Still marveling at Gorsuch's Ohio v. EPA opinion, in which he confused nitrogen oxide (a pollutant) with nitrous oxide (laughing gas). He did this five times, never once getting it right—in an opinion overruling the EPA's own expert scientific analysis! s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24...
Nobody is prepared for this jolt to the legal system. The Supreme Court has shifted an unfathomable amount of power from Congress and the executive brach toward unelected, unaccountable federal judges. This will fundamentally alter how government works. slate.com/news-and-pol...
NEW: The Supreme Court STRIKES DOWN the federal ban on bump stocks, holding that it is not authorized by existing statute. A 6–3 decision with all three liberals in dissent. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23p...
The Supreme Court does not get a gold star for refusing to bless a ludicrous legal theory that anti-abortion judges shamelessly embraced as part of their lawless rampage against women's health care. With @dahlialithwick.bsky.social: slate.com/news-and-pol...
Here's the declaration from UT Austin's Daniel Bonevac demanding a right to penalize students who miss class for an abortion: s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24...
And here's the near-identical declaration from UT Austin's John Hatfield—who, like Bonevac, also demands the right to discriminate against "transvestites," and refuses to use "they" as a singular pronoun. s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24...
NEW: Chief Justice John Roberts refuses to meet with Senate Democrats about Alito's ethics issues, citing "separation of powers concerns and the importance of preserving judicial independence." s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24...
Alito complains about protests in front of his house, calling them "loud, obscene, and personally insulting." He asserts that they "now threaten to escalate" due to reporting about the flags. s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24...
Alito tells Congress he will NOT recuse from the Trump immunity case. He defends his wife's use of the two controversial flags, saying they had no connection to "Stop the Steal" or any other partisan movement.
s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24...
Martha-Ann Alito allegedly harassed her anti-Trump neighbors so aggressively—including spitting at their car—that they called the cops and begged for legal intervention. www.nytimes.com/2024/05/28/u...
Justice Sotomayor using her annual pre-June public talk to give a barely veiled warning that the Supreme Court is about to do some truly terrible things www.nytimes.com/2024/05/24/u...
Reeves includes a long, rather scathing section criticizing Dobbs, too. He argues that qualified immunity stands on far weaker legal footing than Roe v. Wade, and opines that it would be odd for SCOTUS to stand by QI while jettisoning Roe so cavalierly. s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24...
Judge Carlton Reeves has a new opinion out condemning qualified immunity as unlawful and egregiously unjust. He calls the doctrine a "perpetuation of racial inequality" and "an extra-constitutional affront to other cherished values of our democracy." s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24...
In case Justice Thomas' smackdown for the 5th Circuit weren't enough, Justice Kagan wrote a concurrence—joined by Sotomayor, KAVANAUGH, and BARRETT—explaining why the 5th Circuit's analysis of constitutional history and tradition was completely wrong. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23p...
NEW: The Supreme Court UPHOLDS the CFPB's funding structure in a 7–2 opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas (of all people), emphatically shooting down the 5th Circuit's claim that it violates the Constitution's appropriations clause. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23p...
Here's a list of the 18 House Democrats who voted to permanently abolish D.C.'s ability to enact basic sentencing laws through our democratically elected leaders. (Biden opposes the bill.)
At a public talk, Clarence Thomas calls D.C. a “hideous place” and says he and his wife “like RVing” because they “get to be around regular people.” www.nbcnews.com/politics/sup...
I hope the chasmic differences between Trump and Biden's judicial appointees reenters the 2024 conversation soon because I personally think we should, as a voting public, spend much more time thinking about the judges who will effectively rule us for the next 30 years.
Appreciate Judge Walker’s citation to my work in his new opinion blocking a Florida policy that bans transgender teachers from using their preferred pronouns at school! www.splcenter.org/sites/defaul...
The Arizona Supreme Court makes it clear that rape victims may no longer terminate their pregnancies within the state at any point, even at the very outset of pregnancy. Any Arizona doctor who helps a rape victim obtain an abortion may now be imprisoned. www.azcourts.gov/Portals/0/Op...
One of Trump's top lawyers has already said the plan is to stay quiet on abortion through the campaign—then use the Comstock Act to impose a nationwide abortion ban in 2025. Not only a ban on medication abortion, but ALL abortions, in all 50 states. www.nytimes.com/2024/02/17/u...
Conservative judges are quickly pivoting from “the people can work out abortion through democracy” to “we noble judges have a constitutional obligation to protect fetuses from the vulgar and violent whims of democracy.” slate.com/news-and-pol...
Conservative groups like Heritage are openly pressing Donald Trump to impose a nationwide abortion ban on Day One by invoking the Comstock Act. That would end legal abortion throughout the country, including blue states. Thomas and Alito are evidently ready to uphold such a move.
In opposing veterans' expanded access to IVF, a handful of House Republicans are acknowledging the GOP's actual position on this issue: IVF should be restricted or banned because it involves the killing of children. rosendale.house.gov/uploadedfile...
This is what's so confounding about Barrett's opinion today greenlighting Texas' nullification law: She *knows* the 5th Circuit is using shameless procedural shenanigans to insulate its stays from Supreme Court review—and still lets them get away with it! slate.com/news-and-pol...
Conservative movement lawyer takes aim at Supreme Court precedents outlawing state discrimination against "illegitimate" children, claiming such discriminatory laws helped to "privilege" married couples over "unmarried relationships." www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/2922...
