#SCOTUS
Thanks for putting a bow on it, Clarence! #ImpeachClarenceThomasNow #SCOTUS #SupremeCorruption #JohnRoberts #SamAlito
Clarence Thomas’ Latest Pay-to-Play Scandal Finally Connects All the Dots https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/09/clarence-thomas-chevron-ethics-kochs.html?via=rss
The most high-profile effort, a #lawsuit known as #MissouriVBiden, is now before #SCOTUS, where the #Biden admin seeks to have the high court block a ruling from the US Court of Appeals for the #5thCircuit that found the #WhiteHouse, #FBI & top federal #health officials likely violated the #FirstAmendment by improperly influencing #tech companies’ decisions to remove or suppress posts on the #coronavirus & #elections.
"Ken Burns Distances Himself From Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas After Photo"
"The documentary filmmaker says he has not had contact with Thomas beyond taking a photo."
Wonder why Clarence Thomas isn't ever seen with his Democratic fan club or at their events?
"Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events"
That’s enough! #ClarenceThomas #SCOTUS “Revelations of Clarence Thomas’s Koch links stoke supreme court reform calls
Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events — ProPublica #SCOTUS
#HeatherCoxRichardson 's
*Letters from an American*
(09/22/23)
___________________
#USPolitics #Politics #UAW #Unions #Labor #LivingWage #ShawnFain #BidenHarris #YoungVote #YoungPeopleVote #MaxwellFrost
@ProPublica #SCOTUS #ClarenceThomas #Koch #LeonardLeo #FederalistSociety
#DOJ #BobMenendez #History #Histodons
@researchbuzz So Alito supports the promotion of false information? WTF - we need some new #SCOTUS judges.
^^ No surprise here. ^^
#ClarenceThomas “never reported the 2018 flight to Palm Springs on his annual financial disclosure form, an apparent violation of federal law requiring justices to report most gifts. A #Koch network spokesperson said the network did not pay for the private jet. Since Thomas didn’t disclose it, it’s not clear who did pay.”
Via @ProPublica
Senator Dick #Durbin Calls for Justice #ClarenceThomas to #Recuse Himself from #LoperBrightVRaimondo in Upcoming #SCOTUS Term
Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the #Senate #Judiciary Cmte, issued the following stmnt regarding ProPublica’s investigative report w/new details of Justice Clarence Thomas’s secret participation in #donor summits organized by billionaires Charles & David #Koch:
New conflict of interest allegations surface about Justice #ClarenceThomas
> In a lengthy article published on Friday, ProPublica reports that Thomas over the years has maintained a close relationship with the #Koch network, one of the largest and most influential political organizations in the country
https://www.npr.org/2023/09/22/1201154440/clarence-thomas-koch-supreme-court #US #SCOTUS
Oh yeah, maybe we should pay some attention to this. #clarencethomas #scotus #KochBros #corruption #propublica
#SCOTUS itself said in a recent stmnt…that “justices exercise caution in attending events that might be described as #political in nature.” But unlike w/lower court judges, there is no formal #oversight….
2 decades ago, Justice #RuthBaderGinsburg delivered opening remarks at a lecture cosponsored by the NOW Legal Defense & Education Fund, a #women’s #rights group that filed friend-of-the-court briefs at the #SupremeCourt. It was a PUBLIC event & co-sponsored by the NYC Bar Association (#NYCBar).
#SCOTUS is just a raging dumpster fire still hell bent on pushing out decisions and #partiality. Garbage, garbage all of them.
Several months later, #SCOTUS announced it would take up a case, #Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, in which #Koch network staff attorneys represent the plaintiffs. If #Thomas & his colleagues side w/them this coming term, #Chevron will be overturned once & for all.
W/o Chevron, “any place you would need #regulation to address a pressing #social problem, it’s going to be more costly to get it, harder to implement it & it’s not going to go as far,” said Noah Rosenblum, a prof at NYU #Law.
