrophic case law that allows so many officers—including, apparently, Floyd’s killers—to murder civilians with impunity. The court has an obligation to fix what it broke.”