OK! It's About Time. The Court Thread!

[Edgy MD]

I have words. It's terrific news.

[MFS62]

Samuel Alito has been MIA for two days. No reason announced.
I wonder if he wrote the opinions for any of the major cases to be announced in the next few days. Does he have to be the justice who reads them?
https://newrepublic.com/post/182998/sam ... reme-court

Later

[TransMonk]

A bad day for the homeless and administrative experts. A good day for domestic terrorists and conservative judicial power.

Ugh.

[MFS62]

So, if Clarence Thomas is a true originalist, why does he have a vote?
The 16th amendment hadn't been instituted in 1776.

Later

[batmagadanleadoff]

So, if Clarence Thomas is a true originalist, why does he have a vote?
The 16th amendment hadn't been instituted in 1776.

Not sure what the 16th Amendment has to do with voting. Nonetheless, a US Constitutional Amendment is treated just the same as if it were part of the original US Constitution and given just as much weight.


Also, originalism is a bullshit, horseshit nonsensical legal doctrine manufactured by the wingnut machinery 60 years ago in response to Griswold v. Connecticut and then especially, Roe v. Wade.

The question you should be asking about originalism is that if Thomas is the hard-core originalist that he claims to be (but only when it serves his purpose) where the flying fuck is the originalist source for the utter madness that is the Trump immunity decision? (Answer: There is no originalist source. SCOTUS invented it out of whole cloth, bullshit and extra gaslight).

[MFS62]

AOC has just introduced Articles of Impeachment against Alito and Thomas.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/aoc-files-ar ... p_catchall

I wonder if they will show up if served with subpoenas.
Later

[Benjamin Grimm]

That link takes me to an article about a statue of Ann Frank in Amsterdam.

[MFS62]

Fixed.
Later

[batmagadanleadoff]

AOC has just introduced Articles of Impeachment against Alito and Thomas.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/aoc-files-ar ... p_catchall

I wonder if they will show up if served with subpoenas.
Later

That's great. As a result, Alito and Thomas will probably be removed from the high court by the end of the month and their replacements confirmed three days after.

Yeah right. The Dems are gonna take out two SCOTUS justices. They couldn't even defeat Susan Collins

[batmagadanleadoff]

U.S. President Joe Biden is preparing to propose a major Supreme Court overhaul in the coming week that would include term limits for justices and an enforceable ethics code, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday citing two sources familiar with the plans.

https://www.aol.com/news/biden-set-anno ... 05176.html

More weak-willed bullshit from the Department of Too Little, Too Late from the Wee Willie Small Balls Political Party. But I totally get it. Because the amount of political capital and muscle that it would take to do the right thing - dismantle this court and put the extremist radical MAGA scumbag justices into the minority through court-packing -- is enormous and almost certainly beyond the reach of the Dems. They'll never muster up the political votes or get the will and gumption to pack the court. By comparison, winning a Presidential election would be like child's play. By comparison, winning a Presidential election would be like learning how to ride a bicycle fitted with training wheels. Oh my God! Term limits. And how long do they propose it will take to term limit SCOTUS into a Dem majority that hasn't existed in more than 50 years? Another 50 years? The majority of this country is Democratic, liberal, progressive and forward thinking but we're being led by the ears by old men who read their stupid, fucking bibles 15 times a day and believe that it's every white Christian man's right to own a cotton plantation worked on by black slaves.

[TransMonk]

Term limits and an ethics code will just get deemed unconstitutional by the Supremes.

For any measurable change, Biden would need a willing D House and Senate to add more seats.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Term limits and an ethics code will just get deemed unconstitutional by the Supremes.

That too!

[MFS62]

Biden announced he is attempting Supreme Court reforms, including term limits and ethics controls.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/biden-unveil ... 50960.html
I fear it is too little too late.
Later

[TransMonk]

This is a toothless gesture. These ideas would likely need a constitutional amendment to pass and even then the current Supreme Court would have a say.

Packing the court is the only solution in the near term. Even that would require changes to Senate rules, a President/Senate from the same party and for everybody to be on the same page. I'm looking at you, Joe Manchin and Kristen Sinema.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Of course it was going to take historically outrageous decisions like the overruling of Roe v Wade and the decision to grant Trump virtual total immunity for acts commited in the WH (notice that I wrote "Trump" and not "Presidents") for Dems to finally make waves about SCOTUS reform.

But in all fairness, if the Dems had the power, they should have packed SCOTUS like 15 minutes after Gorsuch was confirmed to fill Scalia's seat. Or if not then, then 15 minutes after Coney-Barrett was rammed through while Presidential election votes were coming in, to replace RBG. OMG! A President's not allowed to fill a SCOTUS seat in the 4th year of his term. But then four years later, he is allowed!

[batmagadanleadoff]

How the Current Supreme Court Would Look Under Biden’s Term-Limit Plan

Excerpt:

Under Mr. Biden’s term-limit plan, presidents would appoint a new Supreme Court justice every two years. If that rule had already been in effect over the past two decades and each justice had served the full 18-year term, the court’s ideological split would be flipped....

The Supreme Court now includes six conservative justices, appointed by former Presidents Donald J. Trump, George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush, as well as three liberal ones, appointed by Mr. Biden and former President Barack Obama.

If term limits had allowed the president to choose a justice every two years during the most recent four administrations, those numbers would be reversed: Six justices would have been appointed by Democratic presidents, and three by Republicans.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... imits.html

How would Biden's plan be implemented if it were to pass? Would Thomas, Alito and Roberts, who've all been SCOTUS justices for more than 18 years, have to retire immediately? If so, that would give the sitting President three seats to fill instead of the one every two years. Also, if an active Justice dies, that would also give the sitting President an extra pick, I suppose.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Yesterday, the US Senate confirmed Embry Kidd to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Kidd is only the second black man confirmed to the US Appeals Court in the last decade. Kidd's confirmation was possible only because six GOP Senators did not bother to show up for the vote. Independent and former Democratic Senator Joe Manchin voted with the GOP caucus, refusing to confirm Kidd's nomination.