By last year, #Koch network strategists sensed that victory could be at hand. During an internal briefing for network staff, Jorge Lima, a snr VP at Americans for Prosperity, said #SCOTUS seemed primed to radically change its approach to the issue. The network was trying to find cases that could bring about major changes in the #law, acc/to a video of the meeting obtained by the watchdog group Documented. “We’re doubling down on this strategy,” Lima told the crowd.
In the yrs that followed, judges cited #Chevron in upholding rules that #protect #EndangeredSpecies, speed up the approval process for new cellphone towers & grant benefits to #CoalMiners suffering from #BlackLung.
The #Koch network has challenged Chevron in the courts & its #lobbyists have pushed #Congress to pass a #law nullifying the decision. It has also provided millions of $$ in #grants to #law professors making the case to #overturn it.
While most Americans aren’t familiar w/the 1984 case #ChevronvNRDC, it’s one of #SCOTUS’s most-cited decisions. #Legal scholars sometimes mention it in the same breath as #BrownVBoardOfEducation & #RoeVWade. In essence, #Chevron is about #GovernmentAgencies’ ability to issue #regulations. After a #law is enacted, it’s generally up to #agencies across the gov to make detailed rules to put it into effect. The Chevron decision said courts should be hesitant to second-guess agencies’ determinations.
In the 15yrs since, the #Koch network has left a deep imprint on #American #society. Its advocacy is credited w/helping stamp-out #Republican support for combating #ClimateChange, once an issue that drew #bipartisan concern.The “full weight of the network” was thrown behind passing the 2017 #Trump #TaxCut, securing a windfall for the Kochs & their #donors & the upcoming #SCOTUS term could bring the network a victory it has pursued for yrs: overturning a major #legal #precedent known as #Chevron.
The SC in SCOTUS now stands for Supremely Compromised, there's no other way to describe it. So with Congress completely dysfunctional thanks to partisan duopolistic infighting, and Executive branch up for sale to any bozo who can rally propaganda to hoodwink the masses the US is now completely f**ked.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/22/politics/clarence-thomas-koch-fundraiser/index.html
The first glimpse of #ClarenceThomas’ connection to the network came more than a decade ago. In 2010, reporters obtained an invitation sent to potential #Koch #donors that mentioned #Thomas had been “featured” at one of the network’s previous summits.
After critics called for more info about Thomas’ attendance, the #SCOTUS press office downplayed the episode. A court spox acknowledged Thomas had been in the Palm Springs “area” during the Kochs’ Jan 2008 summit.
During the event, the group announced a new initiative focused on getting #conservatives on the #SupremeCourt & the #FederalBench. The #Koch network, which had already given millions of dollars to #LeonardLeo’s #FederalistSociety, planned to mobilize its activists & buy advertisements to push senators to vote for #Trump’s #judicial nominees. They appointed a fmr employee of #GinniThomas, Justice #ClarenceThomas’s wife, to lead the effort.
While attending the #donor events would likely #violate the lower courts’ prohibition on #fundraising, experts said, #SCOTUS has a narrow internal definition of a fundraiser: an event that raises more money than it costs or where attendees are explicitly asked for money while the event’s happening.
On the Thurs before the Jan 2018 summit in Palm Springs, #Thomas flew there on a chartered #PrivateJet….
Hope in one hand, and shit in the other. See which one fills up first.
#SCOTUS #CorruptJustice #RepublicanJusticeIsNoJustice
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/22/elena-kagan-supreme-court-precedent-speech-00117760
US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has secretly participated in at least 2 Koch Network donor events. The Network frequently brings cases to the #SCOTUS, and the odor around Thomas is almost overpowering https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-secretly-attended-koch-brothers-donor-events-scotus
"These cases, depending on how they're decided, could really reshape speech on the internet," @uwcip co-founder Ryan Calo, a University of Washington Law and Information School professor, told @USATODAY in a recent interview about the U.S. Supreme Court's upcoming session, which could be consequential in determining the extent of governmental power to regulate online content.
