CHIEF JUSTICE HALTS CLIMATE CHANGE CASE | The Rise Of The Judicial Elite | Why Term Limits Are Still A Good Idea
October 22, 2018
TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE
|On Friday, CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS decided to temporarily halt a lawsuit brought forward by several young activists suing the government for not doing enough to confront climate change. The landmark trial was supposed to begin in less than two weeks in federal court in Oregon, but Roberts called for a stay on proceedings pending the young plaintiffs’ response to the government’s request to narrow the case. Plaintiffs filed their response this morning, giving SCOTUS a tight window to decide whether to allow the trial to begin on October 29.
STOP TELEPHONIN' ME
|Also Friday a man was arrested for threatening to harm two senators for supporting the appointment of BRETT KAVANAUGH to the Supreme Court. The man apparently left more than ten voice messages on the phone systems of two senators in which he threatened to retaliate against them after they backed Kavanaugh.
THE RISE OF THE JUDICIAL ELITE
|For Bloomberg, Noah Feldman explains that while the trend of former SCOTUS clerks becoming justices themselves is new, conservative groups are betting it’s one that will continue. He notes, “The remarkable and perhaps unjustified rise of this elite-within-an-elite is worthy of discussion in its own right. But it also gives some context to last week’s revelation that the Heritage Foundation had planned a secretive boot camp for conservative law clerks about to start their jobs in the federal courts.”
TOP-ED
|“Supreme Court Term Limits Are Still A Good Idea – They’re the best way to get better justices and fewer confirmation battles.” Straightforward enough, wouldn’t you say? That’s the headline from Stephen L. Carter opining in Bloomberg that term limits are the way to go if we want to reform the high court. He responds to some of the objections he’s received about his position in his latest piece.
PODCAST DU JOUR
|This week’s episode of First Mondays is all about the frogs! PROFESSOR RICHARD EPSTEIN joins the pod to discuss the frogs of the term-opening case, Weyerhaeuser Company v. United States Fish and Wildlife Service.