ON DECK, BIG BAD TEXAS | A Tree, A Tiger, & A Touchdown Walk Into a Bar
November 28, 2016
TODAY IN HISTORY
|On this day in 1975, PRESIDENT GERALD R. FORD nominated federal judge JOHN PAUL STEVENS to the United States Supreme Court to fill the seat vacated by WILLIAM O. DOUGLAS.
ON DECK
|Tomorrow at SCOTUS, justices will consider whether the nation’s busiest state for capital punishment is trying to put to death a man who is intellectually disabled. In 2012, the high court ruled that people who are mentally disabled may not be executed.
BIGGER IN TEXAS
|In The Washington Post, Carol Steiker and Jordan Steiker address tomorrow’s death penalty case coming before the Supreme Court and call it an “opportunity to bring Texas in line with constitutional requirements.” They write that although the Supreme Court has officially exempted persons with intellectual disabilities from capital punishment, “Texas still executes individuals who would be deemed intellectually disabled for all other purposes, and the Texas courts still search for the mythical ‘Lennie’ rather than follow well-established professional practices.”
WHAT PART OF FOREVER DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND
|The Supreme Court today rejected an appeal from Texas tycoon Robert Allen Stanford to overturn his conviction and 110-year prison sentence for running what prosecutors called a $7.2 billion Ponzi scheme that bilked investors in 113 countries.
THE TALK OF THE TOWN
|Over the weekend at the Federalist Society’s national convention, the event was dominated by the excitement of what a Trump presidency will mean for many of the lawyers in the room. SENATOR TED CRUZ spoke at the event noting, “This gathering may well be the single largest collection of individuals who are likely to serve in the new administration. If you look down the aisle at your friends and neighbors and colleagues, I have great confidence that we are collectively looking at scores of federal judges.” And perhaps a Supreme Court justice. Robert Barnes with The Washington Post reports.
KISS AND MAKE UP?
|On the trail, DONALD TRUMP called CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS “disgraceful” and “an absolute disaster.” But once he takes office, President Trump is really going to need Chief Justice Roberts, whose vote could be decisive on matters ranging from immigration to health care to environmental regulations.
TOP-ED
|In the Los Angeles Times, UC Davis law professor Brian Soucek urges his fellow Californians to repeal Proposition 8 “now, before we need to.” Though the ban on same-sex marriage was overturned by the Supreme Court, text defining marriage as between a man and a woman, and only a man and a woman, remains part of the state’s constitution. Soucek argues the state’s ban on same-sex marriage could make a comeback — a threat of California’s own making. “Californians can’t control a lot of what will emanate from Washington in the next four years, but we can control what happens here. We enshrined discrimination in our state constitution in 2008. We own Proposition 8 — and we can disown it, once and for all.”
OVER IN THE MOTHER COUNTRY
|Lyle Denniston for Constitution Daily notes that as Britain goes through the “Brexit” process, it is making new constitutional history and having something of a Marbury v. Madison moment. He writes, “Recall that, in 1803 in the Marbury case, the U.S. Supreme Court set itself up as the ultimate interpreter of the American Constitution, declaring that ‘it is empathetically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.’ And, in that phrase, ‘law’ meant binding constitutional law.”
FEAR THE TREE
|Every single member of the United States Supreme Court went to law school at either Harvard or Yale. JUSTICE GINSBURG is the one sorta exception having received her degree at Columbia after transferring from Harvard. Thankfully, the justices’ undergraduate institutions are a bit more diverse. We’ve got a couple trees, a couple tigers and a touchdown. ANTONIN SCALIA is also included, topping the list as a Georgetown man who graduated in 1957 as valedictorian.
OTHER NEWS
Federalism, the Constitution, and sanctuary cities
The Washington Post“Trump has said that he intends to break the resistance of sanctuary cities by cutting off all of their federal funding. The cities might continue resisting even if they do lose some federal funds. But Trump’s threat is not as formidable as it might seem.”
Here's What Happened in the First Election Without Voting-Rights Protections
Mother Jones“Two weeks after Election Day, voting rights advocates are taking stock of the issues that plagued the 2016 election—barriers to registering to vote, access to the ballot box, confusing new laws and court cases—and looking ahead to the battles to come. Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Trump’s pick for attorney general, has a troubling record when it comes to voting rights, only adding to the post-election worries among voting rights supporters.”
Trump high court could threaten public employee unions' cash flow
San Francisco Chronicle“With his first Supreme Court appointment, President-elect Donald Trump will be in a position to deal a severe blow to unions representing government workers, the stronghold of organized labor in the United States.”