After shepherding the case to the #court, #Koch network staff #attorneys are now asking the justices to overturn a decades-old #precedent. (#Thomas used to support the precedent but flipped his position in recent yrs. 🤔)
2 years ago, one of the network’s groups was the plaintiff in another #SCOTUS case, which was about #nonprofits’ ability to keep their #donors #secret. In that case, Thomas sided w/the 6-3 #conservative majority in the Koch group’s favor.
Synchrony Bank announces 2% cash back on any purchase of #SCOTUS Justices
#nerlingersjokes
But the #CodeOfConduct only applies to the lower courts. At the #SupremeCourt, justices decide what’s appropriate for themselves.
“I can’t imagine — it takes my breath away, frankly — that he would go to a #Koch network event for #donors,” said John E. Jones III, a ret #federal #judge appointed by President George W. #Bush. Jones said that if he had gone to a Koch summit as a district court judge, “I’d have gotten a letter that would’ve commenced a #disciplinary proceeding.”
The #CodeOfConduct for the #federal #judiciary lays out #rules designed to preserve judges’ #impartiality & #independence, which it calls “indispensable to #justice in our society.” The #code specifically prohibits both #political activity & participation in #fundraising. Judges are advised, for instance, not to “associate themselves” w/any group “publicly identified w/ controversial #legal, #social, or political positions.”
Seid’s $1.6 billion donation to Leonard Leo's Marble Freedom Trust is a landmark in the era of deregulated political spending ushered in by the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision
The creators of the Marble Freedom Trust shrouded their project in secrecy for more than two years.
The group’s name does not appear in any public database of business, tax or securities records. The Marble Freedom Trust is organized for legal purposes as a trust, rather than as a corporation. That means it did not have to publicly disclose basic details like its name, directors and address.
The trust was formed in Utah. Its address is a house in North Salt Lake owned by Tyler Green, a lawyer who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Green is listed in the trust’s tax return as an administrative trustee. The donation does not appear to violate any laws.
In an unusual maneuver, Leonard Leo was added as an officer to Barre Seid’s company. Seid left the company’s board, and his name was crossed out in state corporate disclosure filings. Source: Illinois Office of the Secretary of State.
#darkmoney #leonardleo #barreseid #marblefreedomtrust #citizensunited #clarencethomas #tylergreen #corruption #scotus
https://www.levernews.com/how-a-secretive-billionaire-handed-his-fortune-to-the-architect-of-the-right-wing-takeover-of-the-courts/
#ClarenceThomas’ involvement in the events is part of a yearslong, personal relationship w/the #KochBrothers that has remained almost entirely out of public view. It developed over years of trips to the Bohemian Grove, a #secretive all-men’s retreat in Northern California. #Thomas has been a regular at the Grove for 2 decades, where he stayed in a small camp w/real estate #billionaire #HarlanCrow & the Kochs….
Addendum 4
New [2023-09-22] ProPublica bombshell report tying Clarence Thomas To Charles Koch.
Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events
https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-secretly-attended-koch-brothers-donor-events-scotus
* Clarence Thomas attended at least 2 Koch donor summits
* in extraordinary position of having helped political network that brought multiple cases before SCOTUS
#ClarenceThomas #SCOTUS #JudicialMisconduct #CharlesKoch #KochIndustries #neofascism #DefundBillionaires #GOP #DarkMoney #ClimateChangeDenial
Addendum 3 cont'd
Clarence Thomas’ Billionaire Benefactor Tied To SCOTUS Bombshell
The Supreme Court just gutted wetland protections after lobbying by Harlan Crow’s business interests
https://mastodon.social/@persagen/110498162127448374
Harlan Crow’s Minions Keeping Your Rent High
https://mastodon.social/@persagen/110753096166749366
#ClarenceThomas #SCOTUS #JudicialMisconduct #HarlanCrow #neofascism #DefundBillionaires #GOP #GOPmenace #DarkMoney #EcologicalDestruction #Sackett_v_EPA
That puts #Thomas in the extraordinary position of having served as a #fundraising draw for a network that has brought cases before the #SupremeCourt, including one of the most closely watched of the upcoming term.
