Bennett
The legal landscape of the past weeks and months has prompted questions of which people and entities are legitimate interpreters and enforcers of the law and what happens when you take the law into your own hands. Mississippi and other states took the recent changes in personnel on the Supreme Court as an invitation to defy the Court’s constitutional rulings on abortion, and those states now seem likely to prevail.
…The newest conservative Justices, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, signalled no qualms about overruling Roe as wrongly decided, which would make a majority of at least five. At a time when the Court’s legitimacy appears extremely fragile, it is telling that the majority’s response to having the supremacy of the Court’s decisions defied seems to be acquiescence and approval…
Any vigilante revivalism today goes hand in hand with private citizens’ increased ability to carry guns in public. The Supreme Court is currently considering the most important gun-rights case since it held, more than a decade ago, that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual’s right to keep handguns in the home for self-defense. On November 3rd, it heard arguments challenging a New York law that allows a license for the concealed carry of handguns outside the home, but only upon a demonstration of “proper cause.” The perverse, self-fulfilling truth is that, as gun ownership has proliferated, an individual’s claim to need a gun for protection has become more plausible…
During last week’s arguments, Justice Sonia Sotomayor lamented, “Will this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception that the Constitution and its reading are just political acts?”…But the point of a fundamental constitutional right is that it shouldn’t be at the people’s mercy, particularly when the composition of the Court itself has been shifted through political means for this purpose.
Over decades, though both Right and Left have made comparatively minor shifts in composition of the Supreme Court, there has never before been an effort which in broad strokes is convened to remove precedence. In this instance, the Roe vs Wade decision which is held by the general assemblies of Left and Right in the GOUSA as expanding freedom for women to make decisions qualitatively affecting their lives. Yet another quality of life hated by what passes for the 21st Century Republican Party.
Eideard 
“The Rule of Six: A newly radicalized Supreme Court is poised to reshape the nation” https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/11/28/supreme-court-decisions-abortion-guns-religious-freedom-loom/
“It’s time to say it: The conservatives on the Supreme Court lied to us all” https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/03/supreme-court-conservatives-lied/
“They weren’t just evasive, or vague, or deceptive. They lied. They lied to Congress and to the country, claiming they either had no opinions at all about abortion, or that their beliefs were simply irrelevant to how they would rule. They would be wise and pure, unsullied by crass policy preferences, offering impeccably objective readings of the Constitution.
It. Was. A. Lie.”
Neil Gorsuch’s terrifying paragraph https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/584198-neil-gorsuchs-terrifying-paragraph
Chief Justice John Roberts warns Supreme Court over Texas abortion law
Roberts joined the high court’s three liberal justices in discussing the constitutionality of the Texas abortion law. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/chief-justice-john-roberts-warns-supreme-court-over-texas-abortion-n1285747
The chief justice of the United States, John Roberts, warned Friday that the Supreme Court risks losing its own authority if it allows states to circumvent the courts as Texas did with its near-total abortion ban.
It is a basic principle, he wrote, “that the Constitution is the ‘fundamental and paramount law of the nation,’ and ‘[i]t is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.'” He cited as proof the landmark 1803 Marbury v. Madison case, which established the principle of judicial review, allowing the court to nullify laws that violate the Constitution.
“If the legislatures of the several states may, at will, annul the judgments of the courts of the United States, and destroy the rights acquired under those judgments, the Constitution itself becomes a solemn mockery,” he said, quoting the 1809 U.S. v. Peters case, which found that state legislatures can’t overrule federal courts. “The nature of the federal right infringed does not matter; it is the role of the Supreme Court in our constitutional system that is at stake.”
(Fox News): “Supreme Court puts an end to pandemic of the autocrat : The American work force is now safe from the unnecessary threat of its government” https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/supreme-court-covid-vaccine-mandates-biden-jeremy-dys
(CNN) “How the Supreme Court rules during a pandemic shows what may happen next” https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/14/politics/supreme-court-covid-vaccine-analysis/index.html
(6/29/18) “A New Lochner Era : In the early 20th century, the Supreme Court systematically gutted regulations to favor business and attack organized labor. Those dark days have returned.” https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/the-lochner-era-is-set-for-a-comeback-at-the-supreme-court.html
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Tuesday for a pair of cases that asked whether the government should be allowed to detain non-citizens indefinitely. https://fronterasdesk.org/content/1746980/supreme-court-decide-whether-some-immigrants-can-be-detained-indefinitely Both cases center on immigrants who are detained on immigration violations and fighting for protection from deportation on the grounds that returning to their countries would put their lives in danger. It’s a legal process that could take months or years.
