JUSTICES CONSIDER POLICE TRAFFIC-STOP CASE | SCOTUS May Be Unlikely To Help Trump With Tax Returns
November 5, 2019
OH THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN
|The Supreme Court yesterday signaled that it’s ready to say police may pull over a vehicle registered to someone with a suspended license — even if they don’t know who’s driving. Justices seemed willing to reverse a Kansas ruling that had said it violates a driver’s constitutional rights to be stopped based only on that information. However, JUSTICES SOTOMAYOR and KAGAN weren’t so convinced, both seeming to agree with the Kansas judgement about the Constitution’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. JUSTICE GORSUCH also expressed concern for establishing a constitutional rule that could be undermined by changes in driving habits. He said, “The next generation, for example, often rents cars. They don’t buy cars. They don’t own cars.”
ONE-WAY TICKET
|SCOTUS on Monday considered whether to make it easier to deport certain immigrants who have committed crimes. Andrew Chung with Reuters reports, “The conservative-majority court’s eventual ruling, due by the end of June, could make it easier to expel thousands of immigrants with criminal convictions — many for minor offenses — who reside legally in the United States. Trump has made his hardline immigration policies a top priority of his administration and a key issue in his 2020 re-election campaign.”
NOT TODAY
|ICYMI, a federal appeals court yesterday unanimously rejected that PRESIDENT TRUMP’S effort to block New York grand jury subpoenas for his tax records. Trump’s lawyer in the case said the president plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the ruling from the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.
MAYBE NOT EVER
|Pete Williams with NBC News suggests the president is unlikely to get the hep he seeks from the Supreme Court on his tax returns. Williams writes, “Past Supreme Court rulings have upheld subpoenas directed at presidents, and this time the local prosecutors are seeking documents from the Trump Organization and Trump’s accountants — not directly from the president himself. For those reasons, among others, the Supreme Court might simply decline to hear the president’s appeal, which would leave the appeals court ruling intact and require the tax returns to be turned over.”
SCOTUS VIEWS
Why The “Balanced Bench” Would Lead To More Imbalance
Fix the Court“Politics is baked into the constitutionally mandated process of naming justices, and without an amendment, politics will always be a part of it, even if it’s reformed via court-packing, term limits, rotating justices, a 5-5-5 Plan or another proposal. And yet, there is value in maintaining the Maginot Line where jurisprudence predominates party politics. There’s harm in ceasing to strive for that standard, even if we recognize we typically fall a bit short.”
The Supreme Court Should Not Take Up Trump’s Tax-Return Case
The Washington Post“The case will provide a strong indication of how strong a backstop the president can expect in the Supreme Court, with two of his own appointees and at least two others known for their bullish views on executive power. Four votes are needed for the court to take the case. In fact, the 2nd Circuit’s opinion is so narrow and straightforward, and the president’s legal arguments so preposterous, that the case doesn’t merit Supreme Court intervention.”
OTHER NEWS
Supreme Court Set For Arguments In Major Case Over Maui Reef With Big Implications For Clean Water Act
CNBC“The Supreme Court will hear its first major environment case of the term on Wednesday, with lawyers set to clash over the power of the Clean Water Act to police polluters. The case involves a dispute arising from a decades-old wastewater treatment plant in Maui.”
Gay Man Executed After Supreme Court Dismisses Anti-Gay Bias Concerns
Reuters“A South Dakota man convicted of fatally stabbing a former doughnut shop co-worker during a 1992 burglary was put to death by lethal injection on Monday night, after the U.S. Supreme Court denied three 11th-hour petitions to stay his execution.”