Thomas never reported the 2018 flight to PalmSprings on his annual #financial #disclosure form, an apparent #violation of #federal #law…. A #Koch network spox said the network did not pay for the #PrivateJet. Since Thomas didn’t disclose it, it’s not clear who did pay.
Addendum 3
Seminal ProPublica bombshell article:
Judicial misconduct: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, billionaire Harlan Crow
https://mastodon.social/@persagen/110580597018243738
Above the Law: Supreme Court Rebuff Democrats’ Call for Thomas Probe
https://mastodon.social/@persagen/110908441313317762
Justices Clash on Congress’ Power Over Supreme Court Ethics
https://mastodon.social/@persagen/110968385691785556
#ClarenceThomas #SCOTUS #JudicialMisconduct #HarlanCrow #neofascism #DefundBillionaires #GOP #GOPmenace #MitchMcConnell #CitizensUnited #DarkMoney #LeonardLeo
During the summit, the justice went to a private dinner for the network’s #donors. #ClarenceThomas has attended #Koch donor events at least 2x over the yrs, acc/to interviews w/ 3 fmr network employees & 1 major donor. The justice was brought in to speak, staffers said, in the hopes that such #access would encourage donors to continue giving.
On Jan25, 2018, dozens of private jets descended on PSP. Some of the richest people in the country were arriving for the annual winter donor summit of the #KochNetwork, the #political org founded by #libertarian #billionaires Charles & David #Koch. A long wknd of strategizing, relaxation in the CA sun & high-dollar #fundraising lay ahead.
Just after 6PM, a Gulfstream G200 jet touched down on the tarmac. One of the Koch network’s most powerful allies was on board: #SCOTUS Justice #ClarenceThomas.
But wait, there’s more!
#ClarenceThomas Secretly Participated in #KochNetwork #Donor Events
by Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott & Alex Mierjeski
@ProPublica
#Thomas has attended at least two #Koch donor summits, putting him in the extraordinary position of having helped a #political network that has brought multiple #cases before the #SupremeCourt.
#SCOTUS
https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-secretly-attended-koch-brothers-donor-events-scotus
cont'd
SCOTUS, Clarence Thomas, Charles Koch
Charles Koch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Koch
* American billionaire businessman
* co-owner, chairman, CEO Koch Industries
#SCOTUS #ClarenceThomas #CharlesKoch #JudicialMisconduct #DefundBillionaires #DefundCorporations #KochIndustries #neoliberalism #fascism #neofascism #ChristianRight #capitalism #GOP #GOPmenace #ClimateChangeDenial #CatoInstitute #MercatusCenter
[thread] SCOTUS, Clarence Thomas, Charles Koch
* Koch: super secretive, ultra wealthy/conservative, anti-union, climate change denialist, funder of subversive neoliberal think tanks/agendae.
* s dangerous as Leonard Leo
* important unveiling/add. coverage of Koch's influence
#SCOTUS #ClarenceThomas #CharlesKoch #JudicialMisconduct #DefundBillionaires #DefundCorporations #KochIndustries #neoliberalism #ChristianRight #capitalism #GOP #GOPmenac #ClimateChangeDenial #CatoInstitute #MercatusCenter
I think Kagan is being too generous.
#SCOTUS #SupremeCorruption #JohnRoberts #ClarenceThomas #SamAlito #ImpeachClarenceThomasNow
Kagan says 'good faith disagreements' holding up ethics code https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4219005-kagan-says-good-faith-disagreements-holding-up-ethics-code/
The day another blockbuster story breaks out highlighting the unreal and unseemly reported corruption staining #crookedClarence and the right wing #SCOTUS here is the headline coming from Senate Democrat in charge or reining in the Court.
