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22 Oct, 7 tweets, 3 min read
NOW: SCOTUS will not halt Texas's 6-week abortion ban for now — the court will take up DOJ's case to decide if the feds can sue Texas. Justice Sotomayor dissents from the decision not to halt SB 8 in the meantime. More to come. s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2109…
Now: SCOTUS will leave Texas's six-week abortion ban in place for now as the justices consider whether DOJ and abortion providers can sue over the law at all. Arguments are set for Nov. 1. buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
After facing setbacks in the 5th Circuit, DOJ and abortion providers each petitioned SCOTUS to decide asap critical questions about whether anyone could affirmatively sue to challenge SB 8 and if there was any order courts could fashion to stop enforcement buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
DOJ also asked that SCOTUS in the meantime pause SB 8 (that is, to lift the 5th Circuit order that revived SB 8, after a district judge temporarily blocked enforcement). SCOTUS said no, and that's where Justice Sotomayor noted her dissent. buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
Sotomayor: "The promise of future adjudication offers cold comfort, however, for Texas women seeking abortion care, who are entitled to relief now."
buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
No other justice joined Sotomayor's dissent. I am not an expert on Kagan/Breyer and will leave it to legal twitter to debate how to interpret them not signing on. We do not know that the vote was 8-1, the court doesn't typically provide a vote breakdown for these types of orders.
Note that SCOTUS did not take up the question of whether SB 8 is constitutional. We might get discussion about that, but the only questions the court has said it will answer is if DOJ/abortion providers can sue, and what kind of remedy could be available. buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…

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More from @ZoeTillman

Zoe Tillman Profile picture
22 Oct
Hello from Judge Reggie Walton's virtual courtroom, where sentencing is about to begin for Capitol rioters Lori Ann and Thomas Vinson. Both pleaded guilty to the parading misdemeanor, govt wants 30 days incarceration for her and home confinement for him
AUSA Mary Dohrmann begins by stressing that the govt has already accounted for the fact that a person didn't commit violence or property destruction in the plea offers that they made to defendants: "No further benefit should be received by them on that account alone."
AUSA says the govt is asking for incarceration for Lori Vinson and not her husband because of a few aggravating factors — lack of candor to law enforcement and repeated statements to news outlets "doubling down" in defense of her participation
Read 41 tweets
Zoe Tillman Profile picture
21 Oct
Hello from Judge Tanya Chutkan's virtual courtroom, where sentencing will start soon for Troy Smocks, who pleaded guilty to post-1/6 riot threats against "RINOs, Dems, and Tech Execs": "Lets hunt these cowards down like the Traitors that each of them are." s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2107…
Smocks was in DC on Jan. 6 but wasn't charged with participating in the riots; per his lawyer, he didn't go onto the Capitol grounds. The social media messages at issue were posted to Parler on Jan. 6 while he was in DC, per plea docs
Smocks will be arguing for a sentence equivalent to time-served — he's been in custody since his arrest in mid-January, so somewhere around 9 mos. Govt is asking for low end of the guidelines range (est'd range is 8-14 mos or 10-16 mos, depending on crim history category)
Read 23 tweets
Zoe Tillman Profile picture
21 Oct
As more Jan. 6 defs face sentencing, judges are paying attention to how prosecutors/defense lawyers distinguish one from another. Chief Judge Howell has ordered the govt to provide direct analysis on this in the case of Jack Griffith, where feds are seeking 3 mos incarceration
Griffith is scheduled for sentencing tomorrow. He pleaded guilty to the parading count we've seen in most Jan. 6 plea deals so far. In arguing for more time behind bars than in other parading cases, govt focused on evidence of lack of remorse/making light s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2108…
Howell wants a detailed comparison of how the govt views Griffith's conduct compared to other cases where the govt recc'd a sentence of probation or less than 3 mos in jail. Note she also wants briefing on whether she can order probation in addition to incarceration
Read 5 tweets
Zoe Tillman Profile picture
19 Oct
DC Circuit has upheld pretrial detention for Jan. 6 defendant Robert Gieswein, charged with deploying a chemical spray against police, among other things.

On the district judge's detention order this summer:
The DC Circuit has in most cases upheld pretrial detention for Jan. 6 defs charged with assaulting police or conspiracy after the court in the Munchel case articulated some general guidelines for how district judges should think about the issue in these cases
The notable exception was George Tanios, who was charged with conspiring with Julian Khater to assault Officer Brian Sicknick with chemical spray, but isn't accused of being the one to physically do it. Khater lost his DC Circuit challenge to detention
Read 4 tweets
Zoe Tillman Profile picture
19 Oct
Hello from Judge Amy Berman Jackson's virtual courtroom, where an arraignment is set to begin soon for Michael Riley, the US Capitol Police officer charged with trying to obstruct the Jan. 6 investigation.

Previously: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
Riley is arraigned, enters a not guilty plea on the two-count indictment (this is standard procedure at an arraignment, it doesn't mean anything about the future of this case), now they'll move on to discussing discovery and a schedule
AUSA confirms that discovery is "not complicated or voluminous" in this case so they expect Riley's lawyer to get everything soon. Jackson asks if a plea offer has been extended so far, AUSA says no
Read 5 tweets
Zoe Tillman Profile picture
18 Oct
DOJ has filed its application with SCOTUS seeking to lift the 5th Circuit stay that allowed Texas's 6-week abortion ban, SB 8, to go back into effect after a district judge halted it: supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/2…

What's likely next is we get an order with Texas's deadline to respond.
DOJ says that if SCOTUS doesn't want to deal with this on an emergency basis via the shadow docket (see: buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…), it could alternatively consider this a cert petition and just take up the whole case on the merits this term
Recall that the abortion providers who originally brought a constitutional challenge against SB 8 have a pending petition before SCOTUS to also skip waiting for the 5th Circuit, since all signs point to that court siding with Texas
Read 4 tweets

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