NO NEW ORDERS TODAY | Sotomayor Says SCOTUS Is A Family | SNL Raps An Ode To RBG
November 19, 2018
NOTHING NEW
|Amy Howe with SCOTUSblog notes that we’re having a quiet day with no new cases granted from justices. She notes, “Instead, the overwhelming majority of today’s orders denied review of petitions asking the justices to weigh in. The justices once again did not act on several high-profile petitions, including a challenge to mandatory bar dues and a pair of cases involving whether individuals can bring a lawsuit to challenge the state’s disqualification of a Medicaid provider such as Planned Parenthood.”
ASK YOURSELF
|Friday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge brought by a handful of states to the Trump administration’s decision to ask people in the 2020 census whether they are citizens. Eighteen U.S. states, 15 cities and a handful of civil rights groups are asking U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in New York to remove the citizenship question, saying it will frighten immigrants into abstaining from the 2020 census, costing their communities political representation and access to federal aid due to a population undercount. The question that goes to SCOTUS is how much evidence the New York judge can consider at trial in the case.
GOT HIMSELF A GIG
|Also Friday, the Supreme Court was asked to consider whether PRESIDENT TRUMP acted lawfully when he appointed MATTHEW WHITAKER to be acting attorney general. THOMAS GOLDSTEIN filed the petition, and he and other critics argue it is illegal for Whitaker — or anyone — to run a federal agency without Senate confirmation; even if it’s a temporary gig. Goldstein has the same goal in mind as Maryland Attorney General BRIAN FROSH who asked a federal court last week to rule that ROD ROSENSTEIN is the constitutional heir to JEFF SESSIONS, while Whitaker’s appointment is “illegal and unconstitutional.” But the Frosh motion could take months to resolve, while Goldstein hopes to get weigh-in from justices in just a few weeks.
I GOT ALL MY SISTERS WITH ME
|In an interview with CNN’s David Axelrod, JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR explained how she and her colleagues welcomed Supreme Court newbie BRETT KAVANAUGH into the SCOTUS family. She explained to Axe, “When you’re charged with working together for most of the remainder of your life, you have to create a relationship…The nine of us are now a family and we’re a family with each of us our own burdens and our own obligations to others, but this is our work family, and it’s just as important as our personal family. We’ve probably spent more time with each other than most justices spend, who have spouses, with their spouses.”
HOLDING OUT
|Although PRESIDENT TRUMP has appointed conservative judges to the federal bench at record pace, that could soon be slowing as liberal judges avoid retirement until a more liberal president comes along. Richard Wolf with USA Today reports on this anticipated trend.
RAP CAVIAR
|“This country, man? It’s crazy. You know there’s only one lady holding the whole damn thing together, right?” That was PETE DAVIDSON on SNL over the weekend intro’ing a rap video about JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG. The music salute to the Notorious RBG included KATE MCKINNON dancing around a courtroom and boxing with a slab of meat. The song was an ode to her accomplishments both past and present: “The court is the stage. Write dissents that throw shade…Supreme Court’s a boys’ club. She holds it down, no cares given. Who else got six movies about her and still living?”
SCOTUS VIEWS
The Supreme Court Should Block The Execution Of A Texas Man With Intellectual Disability — Again
Los Angeles Times“Every day in my work, I see people with intellectual disability who are capable of many wonderful accomplishments. They hold jobs, they fall in love and, yes, they perform and excel in the Special Olympics. Contrary to some harmful and outdated stereotypes, however, their many capabilities do not mean that they don’t have intellectual disability. But this is what a troubling court decision in Texas would have us believe, in a case that is headed back to the U.S. Supreme Court for a second time.”
The Supreme Court Justices Control Whether Court-Packing Ever Happens
The Washington Post“Tinkering with the size of the court is an extreme measure, to be sure, but such proposals aren’t necessarily an assault on the role of the courts in American government. Rather they are sometimes a response to judges who try to impose their partisan will on a country that has moved in a different direction. Indeed, if the justices want to safeguard their independence, the court must give the elected branches the room to respond to the popular will.”