#CorporateOligarchy #Fascism #Chritosfascism #SCOTUS YET WE WILL WAIT FOR ANY ACTION. 'Corruption of the highest order': Experts 'sickened' by Clarence Thomas and his 'pay to play' lifestyle
https://www.alternet.org/clarence-thomas-2665717990/
BREAKING - Ginny and Clarence Thomas announce a new #SCOTUS crowdfunding platform GoBribeMe
#nerlingersjokes
Dick Durbin is chairman of the Sen Judiciary Comm w jurisdiction over #SCOTUS. Instead of focusing on investigating an unprecedented culture of corruption delegitimizing the right wing Court he is spending time on-checks notes - concern trolling over Fetterman and Sen dress code?
Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events
#ClarenceThomas #KochNetwork #DonorEvents #SCOTUS #SupremeCourt #Propublica #Politics #News
@ProPublica The Borgias are waiting in hell to welcome Thomas, Alito, Roberts, and Gorshuch to their circle. #SCOTUS #corruption
Oh look another story on #crookedClarence.
Maybe just maybe Dick Durbin will stop begging John Roberts to look after his own reportedly corrupt #SCOTUS and you know actually use his own power to launch investigations and hold hearings? https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-secretly-attended-koch-brothers-donor-events-scotus
Is #ClarenceThomas the most corrupt #scotus ever? I’m going to have to say he ranks up there with the biggest dirtbags ever to serve.
Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events — ProPublica https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-secretly-attended-koch-brothers-donor-events-scotus
For the foreseeable future, Democratic administrations should just ignore any #SCOTUS decisions they don't like.
via @bespacific
Again, #ProPublica on the scene with hard reporting:
Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events
Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events
==
Thomas has attended at least two #Koch donor summits, putting him in the extraordinary position of having helped a political network that has brought multiple cases before the #SupremeCourt.
#ClarenceThomas #SCOTUS #KochBrothers #BohemianGrove #Courts #News
Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events - putting him in the extraordinary position of having helped a political network that has brought multiple cases before the Supreme Court.
Since Dobbs, #SCOTUS unleashed an invasive surveillance and control system targeting women as a class. Virginia is the only southern state that has not curtailed reproductive rights since then. Keep it that way. Hands Off! Vote! #GenZ #GenX @VotersTomorrow #VoteReady @equalityva
Dawn Porter, introducing her miniseries "Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court", arrests our collective conscience with the most succinct and compelling case for compassionate dissent:
"You criticize the things you love because you want them to live up to their promise. And that’s what we do for our children. That’s what we do for ourselves. That’s what we do for anybody you love. You need to tell them the truth."
https://screenrant.com/deadlocked-america-shaped-supreme-court-dawn-porter-interview/
The new #SCOTUS term doesn't start until Oct. 2, but I've been covering 3 pending shadow docket matters this week:
- Oklahoma's scheduled execution of Anthony Sanchez
- Alabama redistricting
- Biden admin social-media case
Subscribe to Law Dork for the latest: https://www.lawdork.com/
It is absolutely absurd to see some traditional media reporters letting Trump craft the narrative that he is some sort of moderate on #abortion rights after he along w/ Mitch McConnell hijacked the #SCOTUS enabling destruction of Roe.
Good piece from @CitizenCohn ushing back against the BS of Trump being a "moderate" on this issue. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-abortion-prescription-drugs-extremist_n_650b5373e4b0be7f855f0769
Update: Alabama has filed its replies in the redistricting stay requests at #SCOTUS, so the briefing is now completed. A decision could come at any time.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/23a231.html
https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/23a241.html
Via Zoe Tillman:
One notable nugget: AG Garland was asked about the status of Dem requests for DOJ to probe Justice Clarence Thomas's compliance with federal ethics laws. Garland demurred, saying he'd need to check with DOJ's legislative affairs office #MerrickGarland #SCOTUS
I know you'll be shocked by this, but #SamuelAlito has an obvious conflict of interest in a pending #SCOTUS case. #corruption #ExpandTheCourt https://www.commondreams.org/news/alito-2665589141
The Alabama government’s briefs before the three-judge panel in September referenced a concurring opinion by #Kavanaugh that questioned whether “race-based redistricting” can “extend indefinitely into the future.”
