The Supreme Court: RIP Literally Everything

Yeah but those were the only two options on the dockett, right? Either status quo or full facism, probably best to have the former

It is when you’re playing defense with three players against six players.

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You would prefer a majority in the opposite direction?

Of course this is a win.

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If this is anything like past decisions (like when Roberts essentially wrote in his opinion exactly how to get the Court to rule in favor of banning abortion) all it does is signal “Hey, we can’t overturn this case on these grounds, but if you bring it back to us with X, Y, and Z changes we’ll rule the way you want us to”.

So in a way yes, it’d be better if they just ripped the band-aid off now and maybe set things up for an easy fix as opposed to kicking the can and waiting for a stronger case to make their move.

There are no easy fixes to anything. So this is far better than the alternative which would basically mean no more D presidents - probably ever.

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That’s not how precedent works. And it seems like ftmp the non-Alito/Thomas conservatives are loathe to reverse precedent.

I admittedly haven’t looked into the ISL case at all so my “easy fix” was referring to a situation like Roe where the Court signaled they would overturn at the first opportunity but could have been thwarted by Congress passing a law.

Maybe a lawbro can confirm, but it doesn’t looks like the dissenters did precisely this.

As you may recall, this is the case that the NC SC decided and then after the elections the court composition changed from conservative minority to conservative majority, so they decided to re-hear the case and they changed the original verdict.

It looks like the dissenters (at least 2/3) basically said, “since the court changed the verdict, this appeal now becomes moot”, which I suppose isn’t the worst argument in the world.

However, it looks like the main benefit of the first NC supreme court issuing it’s ruling is that GOP can’t use this as even a stalling tactic since it has now been ruled upon.

I’m not saying they aren’t good with Calvinball. They definitely are, but they found an easy non-Calvinball out this time.

That’s mostly not what I was looking for. I think pretty much all the justices (conservative and liberal) have a desired outcome and then they just make up some constitution-based justification for whatever it is that they want. So I have no doubt that Gorsuch has some legal reasoning for doing what he does. But that’s putting the cart before the horse.

If we accept that the justices look at the result first and come up with the justification after (which they shouldn’t do, but mostly always actually do, imo), then we still need to figure out why Gorsuch is motivated to go with that particular interpretation of the constitution. He very easily could have picked another one (see Thomas and Alito).

The article does allude that he is from the West and has had to rule in cases involving Native American rights a lot. So maybe seeing them up close had an impact on him. However, I’m not sure I believe that. Plenty of conservative justices see all sorts of injustices and atrocities perpetrated against oppressed groups and they don’t care one bit. They just provide the assist.

So, I’m still at a loss for why Gorsuch is the way he is. It’s probably an unanswerable question. Maybe only he, his wife, and some close family/friends truly know the why. Or maybe he is really the only one that knows.

Not regarding the Indian stuff, but Gorsuch has a strong background in Catholic-inspired legal philosophy, including studying under one of the well know scholars in this very niche area that isn’t taken very seriously these days (it was bigger 200 years ago). He wrote a philosophy book about the sanctity of life and legal implications (which is basically just religion gussied up a bit). I’d read his book if I had any reason other than morbid curiosity.

All three dissenters said that the case was moot and SCOTUS should not have granted certiorari. Thomas’s dissent also rejected the majority’s conclusions on ISL - not endorsing ISL per se, from what I can tell from the impenetrable prose, but rejecting the majority’s reasoning. That part of Thomas’s dissent was joined by Gorsuch, but not Alito, so it seems like Alito is on board with the substance of the decision.

Gorsuch might have a secret kid with a native American woman.

While improbable, this is the most plausible explanation that I’ve heard so far.

This will not matter at all, but it seems like the original controversy underlying the 303 Creative case might have been completely made up?

(This is the case where a Colorado website designer wants the religious freedom to reject making websites for same sex marriages.)

https://twitter.com/LeahLitman/status/1674411839604633600

(I didn’t read the link, but Leah Litman is the law professor Strict Scrutiny host and I’m happy to trust her take on this.)

Sounds like they’re turning the equal protection clause on its head yet again today to nuke affirmative action. I would guess they get rid of student loan forgiveness tomorrow because I really doubt they want to come back to work on Monday next week.

Affirmative action in college admissions is donezo.

So what will be the new excuse mediocre white kids use for why they didn’t get into the school they wanted?

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Thomas, the second Black justice, countered that he felt affirmative action made his diploma from Yale Law practically worthless; he has been a fierce opponent of racial preferences in his three decades on the court. “Racial paternalism … can be as poisonous and pernicious as any other form of discrimination,” he has written.

YOU LITERALLY WOULD NOT BE WHERE YOU ARE WITHOUT THAT ‘PRACTICALLY WORTHLESS’ YALE LAW DEGREE YOU FUCKING IDIOT

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Looking for some positivity, everything I’ve seen so far from Jackson indicates that she was an excellent nomination to the court.

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what will be the new excuse when the over achieving Asian kids don’t get all the spots?

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