SUPREMES MAKE MISTAKES TOO | Lights, Camera, Transparency | Women of SCOTUS Steal the Show Today
October 17, 2017
SUPREME COURT ERRORS NOT HARD TO FIND
|A new ProPublica study of several dozen cases from recent years uncovered a number of false or wholly unsupported factual claims. In a modest sampling of opinions written from 2011 to 2015, seven errors were found. One was in the landmark ruling, Shelby County v. Holder in which CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS “used erroneous data to make claims about comparable rates of voter registration among blacks and whites in six southern states.” Ryan Gabrielson with ProPublica shares the story.
DANCING IN THE DARK
|“Lights, camera, SCOTUS” – the latest headline about Fix the Court’s Executive Director, GABE ROTH. In The Hill, Lydia Wheeler reports on Roth’s leadership in the movement to get cameras into the Supreme Court’s chambers so that oral arguments can be viewed by all, not just those lucky enough to get a seat in the courtroom. Wheeler notes, “Roth’s push for transparency goes beyond cameras. He says there are other major changes needed at the court, including term limits for justices, a judicial code of conduct and a requirement that the justices sell their individual stocks. Roth also says the court should post the justices’ financial disclosure forms online and announce when they agree to speaking engagements and appearances. The goal, Roth says, isn’t to paint the court in an unflattering light; it’s to bring into public view the thoughtful, funny, interesting people who sit on the bench.”
JUST A LITTLE UNSTEADY
|The Supreme Court may have actually taken a step backward this year in terms of its modernity. Kimberly Robinson with Bloomberg BNA reports on the Supreme Court switch-up of its courtroom reporting service that left SCOTUS reporters in a tizzy trying to file stories on the first couple days of the term.
AND YOU SAY CHI CITY! CHI CITY!
|Yesterday, Supreme Court JUSTICE ELENA KAGAN was in Chicago speaking before a crowd at the Chicago-Kent College of Law. The justice spoke of her time on the high court and her hope for continued compromise amongst the justices now that they have a full bench of nine. Kagan also noted that she believes former JUSTICE THRUGOOD MARSHALL, for whom she clerked, to be the finest lawyer of the 20th century. “No one did more to advance justice,” she said.
CHECK YO'SELF BEFORE YOU WRECK YO'SELF
|On Monday, JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR told college students in New York City that she sometimes feels “great turmoil” when hearing oral arguments, but she always does her best to keep her emotions in check. “You can’t do human activity — and judging is a human activity — without having human emotions,” she told the crowd at the LeFrak Concert Hall. “The sense of how you deal with it is to acknowledge it. I look at it, examine it, try to figure out the effect it’s having, and then try to adjust my behavior in accordance.”
GONNA PUMP YOU UP
|To round out today’s stories on the wondrous women of SCOTUS… I want you to consider trying a new twerkout to get fit like the small but mighty JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG. “The RBG Workout” is out today and it’s an illustrated exercise book written by RBG’s longtime personal trainer, BRYANT JOHNSON. Zanib Mudallal with The Washignton Post interviewed Johnson about his motivation behind writing the book and his relationship with the most notorious of the justices.
WORKING THE JUSTICE'S BOOTY
|And if you don’t believe me when I say RBG’s workout is a butt-kicker, just ask Richard Wolf with USA Today. He writes about his experience yesterday trying the workout with the justice’s trainer, BRYANT JOHNSON. Johnson told Wolf that to keep the justice in shape, he works out both sides of the body from head to toe. “Yes, I work the justice’s booty, too,” he said. Wolf noted that the hardest exercises of the workout were “by far” the pistol-squats, which apparently require “muscles this reporter lacks.”
WE FUDGED UP
|Yesterday, SCOTUSDaily shared a story from Constitution Daily about former JUSTICE BYRON WHITE. It was noted he joined the Supreme Court in 1972. White joined in 1962. (h/t Steve Wermiel and Tom Metzloff, former law clerk to Justice White)
OTHER NEWS
U.S. Judges Questions Government on Trump's Latest Travel Ban
Reuters“A U.S. judge on Monday questioned attorneys defending the Trump administration about a classified report the government is using to justify its latest ban on citizens of some countries from entering the United States. U.S. District Court Judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland heard arguments for and against President Donald Trump’s new travel ban, set to take effect on Wednesday.”
Supreme Court Takes Big Privacy Case, But Denies Ten Commandments Appeal
Constitution Daily“The United States Supreme Court will be taking on a second major privacy case this term, but it won’t take a challenge that denied the placement of a Ten Commandments monument at a New Mexico city hall.”
The Supreme Court Once Again Rejects Hearing a Gitmo Detainee's Case
VICE News“For the second time this term, the Supreme Court declined to hear a case about how Guantanamo Bay detainees can challenge their convictions. The High Court’s justices turned down the opportunity on Monday to hear an appeal from a detainee accused of masterminding the USS Cole bombing, a 2000 al-Qaida attack on a Navy vessel in Yemen that left 17 sailors dead and dozens wounded.”
U.S. Supreme Court Declines to Revive $4.5 Million Award in School Abuse Case
Education Week“The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to revive a $4.5 million jury award under Title IX for a Texas student who was sexually abused over several years by a school administrator. The justices declined without comment to take up the appeal of Adrian Salazar, whose 2015 jury award was overturned by a federal appeals court earlier this year. Court papers say Salazar was sexually abused in 3rd through 6th grades by Michael Alcoser, who was the vice principal and later principal of the elementary school the student attended in the South San Antonio Independent School District.”