Alabama further relied on arguments — also rejected by the U.S. District Court — that a subsequent U.S. Supreme Court decision this same term ending affirmative action in college admissions (called Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard ) compels the Court to find that a state’s use of a map in which “race predominates” now violates the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection. As in Milligan, Kavanaugh filed a concurrence in Students for Fair Admissions, emphasizing the potential for #time #limits on race-related policies.
In addition, there now appears to be a significant connection between Alabama’s post-Milligan map redrawing process, #Leo’s powerful national dark money network, and Kavanaugh.
The tangled web of previously unreported ties centers around #Marshall, Alabama Solicitor General Edmond #LaCour — dubbed “the architect behind Alabama’s voting rights defiance” — and the D.C.-area law firm #ConsovoyMcCarthy, the firm founded by William #Consovoy, a now-deceased former clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas who represented Shelby County in Shelby County v. Holder.
In Shelby County, the Supreme Court invalidated Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act and its vital preclearance provision, which protected against unilateral state changes to voting rights and maps in states that had a documented history of racial bias in administering elections in order to disenfranchise Black voters.
#LeonardLeo #scotus #darkmoney #clarencethomas #FedSoc #ShelbyCountyVsHolder #VotingRightsAct #racebased #affirmativeaction
👀Via Sherrilyn Ifill:
Everyone keeps asking “why is #Alabama being so defiant - even of the #SCOTUS order?”
Now we get a possible answer. And it’s a doozy.
If this is true, it would mean that the SCOTUS is compromised & that the project to overturn civil rights laws is being undertaken deliberately and cynically by multiple associated players & cover groups across the legal system https://www.alreporter.com/2023/09/16/dark-money-the-backstory-of-alabamas-redistricting-defiance/
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson at the 60th anniversary of the 16th Street Baptist Church #bombing in #Birmingham, #Alabama, that took the lives of 4 young girls in 1963. 🙁
She implores Americans to "own even the darkest parts of our past!" 👏 ✊
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiZNSfz42H8
#SCOTUS #KetanjiBrownJackson #CivilRights #DomesticTerrorism #KKK #Murder
Fri 9/15 - Sinema Opposes NLRB Rule, 1/6 Cases Reach SCOTUS, Smith Rejects Trump's Judge Removal Demand, Paxton Impeachment Nears End
#Sinema opposes joint employer rule, first #January6 cases reach #SCOTUS, Smith rejects #Trump call for Chutkan’s removal, spa will comply with #NLRB, Texas’ #Paxton impeachment trial nears end and #UAW strikes.
https://www.minimumcomp.com/p/fri-915-sinema-opposes-nlrb-rule
New bombshell report on payments to Ginni Thomas by ‘face of dark money’...
@pixelpusher220 @EchoTango5179 @GottaLaff I do. The #FederalistSociety and #Conservatives are the people making the #14thAmendment case. I don’t see #SCOTUS going against them.
I hope they see it as a way to rid themselves of #trump while shrugging their shoulders and saying “there’s nothing we can do.” They are, allegedly, #StrictConstitutionalists after all.
Via Steve Vladeck:
New: The #Biden administration has filed an emergency application asking #SCOTUS to freeze in its entirety an unprecedented injunction from a #Louisiana federal judge blocking government contacts with social media companies: #legal https://utexas.app.box.com/s/xmq5xn5szueyr3qe3n4t3ninrkkjiioo
@chrisgeidner *illegitimate #SCOTUS
Justice Samuel Alito Took Luxury Fishing Vacation With GOP Billionaire Who Later Had Cases Before the Court https://www.propublica.org/article/samuel-alito-luxury-fishing-trip-paul-singer-scotus-supreme-court #uspolitics
#SCOTUS note: There are two Alabama redistricting filings — one in the three-judge case (23A231) and one from the one-judge case (23A241). The different underlying cases lead to different procedural requests at SCOTUS, but the court is almost certain to consider them together. Background at Law Dork here: https://www.lawdork.com/p/alabama-voting-rights-scotus-trans-care
@marcelias 😎 Well, there are appropriate rewards for rebelling against the authority of the United States. Like eg disqualification & reduced congressional representation.
