WORST BEHAVIOR | SETTLED LAW AT SCOTUS | RBG on SNL Promises to Live Forever
November 14, 2016
WORST BEHAVIOR
|It was only a month ago that allegations of sexual assault were waged against JUSTICE CLARENCE THOMAS when a woman claimed to have been groped by him at a dinner party in 1999. Executive Director of Fix the Court, GABE ROTH, considers this most recent accusation as evidence of a gaping hole in our current misconduct laws, with the blind spot hovering just over the United States Supreme Court. In The National Law Journal, Roth writes, “In practice, the wheels of judicial justice have been painfully slow at the federal level in recent years, as accused jurists have often retired or have taken senior status before receiving any meaningful penalty. All the same, any system for adjudicating misconduct is better than no system for adjudicating misconduct. In contrast, if a U.S. Supreme Court justice is accused of wrongdoing, there is no recourse or reprimand, save the high bar of impeachment. The Judicial Conduct and Disability Act of 1980, the vehicle that established the disciplinary regiment for lower court judges, expressly leaves out Supreme Court justices.”
FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH
|In an in-depth interview with 60 Minutes, DONALD TRUMP said he plans to appoint pro-life justices to the Supreme Court and discussed what might happen if Roe v. Wade were overturned under his conservative court. However, when asked about same-sex marriage, he said he’s “fine” with it being the law of the land. Trump: “It’s irrelevant because it was already settled. It’s law. It was settled in the Supreme Court.” Yes – in 2015, the Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriage is constitutional in the United States of America. Just as it did in 1973 when it affirmed the legality of a woman’s right to an abortion.
MEANWHILE
|Women anxious that they could lose many of their rights under a DONALD TRUMP presidency are planning a massive march on Washington for the day after he gets sworn in.
THE RINGER
|And who might that pro-life pick be? SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM is hoping for none other but SENATOR TED CRUZ. “There is no stronger constitutional conservative than Ted Cruz,” Graham said at a Veterans Day event in South Carolina. It was only in February of this year that Graham noted, “If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you.”
ED BOARD OVERTURE – HOW YOU LIKE ME NOW
|The sassiest Editorial Board around over at The Wall Street Journal pointed out this weekend just how quickly the tables have turned for Democrats. Those Dems who cheered for PRESIDENT OBAMA’S use of executive authority are now hoping, praying, wishing that SCOTUS will rule against such excesses in the next four years. WSJ: “Without reinforced guardrails, here comes President-elect DONALD TRUMP…Who likes checks and balances now?”
CAN'T STAND THE PAIN
|Ed Kilgore with New York Magazine is dreading DONALD TRUMP’S Supreme Court and the possibility that Trump could keep control of the Senate and nominate more than one justice to the high court during his first term in office. Turns out, 2018 isn’t the ray of hope Dems thought it might be. “The wildly pro-Republican Senate landscape in 2018 means that the kind of Democratic wave that would flip the House might not produce the net gain of three seats it would take for Democrats to recapture the Senate.” Kilgore continues, “Progressives who care about constitutional law, even if they are not religious, should pray every day for the health of JUSTICES GINSBURG and BREYER, and when it comes to the right to abortion, JUSTICE KENNEDY as well.”
WON'T TAKE LONG
|“Even before DONALD TRUMP chooses a Supreme Court nominee, the new president can take steps to make several contentious court cases go away.” AP’s Mark Sherman reports a Trump presidency could affect legal challenges involving everything from transgender rights, immigration, climate change and cost-free contraceptive care.
LA MÊME CHOSE
|“If TRUMP sticks to the list of proposed judges he released during the campaign, the court is likely to look and act similarly to that of any other Republican president.” Jeffrey Rosen writes for POLITICO, “In this regard, Trump might want to be careful what he wishes for: It’s possible that a conservative Trump Court would enforce constitutional checks on powers asserted by President Trump himself.”
