THE SHRINKING VIOLETS OF SCOTUS | HRC Trumps Trump with Outside Money | Trumped Up Opinions
October 25, 2016
NO NINE? NO PROBLEM.
|Speaking on a panel for MSNBC, JUSTICE STEPHEN BREYER said yesterday that although the Supreme Court suffers from a case of the even numbers, “the mechanics work about the same” even in the absence of a potential deciding vote.
THE SHRINKING VIOLETS OF SCOTUS
|During an appearance at the University of Louisville yesterday, JUSTICE ELENA KAGAN talked about the inquisitive nature of her female colleagues at the Supreme Court and how they often like to ask a lot of questions during oral argument. She told her audience, “None of us are shrinking violets. We all ask questions, often…So there are these women’s voices coming from all over the place. And you sort of think, there are all these school kids, and it’s good for the girls and it’s good for the boys, too, that they look up there and that they see women performing this role and this function in our democracy.”
AYYYY MUST BE THE MONEYYYY
|In case you missed it, SENATOR CHUCK GRASSLEY sat down with the Editorial Board of the Des Moines Register last week and argued the Senate’s inaction on the nomination of JUDGE MERRICK GARLAND might have something to do with its price tag. “My staff tells me that’s about half a million to $750,000 to hire people to make work for three or four months to do it…And so when 52 senators say they aren’t going to take it up, should I spend that money and have a hearing?”
GOT A DOLLA BILL Y'ALL
|“Six years after a Supreme Court decision opened vast new channels for money to flow into national elections, Democrats have built the largest and best-coordinated apparatus of outside groups operating in the 2016 presidential campaign, defying expectations that conservative and corporate wealth would dominate the race.” For The New York Times, Nicholas Confessore and Rachel Shorey report on how outside money favors HILLARY CLINTON 2-to-1 over DONALD TRUMP.
NO ONE (WO)MAN SHOULD HAVE ALL THAT POWER
|“We’re at a particular moment when whoever is elected president may wind up having more power than a normal president would. That’s partly because the Supreme Court still has a vacancy from this past term, when JUSTICE SCALIA passed away, and there was a failure to confirm a new justice.” That’s Stanford Law Professor Bernadette Meyler in The Washington Post talking about the power of our next president.
TRUMPED UP
|The Northwestern Law Review curated a yuge collection of opinions written by none other than DONALD TRUMP’S proposed Supreme Court nominees. The site says it isn’t making a political statement. Instead, it aims to “provide a resource for scholarship into the judicial philosophies of the Republican nominee.”
MARK YOUR CALENDARS
|Oral argument at SCOTUS scheduled for November 9 will address whether Congress can discriminate against U.S. citizen fathers in awarding citizenship to foreign-born children. It’s an issue Garrett Epps in The Atlantic says is “for most people, pretty obscure.” Unless of course, DONALD TRUMP wins the presidency the night before. Then it will be of particular importance given his proposed immigration policies.
TOP ED
|In The Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin delivers what she calls a “shocker” — that DONALD TRUMP has no idea how the Constitution works. “Trump seems to have learned very little in the way of American history, civics and law. And yet, he is ‘allowed’ to run for president. What a country, right?”
OTHER NEWS
Is the Supreme Court filibuster in play in 2017?
Constitution Daily“Three years ago next month, Senate Democrats used the ‘nuclear option’ to kill the filibuster for many Senate motions, but they left the option intact for Supreme Court nominees. Could that change in a matter of months?”
Harry Reid Promises Democrats Are Ready to End the Filibuster on Supreme Court Nominees
New York Magazine“Envisioning Hillary Clinton in the White House and Democrats controlling the Senate, Reid warned that if a Senate Republican minority blocked her Supreme Court nominee, he is confident the party won’t hesitate to change the filibuster rules again.”