#RuleOfLaw #AccountabilityMatters #JusticeMatters #GOPInsurrection #AlabamaGOP #Gerrymandering #ElectoralFraud #ElectoralApartheid #Insurrection #Rebellion #SCOTUS #DefendTheConstitution #ReconstructionAmendments #DefendDemocracy #14thAmendmentSection3 #14thAmendmentSection2
Via Josh Gerstein:
JUST IN: Justice Sotomayor has turned down an emergency application seeking to block New York state from taking over background check process for purchasing firearms & ammunition. #SCOTUS
“On this day in legal history, September 12, 1958 the Supreme Court unanimously rejected Kansas’ challenge to the court’s authority to desegregate schools. The decision was authored by all nine justices – the only time that had happened to that point or since.”
https://www.minimumcomp.com/p/tues-912-burford-makes-37000-microsoft
Update: Also while I was out, Alabama actually went back to #SCOTUS already in the redistricting case, with an unbelievable-if-it-weren't-so-believable request. The docket is 23A231. https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/23A231/279343/20230911172756288_Milligan%20S%20Ct%20Stay%20Application%20-%209-11%20FINAL%20415pm.pdf
@TheConversationUS This does generally require functioning courts, i.e., courts that actually follow the letter of the law instead of changing their interpretations based on the desired outcome—something that the current #SCOTUS has struggled to do—so I am somewhat dubious of the long-term effectiveness of this kind of strategy. But when it works, it's quite satisfying!
In the coming years, #SCOTUS will face a series of decisions on the new #redstate #agenda that may determine whether the U.S. maintains a strong baseline of #CivilRights available in all #states or reverts back toward a pre-1960s world where people’s #rights varied much more depending on where they lived.
But eventually most of these issues are likely to be resolved by #SCOTUS, & the court’s 6-member #Republican-appointed majority has generally ruled in ways that favor the #conservative #social-policy priorities reflected in the #redstate actions. That inclination was most dramatically demonstrated in last year’s #Dobbs decision, when the Court overturned the #constitutional #right to #abortion.
@georgetakei
The #Republican puppets on #SCOTUS are hopelessly compromised, and given they vote as instructed by the GOP and ultra-right-wing fascist billionaires, #SCOTUSIsCompromised
It's time for to expand the court, set term limits, and regulate their ethics.
For in-depth background on this Alabama story, read my Q&A with @EliasLawGroup’s @Abha_Khanna_ — one of the lawyers who argued the challenges to Alabama’s map at #SCOTUS and is now fighting this latest map: https://www.lawdork.com/p/law-dork-qa-with-abha-khanna
“If there was any constitutional issue resolved by the Civil War, it is that there is no right to secede." - #SCOTUS Justice Antonin Scalia (2006) https://newyorkpersonalinjuryattorneyblog.com/2010/02/scalia-there-is-no-right-to-secede.html
In case you missed it: On Friday evening, both the Biden administration and the maker of mifepristone went to #SCOTUS in the case over abortion medication access. Read about it, and get the filings, at Law Dork: https://www.lawdork.com/p/doj-and-mifepristone-drugmaker-go
Excellent reporting by @HeidiReports it continues & gets even crazier w/millions going to #GinniThomas; characters such as #JohnEastman, #CletaMitchell & more submit amicus briefs & attempt to influence #SCOTUS; #CarrieSeverino a #ClarenceThomas clerk & #LeonardLeo #JEP assoc briefs SCOTUS on the anti-#abortion anti-#Obamacare #HobbyLobby case; the 2016 #Trump election; #FederalistSociety groomed judges #AmyConeyBarrett, #BrettKavanaugh & #NeilGorsuch get appointed.
Recommended read.