The Supreme Court once again takes no action in Dobbs, the challenge to Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban. Order list here: supremecourt.gov/orders/courtor…
SCOTUS takes up just one new case, a very interesting dispute over Confrontation Clause, Hemphill v. New York. We'll finally learn where Kavanaugh and Barrett stand on the Confrontation Clause, which often divides conservative justices. scotusblog.com/case-files/cas…
Justice Sotomayor, alone, dissents from the Supreme Court's refusal to take up a case with these appalling facts. supremecourt.gov/orders/courtor…
And Justice Sotomayor, alone, writes that the Supreme Court might want to consider, in the future, when jail officials may lawfully use a speculum to spread open and search the vagina and anus of a pretrial detainee. supremecourt.gov/orders/courtor…
Justice Sotomayor points out that people of color, including Native American women, disproportionately face non-consensual body cavity searches by the state.
Sotomayor describes the non-consensual search of a pretrial detainee's vagina and anus with a speculum and flashlight as "dehumanizing," "degrading," "traumatiz[ing]," and "offensive," and recounted the detainee's devastating PTSD. supremecourt.gov/orders/courtor…
Amy Coney Barrett recused herself because she declined to rehear the decision en banc after the 7th Circuit ruled against Brown last summer.
The 7th Circuit's en banc vote can be found on page 36 of petitioner's appendix here: supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/2…
One detail Sotomayor did not include: The doctor's headlamp went out after he inserted the speculum into Sharon Brown's anus, so she had to wait there for several minutes with the speculum inserted and opened while he scrounged up a flashlight. supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/2…
The Supreme Court has now published Sotomayor's two opinions this morning separately from the orders list.
Shackled defendant forced to reenact alleged murder before the jury: supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…
Speculum search of pretrial detainees' body cavities: supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…
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