JUSTICES ARE HUMAN TOO | Straight-ticket Good to Go in Michigan
September 9, 2016
ONLY HUMAN
|During her visit to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR yesterday said serving on the U.S. Supreme Court has been both a blessing and a curse. “I never forget that in every case, someone wins, and there’s an opposite. Someone loses. And that burden feels very heavy to me.” She also reminded her audiences that justices are humans too, with backgrounds and passions that would help change the court’s perception as a “distant and unknowable institution.”
THAT'S THE TICKET
|Today, SCOTUS refused to revive a Michigan law that barred straight-ticket voting in the coming election after lower courts found the ban was likely to to discriminate against African Americans and result in long lines at the polls. The high court gave no reason for its decision, though JUSTICES CLARENCE THOMAS and SAMUEL ALITO said they would have granted the request to enforce the law in the coming election. Straight-ticket voting allowed voters to choose a party’s entire slate by marking a single box on a ballot, which had been allowed in the state since 1891.
HER FIRST 100 DAYS
|David Mandel with support from the “Veep” writing staff outlines what a PRESIDENT HILLARY CLINTON will do in her first 100 days. On Day 9, Mandel sees HRC filling the “first Supreme Court vacancy with Debbie Wasserman, after considering Barack Obama, Barbra Streisand and Colin Kaepernick.” Meanwhile, “Merrick Garland takes wife to New York City but cannot get tickets to ‘Hamilton.'”
MERRICK GONE MIA
|POLITICO’s Seung Min Kim and Kevin Robillard filed a missing persons report for JUDGE MERRICK GARLAND who has “basically disappeared from the Senate campaign trail.”
OTHER NEWS
The Daily 202: Did Obama squander an opportunity by nominating Merrick Garland?
The Washington Post“Had Obama nominated someone who really ginned up the Democratic base, perhaps someone who really ginned up the Democratic base, perhaps Clinton and the party would have more whole-heartedly embraced him or her.”