Over the furious dissent of three liberal justices, the Supreme Court on Thursday rejected another attempt by abortion providers to block Texas’ six-week abortion ban. https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/20/politics/abortion-texas-sb8-supreme-court/index.html
“Is Ginni Thomas a Threat to the Supreme Court?
Behind closed doors, Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife is working with many groups directly involved in controversial cases before the Court.” (The New Yorker) https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/31/is-ginni-thomas-a-threat-to-the-supreme-court
♳ “Inside Groundswell: Read the Memos of the New Right-Wing Strategy Group Planning a “30 Front War” : Ginni Thomas, Allen West, and a crew of conservative activists and journalists have formed a hush-hush coalition to battle progressives—and Karl Rove.” https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/07/groundswell-rightwing-group-ginni-thomas/
♴ “Recordings and Materials From Council for National Policy Meetings : Dozens of recordings and documents obtained by Documented reveal what happens behind closed doors at CNP meetings [Ginni Thomas is on the CNP board and is a frequent speaker].
The May 2019 CNP meeting included a session where Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, spouse of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, outlined plans to form a new group called “Crowdsourcers” to “protect” President Donald Trump, along with other republicans, and attack democrats. https://documented.net/investigations/council-for-national-policy-recordings
♵ “Ginni Thomas Plans New Conservative Supergroup to “Protect President Trump”
With the help of a who’s who of conservative activists, the Supreme Court justice’s wife aims to open up a new front in America’s political wars.” https://documented.net/reporting/ginni-thomas-plans-new-conservative-supergroup-to-protect-president-trump
Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, for the first time has publicly acknowledged that she participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, “Stop the Steal” rally on the Ellipse that preceded the storming of the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob, raising questions about the impartiality of her husband’s work. https://thehill.com/regulation/598137-wife-of-clarence-thomas-says-she-attended-jan-6-stop-the-steal-rally
Virginia Thomas, a conservative activist married to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, repeatedly pressed White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to pursue unrelenting efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in urgent text exchanges in the critical weeks following the vote, according to copies of the messages obtained by CBS News chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa and Bob Woodward of The Washington Post.
Those messages — part of 29 total messages obtained — reveal an extraordinary pipeline between Virginia Thomas, who goes by Ginni, and then-President Donald Trump’s top aide during a period when Trump and his allies were vowing to go to the Supreme Court in an effort to subvert the election results. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/virginia-ginni-thomas-clarence-wife-mark-meadows-texts-2020-election/
January 6 committee discussing possible subpoena for Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife over texts with Mark Meadows, sources say https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ginni-thomas-mark-meadows-january-6-committee-subpoena/
Ginni Thomas’ Election Fraud Guru Claims He Arrested Pope : Ginni Thomas name-checked Steve Pieczenik, a little-known conspiracy theorist, in texts to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows about overturning the 2020 election. https://www.thedailybeast.com/ginni-thomas-election-fraud-guru-claims-he-arrested-pope
Ginni Thomas’ West Wing contacts raise new questions for another Trump ally: John Eastman : The Jan. 6 select committee has evidence that Eastman expected Justice Clarence Thomas to back his dubious legal theory to block Joe Biden’s victory. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/26/ginni-thomas-west-wing-trump-john-eastman-00020675
Supreme Court tees up wetlands fight that could cuff EPA https://www.eenews.net/articles/supreme-court-tees-up-wetlands-fight-that-could-cuff-epa/
“The Supreme Court only takes up a tiny fraction of the petitions that come before it, and the justices’ surprising decision to get involved in the Sacketts’ case could throw a wrench into EPA’s planned rulemaking defining what are “waters of the U.S.,” or WOTUS.”
Also (11/2/21): “EPA said it is still working on new power plant carbon rules, despite a move by the Supreme Court last week that could have repercussions for the kind of regulation that would ultimately pass legal muster.
Administrator Michael Regan said yesterday that EPA would “continue to move forward” with regulations to limit carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants, even as the justices consider the scope of authority the agency has under the Clean Air Act to promulgate such rules.”
