SHRINKING VIOLETS IN CAHOOTS | The Best-Functioning Branch | HBD to HRC
October 26, 2016
OUR SHRINKING VIOLETS
|Yesterday we got word that JUSTICE STEPHEN BREYER isn’t losing any sleep over the incompleteness of SCOTUS, but today we get a different story from some of his colleagues. JUSTICES RUTH BADER GINSBURG and SONIA SOTOMAYOR addressed the New York Bar Association and RBG reused one of her favorite taglines of the summer. “Eight is not great,” she said. As Robert Barnes with The Washington Post reports, Justice Sotomayor added diplomatically, “I think we hope there will be nine as quickly as possible.”
DON'T MESS WITH THE BEST CUZ THE BEST DON'T MESS
|During their event last night, GINSBURG was asked whether the Supreme Court was the “best-functioning” branch of government. Barnes writes, “Compared to the legislative branch? Ginsburg wondered. ‘No question.'”
TODAY AT SCOTUS
|The Ohio Democratic Party and advocates for the homeless are asking SCOTUS to take up their case challenging rules for handling thousands of absentee and provisional ballots in the presidential battleground state. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati declined to hear the appeal earlier this month.
THE CHOICE IS YOURS
|On Bloomberg’s Masters in Politics podcast, SENATOR AMY KLOBUCHAR from Minnesota said she couldn’t predict whether HILLARY CLINTON would ditch JUDGE MERRICK GARLAND’S nomination. Klobuchar: “She has said that she’s going to make her own decision. I do think he’s someone who’s qualified and would get probably confirmed rather quickly, but that is going to be up to her.”
SPEAKING OF HRC
|Wishing Democratic presidential nominee HILLARY CLINTON a happy birthday today. The former senator and secretary of state is 69 today.
THE DAMAGE IS DONE
|“It’s clear that the court did real and lasting damage to the country with its decision in Bush v. Gore. Whether we wanted to or not, we’ve largely recovered. It’s less clear to me that the court will get over the damage our elected officials in the Senate are doing today and the damage they will likely do in the future. And when the court lacks the legitimacy to settle the next crisis, it will be on us not them. JUSTICE SCALIA’S ‘get over it’ was arrogant but probably necessary. The next time the court tells us to ‘get over it,’ we need to hear them. But we probably won’t.” That’s Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick writing her latest on the Supreme Court, its dignity, and the future of the republic.
TRIVIA DU JOUR
|“After being a recent appointment to the Chief position, the Senate rejected the formal appointment of which Chief Justice?” Check out a hint and the answer to the question over at Above the Law.
OTHER NEWS
The Senate Should Refuse To Confirm All of Hillary Clinton's Judicial Nominees
The Federalist“So when you get past the gotcha headlines, breathless reportage, and Inauguration Day, if Hillary Clinton is president it would be completely decent, honorable, and in keeping with the Senate’s constitutional duty to vote against essentially every judicial nominee she names.”