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Mark Joseph Stern

@mjs_DC

12 Nov

https://twitter.com/2Aupdates/status/1459299597571043330

Trump Judge Kyle Duncan tacks on a little advisory opinion suggesting that Congress couldn’t even impose an employer vaccine mandate through legislation. Love the very real and nonpartisan law coming out of the Fifth Circuit these days.

https://twitter.com/2Aupdates/status/1459299597571043330

The majority also strongly suggests that a vaccine mandate *explicitly imposed by Congress through new legislation* would also be unconstitutional, so all this hand-waving about OSHA overreach is basically irrelevant.

The upshot is the Fifth Circuit’s opinion is not just “OSHA exceeded its powers,” it’s also “don’t you dare try to impose a vaccine mandate via statute, Congress, because we will block it in a heartbeat.” It’s an advisory opinion cutting off future avenues for vaccine mandates.

Read 5 tweets

Mark Joseph Stern

@mjs_DC

12 Nov

At the Federalist Society convention, Josh Hammer praises Trump Judge Kyle Duncan—sitting to his right—for an opinion that intentionally misgendered a trans litigant.

Duncan quips: “You and three out of five of my children are the only people in America who liked that opinion.”

In his opinion, Duncan declared that using trans litigants’ preferred pronouns would convey “tacit approval of the litigant’s underlying legal position,” reflect “bias” toward trans people, and “enlist” the judiciary in a “quixotic undertaking.” slate.com/news-and-polit…

Now the Federalist Society has given Duncan an opportunity to lap up public praise of his anti-trans opinion, exactly the kind of thing you'd expect a nonpartisan debate club to do. Jokes about cruelty toward trans people are definitely very funny and apolitical.

Read 7 tweets

Mark Joseph Stern

@mjs_DC

9 Nov

Simply incredible to hear Thomas and Kavanaugh questioning the sincerity of a death row inmate’s religious beliefs, accusing him of “moving the goalposts,” after unquestioningly accepting the sincerity of religious beliefs against same-sex marriage, trans people, contraception …

Remember: It was TEXAS that repeatedly changed its execution rules, forcing Ramirez to file multiple claims to protect his religious liberty. But here Justice Thomas suggests that *Ramirez* tried to “game the system” and questioned the sincerity of his religious beliefs.

Justice Kavanaugh is very concerned about death row inmates “moving the goalposts” by raising religious liberty claims simply to delay their executions. Has Kavanaugh ever once before accused a religious plaintiff of raising a free exercise claim in bad faith? Ever?

Read 6 tweets

Mark Joseph Stern

@mjs_DC

7 Nov

Biannual reminder:

Today marks the END of Daylight Saving Time and the START of Standard Time.

DST is the GOOD one (the sun stays out later!😃)
Standard Time is the BAD one (it gets dark so early😭)

We need year-round DST!
slate.com/technology/201…

Inexplicably, a huge number of people mix up Daylight Saving Time and Standard Time, and claim they want to abolish DST ***when they actually want to keep DST year-round.*** We need to abolish Standard Time, but we never will until you people finally learn which is which!

These are just the first four examples that came up, there are literally tens of thousands more. All these people actually want to KEEP Daylight Saving Time and ABOLISH Standard Time but we will never reach the promised land until we learn the terminology! Fight the real enemy!!!

Read 4 tweets

Mark Joseph Stern

@mjs_DC

3 Nov

A fascinating exchange in today’s Supreme Court arguments over New York’s concealed carry restrictions. Justice Kagan asks Paul Clement whether the state could ban concealed carry on the subway and university campuses, or at stadiums and large protests. He refuses to answer.

In a colloquy with New York’s solicitor general, Justice Alito expresses empathy for working class New Yorkers forced to brave the city’s allegedly crime-infested subways on the way home from work, asking: Don’t they need to carry concealed guns to protect themselves?

Justice Alito suggests that New York’s concealed carry restriction was passed with the intent to discriminate against racial minorities, Italians, and members of labor unions. If you are familiar with Alito’s jurisprudence on unions and racism, you will understand the irony here.

Read 4 tweets

Mark Joseph Stern

@mjs_DC

1 Nov

Chief Justice Roberts does not sound happy with Texas Solicitor General Judd Stone, who resisted his (very good) hypothetical, leading Roberts to snipe: "My question is what we call a 'hypothetical.'" But remember that Roberts voted to block SB 8 from the start.

Here’s Chief Justice Roberts sounding uncharacteristically irritated by the Texas solicitor general’s defense of S.B. 8.

Incredible question from Justice Kagan that gets to the heart of the matter: “Some geniuses came up with a way to evade … the principle that states are not to nullify federal constitutional rights?”