“EPA forges ahead on power plant rule amid legal showdown” https://www.eenews.net/articles/epa-forges-ahead-on-power-plant-rule-amid-legal-showdown/
“The Supreme Court’s new death penalty order should make your skin crawl : The Court’s new death penalty order is almost too cruel to be believed.” https://www.vox.com/22906309/supreme-court-death-penalty-alabama-intellectually-disabled-hamm-reeves
“Supreme Court hears arguments on campaign finance law, issues statement on NPR report” https://www.npr.org/2022/01/19/1074169348/supreme-court-hears-arguments-on-campaign-finance-law-issues-statements-on-npr-r
“The Supreme Court takes up a case, brought by Ted Cruz, that could legalize bribery : Ted Cruz wants the Court to kill an important anti-corruption law.” https://www.vox.com/2022/1/12/22877010/supreme-court-ted-cruz-fec-campaign-finance-bribery-loan
“Supreme Court halts order requiring Alabama to redraw congressional map” https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/593174-supreme-court-halts-order-requiring-alabama-to-redraw-congressional
“Justice Elena Kagan wrote in a dissenting opinion that the majority’s ruling undermines careful consideration applied by the judges below.
“It does a disservice to the District Court, which meticulously applied this Court’s longstanding voting-rights precedent. And most of all, it does a disservice to Black Alabamians who under that precedent have had their electoral power diminished—in violation of a law this Court once knew to buttress all of American democracy,” Kagan wrote in the opinion, which was joined by the other two liberal justices.
Alabama’s newly drawn map includes just one district in which Black voters constitute a majority out of seven total districts, despite accounting for about 27 percent of the state’s population.”
7AM MST, tomorrow morning, 8th
“Amy Coney Barrett’s Long Game : The newest Supreme Court Justice isn’t just another conservative—she’s the product of a Christian legal movement that is intent on remaking America.” [The New Yorker, Feb 14 & 21 issue) https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/02/14/amy-coney-barretts-long-game
Ringer, in sports idiom, an impostor, especially one whose pretense is intended to gain an advantage in a competition.
7AM MST, tomorrow morning, 18th
15 years of Supreme Court climate fights come to a head Monday https://www.eenews.net/articles/15-years-of-supreme-court-climate-fights-come-to-a-head-monday/
“The Supreme Court will hear a big case about whether religion is a license to discriminate
This is unlikely to go well for LGBTQ people.” https://www.vox.com/2022/2/22/22945657/supreme-court-religion-lgbtq-303-creative-elenis-colorado-discrimination
7AM MST, tomorrow morning, 27th
The Supreme Court has voted to strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, according to an initial draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito circulated inside the court and obtained by POLITICO.
The draft opinion is a full-throated, unflinching repudiation of the 1973 decision which guaranteed federal constitutional protections of abortion rights and a subsequent 1992 decision – Planned Parenthood v. Casey – that largely maintained the right. “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Alito writes.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” he writes in the document, labeled as the “Opinion of the Court.” “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.” https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/02/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-00029473
Article includes a link to Justice Alito’s draft
“Deliberations on controversial cases have in the past been fluid. Justices can and sometimes do change their votes as draft opinions circulate and major decisions can be subject to multiple drafts and vote-trading, sometimes until just days before a decision is unveiled. The court’s holding will not be final until it is published, likely in the next two months.”
Draft Overturning Roe v. Wade Quotes Infamous Witch Trial Judge With Long-Discredited Ideas on Rape https://www.propublica.org/article/abortion-roe-wade-alito-scotus-hale
Justice Alito’s leaked opinion cites Sir Matthew Hale, a 17th-century jurist who conceived the notion that husbands can’t be prosecuted for raping their wives, who sentenced women to death as “witches,” and whose misogyny stood out even in his time.
Scholar Explains History of Supreme Court Leaks and Why He Feels Chief Justice Roberts Presides Over an ‘Accountability-Free Zone’ https://lawandcrime.com/objections-podcast/scholar-explains-history-of-supreme-court-leaks-and-why-he-feels-chief-justice-roberts-presides-over-an-accountability-free-zone/
Justice Clarence Thomas said Friday at an event in Dallas that the Supreme Court has been changed by the leak of a draft decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade earlier this month, calling it “tremendously bad,” according to audio obtained by Reason Magazine [link].