WON'T LET MY FREEDOM ROT IN HELL
|Jim Rutenberg in The New York Times considers what position DONALD TRUMP will take on freedom of the press, expressing concern for Trump’s growing disdain for bad press during his campaign. “If Mr. Trump keeps up the posture he displayed during the campaign – all-out war footing – the future will hold some very grim days, not just for news reporters but also for the American constitutional system that relies on a free and strong press.”
I FEEL MY TEMPERATURE RISING
|In his reaction to the election of DONALD TRUMP, David Leonhardt wrote in The New York Times: “For legal scholars, it means looking for the arguments and precedents to persuade JUSTICE ANTHONY KENNEDY that the government’s recent steps to reduce pollution are indeed constitutional (as scholars have so successfully done on other issues). Once Trump fills the Supreme Court’s open seat, presumably with a hard-core conservative, Kennedy becomes the swing vote on the climate.”
TOP-ED – WHAT'S IN A NAME?
|“Many people, of all partisan stripes, are still wondering, ‘How did this happen?’ The fact is that a very small difference in net votes – around 100,000 votes in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – would have turned HILLARY CLINTON’S popular vote victory into an Electoral College victory as well. As people try to process what happened on Election Day, we need to consider carefully whether the difficulty of voting in our nation’s urban centers, in places like Detroit, Milwaukee and Philadelphia, might have played a decisive role.” In The New York Times, Ronald J. Krotoszynski Jr. considers the role voting restrictions and excessive wait times contributed not only to a net loss of hundreds of thousands of votes across the country, but also the outcome of the election altogether.
DELAY DELAY DELAY
|And in another court on the other end of the country, DONALD TRUMP requested that the trial involving his failed Trump University be put on hold until after his inauguration. In the motion filed late Saturday, Trump’s lawyer said Trump needs to “devote all of his time and attention to the transition process.” I’d say so. Who would want a pesky little lawsuit filed by former university students infringing on the noble prep to become president?
OOOO YOU JUST GOT GINS-BURNED
|You may not know it, but JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG has something of a soft spot for Saturday Night Live, appearing on Weekend Update over the weekend. Well, not so much her as KATE MCKINNON playing her – complete with a signature dance and all the sass that could possibly fit into such a tiny person. The RBG character packed a punch (literally – COLIN JOST was put on ice later), promising to live forever and camp out at SCOTUS as long as she can. “The bench is now my porch. I’m gonna sit on it all day and scream, ‘No! Get out of my yard!'”
A STAR IS BORN
|Proving you really can be two places at once, the real JUSTICE GINSBURG made her official opera debut Saturday night at the Kennedy Center. Playing the Duchess of Krakenthorp in the Washington National Opera’s “The Daughter of the Regiment,” the notorious justice received a prolonged standing ovation as soon as she hit the stage.
BELATED IS THE NEW BLACK
|A belated happy birthday to JUDGE MERRICK GARLAND who turned 64 yesterday. May this next year be better than the last! As of today, it has been 243 days since Garland was nominated to the Supreme Court.
OTHER NEWS
Can Libel Laws Be Changed Under Trump?
The New York Times“When Donald J. Trump said in February that he would ‘open up our libel laws’ if he became president to make it easier to sue news organizations for unfavorable coverage, the declaration sent shock waves through the media world. But could he actually do it?”
Could Transgender Bathroom Case Impact Justice Kennedy's Legacy?
NBC News“Justice Anthony Kennedy has spent the last 20 years carefully cultivating a reputation as one of the strongest gay rights champions to ever sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. But the justices’ surprise move to take up a case involving transgender rights last month could cast a spotlight on the longtime swing voter and have implications for his broader LGBT rights legacy.”
Trump's Latest Gay Marriage Comments Mean Little If He's Serious About His SCOTUS Picks
The Huffington Post“The president-elect says the law is settled, but his Supreme Court shortlist includes noted anti-gay justices.”