MONDAY WAS RUFF | Breyer, the Fashion Maven Makes Us Swoon | Thomas Is A Colbie Caillat Fan…Drop The Mic
November 1, 2016
TODAY IN HISTORY
|On this day in 1991, JUSTICE CLARENCE THOMAS took his seat on the U.S. Supreme Court bench.
MONDAY WAS RUFF
|Ehlena Fry and her goldendoodle, Wonder, had their day at the Supreme Court yesterday, although poor Wonder had to wait outside while oral argument proceeded inside the marble palace. Fry — twelve-years-old with cerebral palsy — was barred from bringing Wonder to school with her when she started kindergarten in 2009. Her parents withdrew her from school and went straight to court. At issue before the justices Monday was whether the Frys could sue the school district for damages under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the ADA, without first going through a time consuming and costly administrative appeal under another law, the Individuals with Disability Education Act, or IDEA. Most justices seemed sympathetic to the Fry family. JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG pointed out that just because the IDEA exists, it doesn’t bar individuals from suing under other laws that protect the disabled. CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS also noted it “would be kind of a charade” to make the family go the administrative route only to be denied the relief they want,
FASHION V. FUNCTION
|Can cheerleaders’ uniforms be subject to copyright protections? If you asked the Toros they’d surely be in favor, but justices during oral argument yesterday weren’t ready to commit to an answer. What started as a simple copyright question — over one seller of cheerleading uniforms suing a rival company for marketing uniforms of a similar design — evolved into a deep philosophical debate over the implications for how clothing signifies greater meaning. A ruling in this case could transform the fashion industry, and the justices seemed acutely aware of this fact. JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR said, “You’re killing knockoffs with copyright. You haven’t been able to do it with trademark law. You haven’t been able to do it with patent designs. We are not going to use copyright law to kill off the knockoff industry.”
C-U-T-E DON'T YOU WISH YOU LOOKED LIKE ME
|The man who referenced KIM KARDASHIAN during oral argument earlier this term is on something of a roll with his funky fresh comments. Yesterday when hearing Star Athletica, LLC v. Varsity Brands, Inc., JUSTICE STEPHEN BREYER said, “The clothes on the hanger do nothing. The clothes on the woman do everything.” Is that so, Justice? And are you vying for JUSTICE SCALIA’S title of Most Quotable Man?
OH HOW YOU MAKE ME SWOON
|Following JUSTICE BREYER’S comment, JUSTICE ELENA KAGAN responded to the fashion maven by saying his words were “so romantic.”
FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT
|Jess Bravin with The Wall Street Journal reports HILLARY CLINTON and DONALD TRUMP have very, very, very different “visions of how American law may develop for years to come after Election Day.” What it all means, he says, is we can expect the fight to continue well into the new year. The stakes are high and “that has heightened the court’s profile as a political issue in the presidential election, and the Senate is bracing for bitter fights over future court openings no matter who wins.”
FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT
|Former speechwriter for PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON, Jeff Shesol writes in The New Yorker about the current fight for the Supreme Court, considering how far, or maybe not so far we’ve come while having only eight justices on the bench.
AND A HAPPY HALLOWEEN IT WAS
|“It wasn’t planned that way, but the Supreme Court spent a lively hour on Monday — Halloween — talking about costumes. And JUSTICE STEPHEN G. BREYER showed up, so to speak, in the improbable guise of a fashion critic. That’s how an argument about copyright law went, but there was no reliable way to judge how the court might rule.” That’s Lyle Denniston for Constitution Daily reviewing yesterday’s oral argument in the cheerleading uniform case.
PRACTICALLY PERFECT
|CNN’s Ariane de Vogue reports on the Supreme Court’s decision to deny an emergency request from the Ohio Democratic Party to put a hold on provisions on two election laws concerning absentee and provisional ballots. A federal appeals court largely upheld the two laws that require any provisional or absentee ballot that hasn’t been “perfectly” filled out to be rejected. The state Dems were hoping for a stay on that ruling pending appeal, but in one sentence SCOTUS declined to do so.
EASY TIGER
|Bloomberg’s Noah Feldman wants the Supreme Court to slow their roll on the issue of transgender rights. He opines, “It’s too soon, in cultural terms, for the court to rule definitively on the subtle issue of transgender rights, which poses powerful equality claims against society’s deeply ingrained male-female gender binaries. Transgender rights could benefit from a longer lead time for the lower courts to explore the different aspects of the question — and for the American people to develop a consensus.”
OUT ON THE TOWN
|We end today where we started: talking about JUSTICE CLARENCE THOMAS. Apparently the Supreme Court justice had a night out on the town Sunday, attending the COLBIE CAILLAT concert at the Birchmere. I don’t know about you but it made my day to know that Justice Thomas jams to “Bubbly” and “Brighter than the Sun.” Emily Heil with The Washington Post reports.
OTHER NEWS
Justices dismiss case over deaf driver education in Texas
The Associated Press“The Supreme Court has dismissed a case it took up earlier this year involving deaf people in Texas who had trouble getting drivers licenses. At issue was whether a Texas state agency could be sued for refusing to make sure driving instruction schools accommodate people with disabilities.”
Paul, Gray clash over Supreme Court in US Senate debate
The Associated Press“Republican U.S. Sen. Rand Paul says he ‘can’t imagine’ voting for a Supreme Court nominee from Hillary Clinton, but stopped short of vowing to continue a blockade of Democratic appointments during the first and only televised debate with challenger Jim Gray.”
Supreme Court Gives New Chance to 5 Arizona Inmates
The Associated Press“The Supreme Court is ordering Arizona judges to reconsider life sentences with no chance of parole for five inmates who were convicted of murder for crimes they committed before they turned 18.”