Why it matters: Thomas, a conservative, said he believes the leak has damaged trust in the court and said that “we are in danger of destroying the institutions that are required for a free society.” https://www.axios.com/2022/05/14/thomas-supreme-court-leak-tremendously-bad
In the weeks after the 2020 election, the rightwing activist Ginni Thomas – who is married to the supreme court justice Clarence Thomas – repeatedly implored Donald Trump’s chief of staff to help overturn the results, according to text messages obtained by the Washington Post and CBS News. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/24/ginni-thomas-donald-trump-mark-meadows-texts-election
Clarence Thomas and His Wife’s $680,000 of Unreported Income https://abovethelaw.com/2011/01/clarence-thomas-and-his-wifes-680000-of-unreported-income/
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol has obtained email correspondence between Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and lawyer John Eastman, who played a key role in efforts to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to block the certification of Joe Biden’s victory, according to three people involved in the committee’s investigation.
The emails show that Thomas’s efforts to overturn the election were more extensive than previously known, two of the people said. The three declined to provide details and spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/15/ginni-thomas-john-eastman-emails/
Is it time to change the name from “Republican” to “Vichy” Party?
Ginni Thomas Will Testify to Jan. 6 Committee — Here’s What We Know About Her Efforts To Overturn The Election (Forbes) https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/06/16/ginni-thomas-will-testify-to-jan-6-committee—heres-what-we-know-about-her-efforts-to-overturn-the-election/?sh=358b0bf239be
“Clarence Thomas calls out John Roberts as Supreme Court edges closer to overturning Roe v. Wade” https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/20/politics/clarence-thomas-john-roberts-supreme-court-roe-wade/index.html
“The Supreme Court on Monday ruled in favor of Senator Ted Cruz in his challenge to a federal law that limits how political campaigns can repay candidates for money they lend their own campaigns. The ruling was the latest in a series of decisions dismantling various aspects of campaign finance regulations on First Amendment grounds.” https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/16/us/politics/ted-cruz-supreme-court-campaign-finance.html
“Clarence Thomas Declares War on Big Tech” https://reason.com/2021/06/06/clarence-thomas-declares-war-on-big-tech/ “A blatantly unconstitutional Texas social media law can start being enforced unless the Supreme Court steps in.” https://reason.com/2022/05/20/republicans-defend-texas-social-media-law-and-compelled-speech/
“Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, pressed Arizona lawmakers after the 2020 election to set aside Joe Biden’s popular-vote victory and choose “a clean slate of Electors,” according to emails obtained by The Washington Post.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/05/20/ginni-thomas-arizona-election-emails/
“Supreme Court Should Shut Down Latest Bid to Rewrite Elections Clause” (Brennan Center for Justice) https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/supreme-court-should-shut-down-latest-bid-rewrite-elections-clause
“Moore v. Harper is currently on the Court’s “shadow docket,” which is increasingly being used to bypass normal court processes. In the case, the legislators propose a radical reinterpretation of the Constitution known as the “independent state legislature theory” (ISLT), which has been making the rounds in conservative legal circles. The theory is baseless. But more importantly at this moment, the justices would be hard-pressed to find a worse vehicle than Moore to address the ISLT.
The ISLT is based on an implausible reading of the U.S. Constitution’s Elections Clause, which directs states to make rules for congressional elections but also gives Congress overriding power to make entirely new election rules or alter state laws. Under this fringe theory, state legislatures are the only state body that can regulate congressional elections — not governors, state judges, or even state constitutions.”
Are state legislators legally entitled to pick the president for pretty much any reason they want and can they, in effect and in fact, decide whether or not Americans actually get to choose their president..?
“The Supreme Court Just Said That Evidence of Innocence Is Not Enough” https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-supreme-court-just-said-in-in-shinn-v-ramirez-that-evidence-of-innocence-is-not-enough
“…In its decision, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, the court ruled that a federal court, “may not conduct an evidentiary hearing or otherwise consider evidence beyond the state-court record based on the ineffective assistance of state postconviction counsel.” In short, a convicted defendant, like Jones, can be held responsible and kept in prison if his state-appointed lawyer provided ineffective counsel for his appeal.
