NEW DOC COMING OUT ABOUT JUSTICE THOMAS | Mayor Pete’s Evolving, Even Confusing, Ideas About Supreme Court Reform
October 25, 2019
I'M COMING OUT, I WANT THE WORLD TO KNOW
|“CLARENCE THOMAS, arguably the most conservative justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, may be known for his silence on the bench during oral arguments, but now he’s speaking out.” Tessa Berenson with TIME previews an upcoming documentary in which Justice Thomas “describes his faith, his political awakening, his judicial philosophy, and the role race has played in his life, offering viewers rare insight into the mind of a justice known for his reticence on the public stage.”
IT'S TOO LATE TO APOLOGIZE
|Speaking of the life and times of JUSTICE THOMAS, ANITA HILL told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Thursday that she’s ready to hold JOE BIDEN accountable for his role in putting Thomas on the Supreme Court. “Have I forgiven Joe Biden? I’m ready to move on, but I am also ready to hold Joe Biden accountable. Accountability means acknowledging your role in a problem and the harm it’s caused. Acknowledging that you have culpability…Giving me clear information that you have made a change and that you are going to do something to make us all better off around gender discrimination.” Katie Sullivan with CNN reports.
A CHANGE OF TUNE
|The Editorial Board of The Wall Street Journal addresses MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG’S arc as a presidential candidate, noting that while he first broke out onto the scene as a “partisan warrior” eager to reform the Supreme Court, he now seems to be taking a big step back toward the center. The candidate recently shared in an interview that he’d like to see more justices like ANTHONY KENNEDY and DAVID SOUTER who might “depoliticize” the court. To which one law professor wrote on Twitter: “You mean the author of Citizens United allowing unlimited corporate spending in candidate elections and one of the 5 votes in the majority in Shelby County killing a key section of the Voting Rights Act? *That* Justice Kennedy?” The Editorial Board writes of Mayor Pete, “Now that he’s moving up in the polls he’ll have to provide more detail about what he means by Supreme Court reform. If it really is about making the judiciary less politically fraught, then he should stand up to liberal assaults on the Court’s legitimacy.”
TOP-ED
|“Circumstances may be conspiring to put abortion and the court at the center of 2020’s campaign in a way unmatched in a generation. Why? Because of the potential convergence of two gigantic events in June 2020. First, that is when the Supreme Court is expected to hand down a decision in a Louisiana abortion case — a ruling that will likely substantially restrict abortion rights even if it does not outright overturn Roe v. Wade. Second, notwithstanding his public protestations to the contrary, Justice Clarence Thomas may retire that same month, setting off a brutal battle over his replacement.” That’s Ronald Klain in The Washington Post explaining just how pivotal of a role the Supreme Court will play in 2020 ahead of the elections.
I'M KING OF THE WORLD!
|NPR’s Nina Totenberg looks at the court cases where the Trump administration is fighting subpoenas, and the legal argument his administration is advancing to avoid any sort of compliance. Hint: it rhymes with schesidential schimmunity. Totenberg explains that DONALD TRUMP has taken his “I could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue” story and made it into an expanded legal position.