SCOTUS Goalie Watch: Deck stacked against us

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bignflnut
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Re: SCOTUS Goalie Watch: Deck stacked against us

Post by bignflnut »

Conservatives still seem never to get big court wins



Whether for good or for ill, three court decisions in the past two days make clear that Chief Justice John Roberts’ “Let’s Make a Deal” regime continues to predominate in American jurisprudence.

Don’t be fooled by the headlined “results” in a challenge to Obamacare or in religious liberty cases about a cake-maker and a foster-care service. Concentrate on this: The parts of the legal community left in the cold here are the conservatives wishing, with Justice Samuel Alito, for more definitive constitutional decisions rather than narrow procedural or technical rulings. From a legal standpoint, very little in the Roberts regime ever seems final; instead, the courts invite seemingly endless rounds of judicial hair-splitting.

SNIP

Rather than wholeheartedly affirm the Catholic organization’s religious-exercise claims, the court ruled in Fulton v. Philadelphia that the city’s system failed because it allows individual exceptions to its “non-discrimination” policy, and that if exemptions are discretionary, it means the policy itself is not “generally applicable” in a way that lets it disfavor religion. Notably, Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh not only agreed to this narrower ruling but also filed a concurrence expressing at least some skepticism about the extent and force of the broader religious-liberty claims sought by conservatives.

It was left to Alito, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, to write separately that the religious-liberty claim should be seen as a “bedrock constitutional right.” Because only those three, rather than a majority, agreed to that interpretation, the city of Philadelphia might be able to revise its policy at the edges, removing its one “discretionary” aspect, and again make the Catholic organization ineligible to partner with the city on behalf of foster children.

In sum, Catholic Social Services, just like Jack Phillips, may be forced into another lengthy, expensive round of litigation – litigation that Alito and his court allies would spare the group and the young people the group so kindly serves.

SNIP

What is interesting is that, so far in her short tenure on the court, Justice Barrett has seemed wont to join Roberts's camp rather than Alito’s. This week’s decisions show that despite liberal fears and conservative hopes, American courts still aren’t primed for anything approaching a sweepingly conservative, constitutionalist revival.
Yea, verily, the Trump Trio is more Swamp Creature RINO than TEA Party activist.
“It’s not that we don’t have enough scoundrels to curse; it’s that we don’t have enough good men to curse them.”–G.K. Chesterton-Illustrated London News, 3-14-1908

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"Avarice, ambition, revenge and licentiousness would break the strongest cords of our Constitution, as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams to Mass Militia 10-11-1798
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Re: SCOTUS Goalie Watch: Deck stacked against us

Post by bignflnut »

Justice Samuel Alito has drawn attention for his fiery criticism of Supreme Court rulings, with some court watchers especially struck by the degree of barely concealed hostility he directed at fellow conservative justices.

Alito voiced opposition last week as the court, now with six conservative justices and three liberals, handed a narrow win to a Catholic charity and spared ObamaCare from a GOP challenge. The two decisions signaled the court may not be moving as far or as fast to the right as some expected.

SNIP

Alito blasted the majority for declining to replace the court’s landmark 1990 decision in Employment Division v. Smith with a more robust approach to religious liberty claims.

“After receiving more than 2,500 pages of briefing and after more than a half-year of post-argument cogitation, the Court has emitted a wisp of a decision that leaves religious liberty in a confused and vulnerable state,” Alito wrote. “Those who count on this Court to stand up for the First Amendment have every right to be disappointed — as am I.”

Alito’s dissent was joined by two of the court’s most steadfast conservatives, Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch.

SNIP

Alito, again mincing no words in his dissent, criticized the majority for preventing the plaintiffs from “even get[ting] a foot in the door to raise a constitutional challenge.”
“It’s not that we don’t have enough scoundrels to curse; it’s that we don’t have enough good men to curse them.”–G.K. Chesterton-Illustrated London News, 3-14-1908

Republicans.Hate.You. See2020.

"Avarice, ambition, revenge and licentiousness would break the strongest cords of our Constitution, as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams to Mass Militia 10-11-1798
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Re: SCOTUS Goalie Watch: Deck stacked against us

Post by schmieg »

bignflnut wrote:
Justice Samuel Alito has drawn attention for his fiery criticism of Supreme Court rulings, with some court watchers especially struck by the degree of barely concealed hostility he directed at fellow conservative justices.

Alito voiced opposition last week as the court, now with six conservative justices and three liberals, handed a narrow win to a Catholic charity and spared ObamaCare from a GOP challenge. The two decisions signaled the court may not be moving as far or as fast to the right as some expected.

SNIP

Alito blasted the majority for declining to replace the court’s landmark 1990 decision in Employment Division v. Smith with a more robust approach to religious liberty claims.

“After receiving more than 2,500 pages of briefing and after more than a half-year of post-argument cogitation, the Court has emitted a wisp of a decision that leaves religious liberty in a confused and vulnerable state,” Alito wrote. “Those who count on this Court to stand up for the First Amendment have every right to be disappointed — as am I.”

Alito’s dissent was joined by two of the court’s most steadfast conservatives, Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch.

SNIP

Alito, again mincing no words in his dissent, criticized the majority for preventing the plaintiffs from “even get[ting] a foot in the door to raise a constitutional challenge.”
While I may be wrong, I believe that the justices on both sides are looking for ways to resolve many of the cases in a manner that could be unanimous or close to it as all the justices are seriously worried that court packing is two heartbeats away and they feel this is a message that they can send to the administration and the congresscritters.
-- Mike

"The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities." - Ayn Rand
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Re: SCOTUS Goalie Watch: Deck stacked against us

Post by bignflnut »

For the first time in a generation, there are six conservative justices on the Supreme Court. In time, this sextet will incrementally push the Court to the right. Yet, three of them are already sounding an alarm. Twice this term, Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch warned that Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett lack backbone.

In an excessive force case, the conservative trio wrote that the two newest Justices were "unwilling to...bear[] the criticism that" denying the prisoner's appeal "would inevitably elicit." And in a religious liberty case, the Thomas-3 charged that Kavanaugh and Barrett lacked the "fortitude" to overrule a controversial precedent. The conservatives implied a similar fissure in several other cases.
“It’s not that we don’t have enough scoundrels to curse; it’s that we don’t have enough good men to curse them.”–G.K. Chesterton-Illustrated London News, 3-14-1908

Republicans.Hate.You. See2020.

"Avarice, ambition, revenge and licentiousness would break the strongest cords of our Constitution, as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams to Mass Militia 10-11-1798
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Re: SCOTUS Goalie Watch: Deck stacked against us

Post by bignflnut »

Donald Trump blamed Mike Pence in a Monday evening interview for his 2020 election loss and railed against two Supreme Court picks Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett for voting to uphold Obamacare.

'I am very disappointed. I fought very hard for them, but I was very disappointed with a number of their rulings,' Trump said in an interview with Real America's Voice host David Brody.
You are disappointed?
Welcome to the party, pal.
“It’s not that we don’t have enough scoundrels to curse; it’s that we don’t have enough good men to curse them.”–G.K. Chesterton-Illustrated London News, 3-14-1908

Republicans.Hate.You. See2020.

"Avarice, ambition, revenge and licentiousness would break the strongest cords of our Constitution, as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams to Mass Militia 10-11-1798
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