…As Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted in her dissent, “The Court’s decision will leave many people who were convicted in violation of the Sixth Amendment to face incarceration or even execution without any meaningful chance to vindicate their right to counsel.” She called the ruling “perverse” and “illogical,” which doesn’t really do justice to its utter obscenity.
The United States Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on a case that started in New York state and could affect the ease with which people nationwide are allowed to carry [concealed] guns in public. https://www.syracuse.com/news/2022/05/supreme-court-to-rule-soon-on-upstate-ny-case-that-could-make-it-easier-to-carry-guns-across-us.html
The ruling is expected this court term which ends late June or early July. It will mark the first time in more than a decade that the nation’s top court will decide a major Second Amendment case.
How the Supreme Court made it impossible to solve America’s gun violence problem https://www.vox.com/22382180/supreme-court-uvalde-guns-violence-second-amendment-heller-scalia
“Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. on Tuesday put a hold on counting some challenged ballots in Pennsylvania while the Supreme Court continues to review a lower court’s decision that they be tallied.
The administrative stay Alito issued involves a unanimous decision of a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. It said that mail-in ballots that were received on time but lacked a required date on the outer envelope should be counted. Alito is the justice who receives emergency applications from the 3rd Circuit.”
“After the leak, the Supreme Court seethes with resentment and fear behind the scenes” https://www.npr.org/2022/06/08/1103476028/after-the-leak-the-supreme-court-seethes-with-resentment-and-fear-behind-the-sce
“Supreme Court rushes to end a term like no other” https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/20/politics/supreme-court-june-preview/index.html
As abortion ruling nears, U.S. Supreme Court erects barricades to the public https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/abortion-ruling-nears-us-supreme-court-erects-barricades-public-2022-06-17/
“Using a garbled reading of history as a crutch, the U.S. Supreme Court’s supposed textualist conservatives have just managed to codify a cartoon cutout version of the Second Amendment, obliterating New York State’s concealed carry firearm permitting system. We will mince no words: This will cost the lives of civilians and police officers, as almost anyone in New York City will now be free to carry a gun. At a time when the proliferation of weapons is already killing record numbers of Americans, the nearly absolutist right of self-defense the majority canonizes will become a right to societal suicide.” https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-edit-gun-supreme-court-20220623-qrrvrjhvbja5fhgqrtvgv3ahmy-story.html
New York’s gun death rate is 5.3 per 100,000 people. Mississippi’s, Louisiana’s and Wyoming’s are all north of 25 per 100,000. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/firearm_mortality/firearm.htm [here in New Mexico it’s 22.7 per 100,000]
“Samuel Alito lashes out at liberals in guns case as tensions boil over at SCOTUS” https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/23/politics/samuel-alito-stephen-breyer-guns/index.html
Also: “Why is a clump of cells in a woman’s womb deserving of greater protection by the US Supreme Court than children who actually exist?” https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/6/25/roe-v-wade-right-v-wrong-us-supreme-court-guilty-on
Justice Clarence Thomas argued in a concurring opinion released on Friday that the Supreme Court “should reconsider” its past rulings codifying rights to contraception access, same-sex relationships and same-sex marriage.
The sweeping suggestion from the current court’s longest-serving justice came in the concurring opinion he authored in response to the court’s ruling revoking the constitutional right to abortion, also released on Friday.
In his concurring opinion, Thomas — an appointee of President George H.W. Bush — wrote that the justices “should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell” — referring to three cases having to do with Americans’ fundamental privacy, due process and equal protection rights. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/24/thomas-constitutional-rights-00042256
7AM MDT, tomorrow morning, 26th
“The Supreme Court’s right-wing revolution isn’t slowing a bit” https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/27/supreme-court-right-wing-revolution/
“The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed a congressional map in Louisiana to remain in place for the next election, freezing a lower court ruling that said the map likely violates the Voting Rights Act by diluting the power of Black voters.
In a brief order, the court said that it would wait to act on the merits of the case until it has decided a similar dispute out of Alabama that is set to be argued next term. The three liberal justices, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, dissented.” https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/28/politics/louisiana-congressional-map-supreme-court/index.html
“How the Supreme Court is dismantling the separation of church and state” https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/27/politics/supreme-court-church-state-kennedy-maine-analysis/index.html