I know term limits and ethics sounds "less radical" to a lot of people than court expansion.

But, as I keep trying to tell you all, the Supreme Court gets to decide if term limits and ethics are constitutional. And so if you don't expand the court, these other plans will fail. People still don't want to accept that the "radical" solution is the ONLY solution to get the more *moderate* changes they desire.

But if you tell John Roberts he has to leave office after 18 years, JOHN ROBERTS WILL SAY NO... and then what have you done?

I understand why Republicans are invested in downplaying the scope of the immunity decision. If people understood what just happened they might want to do something about the Supreme Court.

I really don't understand why Democrats are downplaying the scope though. My only guess is that Democrats think that if people understood how much power the Supreme Court just handed to the President, they might expect their President to use it.

Since Biden's not going to use it, I guess there's value in telling people it didn't happen?

Look, I appreciate that people still want to find *some way* to think that Trump is going to be brought to justice for January 6.

But he WILL NOT be brought to justice. That part of the conversation is OVER. Trump won. People need to deal with that in their own way, but he WON. The more relevant question is "NOW... WHAT ARE YOU PREPARED TO DO?" Trump won. He iced the bookeeper. He killed Sean Connery. NOW, WHAT ARE YOU PREPARED TO DO?

20 minutes out from Supreme Court decisions. It's been an honor covering these last gasps of democratic self government. Just so you know, my process is to read the case syllabus, which usually tells you the holding, then read the first few paragraphs of the dissent, which tells you what the actual fight was about.

Back here on SCOTUS watch because as bad as things are they can always get worse and probably will in 20 minutes. In case you missed it last night, here's my write up of yesterday's abortion ruling

thenation.com/article/societ…

Supreme Court opinions in 20 minutes. I assume they "officially" have to punt EMTALA till after the election today. Not sure what else. First case is Ohio v. EPA. It's about whether to enforce an EPA rule limiting pollution while people sue over the rule. 5-4. Gorsuch (whose mother used to run the EPA --into the ground-- for Ronald Reagan) rules against the EPA. Barrett joins the liberals in dissent.

Finished a recording with @ProfMMurray and @AudreLawdAMercy just in time for decisions.

Yay? First case is Murthy v. Missouri. It's one of the social media cases, with vaccine deniers being pissed that they can't spread COVID-19 disinformation.

6-3, Barrett opinion, Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch dissenting, says that they don't have standing.

I'm just here (on @SCOTUSblog) so I don't get fined. First case is Texas v. New Mexico. It's a water rights case. 5-4 Jackson opinion. Gorsuch, Thomas, Alito and Barret dissenting. I think it's the first 5-4 Jackson case?

SCOTUS decisions in 10 minutes. May the odds be ever in our favor. First case was Moore v. US. This is a big tax case that has implications on the viability of the wealth tax.
7-2 ruling, by Kavanaugh, Thomas and Gorsuch dissent, saying that Congress CAN tax "pass through" entities.

And we're back to SCOTUS. First opinion is in a bankruptcy case that I haven't been following and probably wouldn't understand if I was. It's a Jackson opinion with a Gorsuch dissent, which I would usually find very interesting but... bankruptcy. :( It must be nice to understand, like, "how money works" and stuff. Or at least lucrative.

I want to take a short break from the jokes to just express my sympathy for Joe Biden. He's had so many family tragedies. His son has battled addiction. He's now watching him be prosecuted because of his political career. It's a really sad day for his family. On top of all of that, he has the power to basically make this all go away for his kid, but he won't/shouldn't use it.

Biden is better at his job than I would be. As a parent, somebody is coming after my kid to get to me, and I can make it go away, I'm going to do it.

Welp, it's a Supreme Court decision day in June. First case is Truck Insurance v. Kaiser Gypsum. It's about whether an insurer can be heard in a bankruptcy case. Sotomayor, unanimous, says yes.

Folks... the people who vote for Donald Trump know he uses the n-word. THAT'S WHY THEY LIKE HIM!

Trump being caught on tape saying it is the feature, not the bug. "I'd also be concerned about hiring a n***** to do a white man's job." --Tim Scott soon.

The Consumer Protection Financial Board survives another day. 7-2 opinion *by Thomas* (Alito and Gorsuch dissenting) says that its funding mechanism is constitutional. Kagan wrote a concurrence that was basically like "even if Thomas hadn't figured it out, the CFPB would also be constitutional for the following reasons."

I like the effort to point out that Thomas is a broken clock, even when he lucks into the correct time.

Trump immunity arguments at SCOTUS start in 20 minutes. They should have started on December 22, but the Republican justices want to make sure Trump can be president again, so they start in 20 minutes. Ultimately, I do not think they'll give Trump blanket immunity for all crimes. But the thing I'm listening for is "remand." I'm listening for Thomas, Alito, and Roberts to say that Trump may have *some* immunity Judge Chutkan didn't fully consider. And send the case back to her.

The six conservative justices are absolutely trying to figure out how to throw out the obstruction charges against their cousins and wives and pledge brothers who attacked the Capitol on January 6 Neil Gorsuch just analogized the January 6 rioters storming the Capitol and trying to hang Mike Pence to my Congressman, @JamaalBowmanNY, pulling a fire alarm.

The conservatives are basic black Fox News watchers given lifetime power.

Okay folks. I'm back for today's SCOTUS arguments about mifepristone. To set the stage, Forced-birthers are trying to prohibit medical abortion based on junk science and the idea that James Ho likes looking at other people's babies. All the lawyers arguing today will be women. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar for the FDA.
For the group of doctors and dentists who didn't prescribe the abortion pill but want to take it away anyway, it's Erin Hawley, wife of Sen. Josh Hawley

I’m in a waiting room and there are a bunch of old people here and at least three of them are listening to content on their devices with no headphones… LOUDLY.
What the SHIT is this?? Is this normal? It’s like they’re sitting here with boom boxes. One guy is just playing an ALBUM. Another lady keeps watching clips from, I assume, her baby granddaughter that somebody sent her. Another person appears to be trying to learn RUSSIAN.

I’m am legit going insane.

Hey, remember when a 64yo unloaded 1,000 rounds at a Las Vegas music festival and killed 60 people? Remember how the *Trump* administration thought that was too much death and banned bump stocks?
Yeah, ammosexuals are still pissed about that. Today they're at SCOTUS. Let's find out if Republican justices are even more committed to blood and death and the idea that the Constitution is a murder-suicide pact than the NRA-bought Republican presidents who put them there.

Here we go. Trump v. Anderson live tweet thread:

Jonathan Mitchell out here making the claim that the President is not an officer of the united states. Thomas wants to talk about whether S-3 is "self executing." The conservative argument here is that Congress has to pass a law implementing section 3, as opposed to it just being a thing.

All right, let's set up what to watch for in today's SCOTUS Trump ballot access argument.
The justices I'll be paying the most attention to are Neil Gorsuch and Elena Kagan.
The Court is likely to keep Trump on the ballot. But... Neil is the guy who is most willing to carry his logic through to the bitter end, to hell with the consequences. And Neil's logic *should* exclude Trump. He once wrote an opinion that kicked other people off the ballot, b/c they failed a textual test in the constitution.