Thread by @mjs_DC

The Supreme Court wiped away four lower court decisions this morning because they have become moot:

•Two decisions regarding Trump's alleged violations of the foreign emoluments clause
•Two decisions regarding COVID-related restrictions on abortion

supremecourt.gov/orders/courtor…

•Trump is out of office, so he can no longer be violating the emoluments clause.
•The COVID-related restrictions on abortion have been lifted, so those cases no longer present live controversies.

SCOTUS deftly avoided controversy by ducking these cases until they became moot.

The Supreme Court also issued a rare decision in favor of a death row inmate, although the disposition is very complicated. Basically, SCOTUS nudged the lower courts to reconsider letting this man bring his spiritual advisor into the execution chamber. supremecourt.gov/orders/courtor…

SCOTUS took no action today on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, the challenge to Mississippi's ban on abortions after 15 weeks. Anti-abortion advocates hope SCOTUS will use this case to permit abortion bans before viability, further eroding Roe and Casey.

Gorsuch, joined by Thomas, would've taken up an appeal by Sheldon Silver, the corrupt former Democratic Speaker of the New York State Assembly. supremecourt.gov/orders/courtor…

A lot of obvious compromises in today's Supreme Court orders between the liberals and conservatives. The justices are working very hard, together, to stay out of the spotlight for as long as possible. It won't last.

Opinion(s) at 10!

The Supreme Court has issued its sole opinion of the day, in Henry Schein Inc. v. Archer and White Sales—an arbitration case—dismissing the case as improvidently granted (called a DIG). supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…

The question here is (deep breath) whether an arbitration agreement “clearly and unmistakably” delegates the question of arbitrability to an arbitrator if it includes a provision exempting certain claims from arbitration. The answer is: Oops, we should never have taken this case.

President Biden's call for unity may not have gained much traction in Congress, but the Supreme Court is modeling unity in a big way right now. The liberal and conservative justices ducked a bunch of controversial, politically charged cases—together.😇

The Supreme Court will now enter its long break. The next scheduled day for orders (and possible opinions) is Feb. 22. We might get some emergency orders in between. Otherwise, it'll be all quiet on the SCOTUS front.

PS Folks I did not mean to express an opinion on the Supreme Court's emoluments dodge, I just wanted to convey what the court said. I agree it is ... dubious to call these cases moot when Trump retains his ill-gotten profits from alleged emoluments violations.

However: As @pulvinator reminded me, plaintiffs' counsel stated that both cases would become moot after Jan. 20, because there's no longer any need for prospective injunctive relief. So the parties agreed on mootness, and SCOTUS followed their lead.

In other words: It may seem wrong that Trump can simply walk away from office with ill-gotten gains from alleged emoluments violations, and prevent a definitive ruling on the meaning of the emoluments clause. But that's the logical outcome of the way these cases were litigated.

The attorneys general of DC and Maryland are taking a qualified victory lap, claiming their emoluments case "proves once again that in our country no one—not even the President of the United States—is above the law."