oof here we go so far, it sounds like I am going to win my bet with the very smart, very wonderful lawyer who (somehow!) was so/very convinced that there would be zero (0) votes for standing in this case.

(Justice Thomas is asking Qs that suggest he thinks there's standing or should be)

The decisions today were an absolute gut punch -- even if an expected one.

https://twitter.com/StrictScrutiny_/status/1674850902706880526

I definitely had not worked through my completely unfiltered rage about 303 Creative by the time we recorded. (Or student debt relief either.)

🧵:The @propublica story on Justice Alito's private jet trip/luxury vacay:
- Leonard Leo organized the trip
- the PJ flight was given by a hedge-fund billionaire whose case Alito ruled on
- the conservative megadonor owning the lodge gave Scalia vacays

propublica.org/article/samuel… Singer, who paid for the private jet trip & was on the vacay, was the businessman whose hedge fund was in a dispute with Argentina -- that reached SCOTUS, who ruled for Singer, resulting in ~billions~ paid to the hedgefund

Sam Alito wrote a WSJ op-ed.

No that sentence is not a joke. wsj.com/articles/propu… preemptively responding to a story that @propublica is about to run.

this is, as we say, art. and beyond parody.

first opinion is Glacier Northwest: 5-3-1 opinion by Justice Barrett makes it easier to sue unions for strikes (though not as easy as Justice Alito, Thomas, & Gorsuch would have made it).

Justice Jackson dissents.

supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf… SCOTUS says the union can be sued because the harm to the employer's property was foreseeable - concrete is perishable, & bc the union timed their strike to make it difficult on the employer (including by not notifying them or continuing work to help ER).

lol Judge Ho now asking whether FDA will comply with a court order in this case just ~incredible~

🚨🚨🚨 Danco indicates the harm from CA5's mifepristone ruling is MUCH worse than many suggested/reported: Danco can't *distribute* mifepristone until labels are revised, it recertifies providers, & gets approval for a supp new drug application - which could take months

https://twitter.com/mjs_DC/status/1646873562949484546

more on the obstacles the current legal rulings create for medication abortion access:

a quick thread on standing (in light of CA5's mifepristone ruling) - and just some of the things that the Supreme Court concluded were *not* sufficiently likely to occur and therefore did *not* constitute viable injuries that allowed the plaintiffs to sue. CA5 said "well, these organizations challenging the FDA's policy on mifepristone are big & they have lots of members. therefore it HAS to be the case that *at least one* of their members will *some day* be called upon to treat someone for complications relating to mifepristone.

this @propublica story is ... unreal. i encourage everyone to read it.

no one is doing a better job at making the case that the Supreme Court is broken than ... the Court and its Justices.

propublica.org/article/claren… hey, a judge james ho cameo!

first, but NOT last, #SCOTUS opinion is Bartenwerfer v. Buckley holding that a bankruptcy debt obtained through fraud can't be discharged in a bankruptcy petition -- even if the filer isn't at fault for the fraud.

supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf… one weird thing about the current format for opinion announcements ("we'll post when we're done announcing an opinion, but you can't hear us announcing the opinion") is ... it's unclear exactly when the next opinion will post.

the fact that both justice thomas & justice alito sound skeptical of petitioner's theory for narrowing section 230 is ... a pretty bad sign for the efforts to narrow section 230. Thomas: "[What you said] is responsive but I don't understand it."

Alito: "I'm confused by the argument you're attempting to make.... Don't answer this with reference to the substantive tort/theory of liability."

props for the hilarious implausibility of the explanation they came up with for what they HAD to tell Rev. Schenk ... but couldn't write in an email.

like ... this is the denial you came up with??? are you even trying????

10/10. NO NOTES. I keep reading this story and it just keeps getting more insane.

nytimes.com/2022/11/19/us/…

🚨🚨🚨🚨

https://twitter.com/jodikantor/status/1593945158634070017

b a n a n a s

https://twitter.com/andrew_chung_/status/1593944630999097346

a quick 🧵 on the recent Texas court decision setting aside Biden's student debt cancellation.

some context: the Trump-appointed judge who decided the case compared Congress authorizing POTUS to cancel debt to ... the 1933 German law enabling Hitler storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco… The decision invokes SCOTUS's latest deregulatory/anti-Democratic-administration doctrinal weapon -- the major questions doctrine -- to say the student debt cancellation is unlawful.

For more on this, check out our piece forthcoming @VirginiaLawRev: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

🧵:the amount of misinformation being spread about Prop 3 is scary.

it's also not surprising: people don't want to have to argue against what Prop 3 _actually_ does (invalidate destructive abortion bans), so they're inventing things it _doesn't actually_ do to shift the debate.

https://twitter.com/MalloryMcMorrow/status/1582832508269637633

This ad falsely suggests that Prop 3 guarantees a right to gender-affirming surgery and treatment.

Nope. Prop 3 protects rights about "matters relating to pregnancy," including abortion, contraception, & miscarriage management.

THAT'S WHAT THE ACTUAL TEXT OF THE PROPOSAL SAYS.

WE (the people of Michigan) WON! The Michigan Supreme Court ordered the Board of Canvassers to qualify the @mireprofreedom ballot initiative for the upcoming November election ballot! courts.michigan.gov/4a5828/siteass… This means that the people of Michigan WILL have a chance to add explicit protections for reproductive freedom to the state constitution this upcoming election.

Sign up to get involved here: mireprofreedom.start.page

yesterday the MI Board of State Canvassers deadlocked (along partisan lines) on whether an abortion rights amendment to the state constitution could be included on the Nov ballot.

this decision is a slap in the face to democracy & disenfranchises almost a million Michiganders 🧵 @mireprofreedom gathered almost ONE MILLION signatures on petitions to get this on the ballot. they collected a *record breaking* number of signatures.

🧵 don't ask why, but on a hunch, I skimmed the citations in a recently posted piece to look for gender breakdown. I excluded sources from before 1970 (in part bc these were used for different purposes, but also bc they would skew more). (1/3) I counted:
(a) the total # of non-case sources;
(b) the total # of unique authors; and
(c) the # of authors of different works cited (so, if the same author wrote two different pieces, that would count for 2 for this category & 1 for the previous one)
(2/2)

Second, and final decision: Biden v. Texas (Remain in Mexico). The Chief Justice (5-4) writes that the Biden admin made a new policy on Oct. 29 (contra the insane CA5 ruling to the contrary) & that rescinding remain in Mexico doesn't violate the INA.
supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf… That this decision was 5-4 is frankly astonishing and deeply disturbing. Justice Barrett being w/Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch on this Q about (Democratic) executive policies is alarming.

WV v. EPA; it's the Chief (this also means Chief has Remain in Mexico or it's per curiam): SCOTUS holds EPA doesn't have authority to create "generation shifting" requirements (that change methods a power plant uses). Relies on major questions doctrine.

supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf… The opinion is 6-3. This is, I guess, the Chief's effort to bring clarity to the major questions doctrine? (This will generate even more uncertainty/unpredictability/litigation against agencies):

Happy retirement day to Justice Breyer, a true mensch. I've already shared my favorite memory of the Justice from my time clerking at the Court:

https://twitter.com/LeahLitman/status/1486756118802026505?s=20&t=nvq83guC29MSN7_cFNCvbQ

And happy swearing in day to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson/happy Independence Day weekend to Justice Breyer.