As masses of people poured into the streets to celebrate the end of Donald Trump’s fascist rule, the lame duck president’s lawyers were filing frivolous lawsuits in an attempt to nullify Joe Biden’s victory. But none of these suits, even if successful, would change the results of the election. Shortly after CNN called the election for Biden,… Read more »
Category: Supreme Court
Barrett Is Poised to Become the Most Radical Right-Wing Member of Supreme Court
During her Supreme Court confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Amy Coney Barrett refused to say that voter intimidation is illegal, that armed poll watchers are intimidating, that voter discrimination exists, whether the president could deny someone the right to vote based on race or that Congress has a constitutional duty to protect the… Read more »
From a Justice for Gender Equality to a “Justice” for Gender Oppression
Amy Coney Barrett and Ruth Bader Ginsburg could not be more different when it comes to their respective notions of justice. Ginsburg, a pioneer in the protection of gender equality, spent her entire career, including 27 years on the Supreme Court, fighting for the rights of women, immigrants, people of color, criminal defendants, LGBTQ people, workers, people… Read more »
Ginsburg’s Legacy Is Vast, But a Trump Appointee Could Overturn Her Best Rulings
When I was sworn in to practice before the Supreme Court in 2007, I sat near the front of the gallery. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the five-foot-tall justice, was barely visible over the bench behind which she sat. On two occasions, Ginsburg visited the law school where I taught for many years. She graciously created the… Read more »
The Supreme Court Is About to Make Seismic Rulings on Reproductive Rights
The rights of women to terminate their pregnancies and to receive free contraceptives under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are on the chopping block. Those challenges to reproductive freedom are consistent with Trump’s agenda of pandering to the religious right while erasing Barack Obama’s achievements. The Supreme Court will rule on these cases during the… Read more »
Don’t Expect to See Trump’s Tax Returns Before the Election
Donald Trump claims that while he is president, his pre-presidency financial records can’t be subpoenaed and he can’t even be investigated for criminal conduct. The Supreme Court will decide by the end of June whether Trump is indeed beyond the reach of the law. On May 12, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments about whether… Read more »
Trump’s Order to Defy Subpoenas Is Itself Grounds for Impeachment
We’re headed for a separation of powers showdown between Congress and the president that will ultimately end up in the Supreme Court. The Constitution gives Congress the “sole Power of Impeachment.” Yet President Donald Trump has ordered all of his current and former senior advisers to defy congressional subpoenas to testify in the impeachment inquiry. Trump is… Read more »
Civil Rights Are on the Chopping Block in New Supreme Court Term
This term, the Supreme Court will decide whether people can be fired for being transgender or LGBQ, if people brought to the U.S. as children can be deported, whether states can impose restrictions on abortion that disproportionately harm poor women, how firm the separation between church and state is, the scope of the Second Amendment… Read more »
Trump Gives Up Citizenship Question But Doubles Down on Terrorizing Immigrants
On July 11, President Trump gave up his fight to ask people about their citizenship on the 2020 census. The question, which the administration has been trying to add to the census since 2017, would have resulted in a significant undercount by dissuading people in households with undocumented residents from responding to the census. An estimated 6.5… Read more »
Calling Trump’s Rationale “Contrived,” Supreme Court Halts Citizenship Question
In a surprise decision, Chief Justice John Roberts, joined by the four liberal members of the Supreme Court — Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor — halted the Trump administration’s plans, at least temporarily, to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The Court thought the stated motive for adding… Read more »