BREAKING: Supreme Court DENIES Donald Trump's plea to keep his papers out of the hands of House committee investigating Jan. 6th insurrection at the Capitol
The apparent vote is 8-1. Only Justice Thomas would have granted Trump's plea.
Justice Kavanaugh writes a separate statement. Justice Thomas does not explain his dissent.
Here is the order
And the rest of it
This is a thorough rebuke. The Court does not even get into the "serious and substantial" question of whether former presents can assert executive privilege over records, because Trump loses ANYWAY. He'd have to turn over these records EVEN IF HE WERE STILL THE PRESIDENT.
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BREAKING: Supreme Court DENIES abortion providers' petition to reignite litigation against Texas abortion ban by ordering 5th circuit to return it to the district court. Apparent vote is 6-3.
Justice Breyer writes a short dissent, which Justices Kagan and Sotomayor join. Justice Sotomayor writes a 7-page dissent, which Kagan and Breyer join.
From Sotomayor's dissent: "The Court may look the other way" regarding the 5th Circuit's "delay tactics" but "I cannot".
At 10am the Boston flagpole hearing at SCOTUS begins and I will be tweeting & analyzing it here. The case involves free speech but has strong religious-liberty undertones. 👇
Justice Kagan asks: does the city really have to put a swastika flag if the flagpole is a designated public forum?
A: yes
Kagan: so cities just can't have such a policy, right?
A: no
Barrett suggests another way to get around this is for Boston to say, this flagpole is our speech and we're only putting up what we want to say. Being more explicit that this is government speech.
A thread on wrapping our minds around what COVID has wrought:
I remember breaking into tears in March 2020 when I read that COVID may kill as many as 250k Americans. That's the size of my hometown, I thought. Well. As of today the figure is 863,000. Approaching one million dead.
As horrifying as that death toll is, looking back at it doesn't emotionally devastate me as much as learning two years ago that 250,000 would die in the future. I think I'm not alone in that. 669 days on, we're a bit numb to the unfathomable suffering this virus has inflicted.
Behind each of the 863,000 deaths are partners, children, co-workers, friends...a staggering heap of loss and mourning. And we're still losing so many every day. Yesterday 1,896 Americans died of covid.
Watch this space: oral arguments over Biden’s policies to get more Americans vaccinated amid the worst COVID surge we’ve seen begin at 10am eastern. I’ll be covering & commenting here.
First up is the OSHA case, beginning with Scott Keller, former SG of Texas, who will argue against Biden's vaccine-or-test mandate for large businesses
Keller begins: the mandate covering 84m Americans will cause widespread labor shortages and is "one size fits all" when some workplaces are higher risk and others are lower risk
NEW at SCOTUS: In light of procedural delays at the abortion-hostile 5th circuit, challengers to TX SB8 abortion ban return to Court requesting order to send the case back to the district court for quick relief
In technical terms: the request is for a writ of mandamus directing the 5th circuit to remand the case to the district court. Plaintiffs also ask SCOTUS to expedite consideration of the application.
(The petition should be docketed at SCOTUS tomorrow and isn't yet available.)
In his capacity as head of the federal judiciary, John Roberts just released his end-of-year report. He pays homage to Chief Justice Taft, highlighting issues the Judicial Conference will soon tackle.
But Roberts’s real message is to Congress: keep your hands off SCOTUS
There are three issues Roberts says the conference will engage: judges’ financial disclosures, harassment & misbehavior, and judicial assignment in patent cases.
But his subtext rings louder than any of that: criticize us all you like, but we will manage ourselves quite well without any meddling from the outside, thankyouverymuch. A not so veiled reference to Biden’s SCOTUS Reform Commission and possible congressional action.