Thread by @chrisgeidner

#SCOTUS THREAD: Starting in 20 minutes, we are expecting one or more decisions. We don’t know which cases or how many. Twenty-two cases remain, however, including Obamacare, religious beliefs and gay rights, Voting Rights Act, NCAA, student speech rights, First Step Act, & more.

While you're waiting, you can read my latest, about next term's Puerto Rico SSI case:

Only one #SCOTUS opinion this morning, in Borden v. US. Kagan announces the judgment of the court, in which the defendant, Borden, wins in the ACCA case over whether recklessness criminal requirement qualifies as a violent felony. There is no majority opinion, however.

Gorsuch joined the more liberal justices in Kagan's opinion, and Thomas agreed with their judgment, but not Kagan's reasoning. supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…

Don't worry, Kagan says, there will still be more ACCA cases.

It takes some work to get there, but this is really what it all comes down to, per Kagan (and Breyer, Sotomayor, and Gorsuch).

Kagan going after Kavanaugh's "term of art" argument here is ... well ... art.

The footnotes are always a good place to find where justices are most sharply divided, but this is some impressive calling-out from Kagan.

Skipping to Kavanaugh's dissent, which is troubling for all of the legal reasons pointed out by Kagan. But, there's also an element of incredible irresponsibility in Kavanaugh's opinion that is a perfect example of how we encourage overincarceration untethered to any evidence.

The entire framework of mens rea in criminal law would suggest the opposite of the conclusion Kavanaugh just throws on the page here w/ no evidence. People who recklessly committed a prior offense would, logically, be in a different category than those who intentionally did so.

There actually is a really good reason to think the two groups might have different re-offense statistics! And yet, to advance his dissent attempting to lump recklessness in with purpose and knowledge, Kavanaugh just writes out language that assumes the groups would be the same.

Anyway, Kavanaugh lost that one, and it's just a dissenting opinion. But it's nonetheless maddening that such fact-free, conclusory statements are just added into Supreme Court writings — even if they're dissents.

With that, we're left with 21 cases still outstanding. And though I see we're already starting the "will #SCOTUS go into July?" talk, I'd hold a bit on that. There are still basically 3 opinion weeks left in June. They'll need to ramp up the pace, and keep adding days, but.