43 thoughts on “A New Standard for SCOTUS”

  1. Pogo, thanks.  alas, that succinct standard is too close to being reality.

     “backward ho!” is the country’s new cry with guns ablazing

    Free art print of Cartoon Cowboy Riding Horse Clipart. Funny cartoon or ...

  2. kinda odd order from fed judge.  wonder how the supremes will decide it if appealed considering that scotus now taking away rights had earlier given new rights to some (like personhood and free speech rights to corporations) it sorta follows the new logic of earth 2:

    Judge restricts White House communications with social media companies | Biden administration | The Guardian

    A US federal judge on Tuesday restricted some agencies and officials of the administration of Joe Biden from meeting and communicating with social media companies to moderate their content, according to a court filing.
    The injunction came in response to a lawsuit brought by Republican attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri, who alleged that US government officials went too far in efforts to encourage social media companies to address posts they worried could contribute to vaccine hesitancy during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, or upend elections.
    The ruling said US government agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services and the FBI could not talk to social media companies for “the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech” under the free speech clause of the first amendment to the US constitution.
    […]
    Tuesday’s order marks a win for Republicans who had sued the Biden administration, saying it was using the coronavirus health crisis and the threat of misinformation as an excuse to curb views that disagreed with the government.
    US officials have said they were aiming to tamp down misinformation about Covid vaccines to curb preventable deaths.

  3. Attribution: SCOTUS in their Place by Dave Whamond, Canada, PoliticalCartoons.com

  4. https://www.newsweek.com/republican-party-ridiculed-after-tweeting-wrong-flag-fourth-july-1810861

    “The @GOP Twitter account shared an image that appeared to feature two Liberian flags on Tuesday morning…”

    “Despite the @GOP account deleting its original tweet, screen captures of the tweet were preserved and re-shared by multiple users, accompanied by a range of comments mercilessly mocking the Republicans over the mistake.”

    “Welcome to the United States of Liberia,” @jedi_deadpool tweeted in response to the GOP’s updated tweet. “The internet never forgets.”

    “Happy Birthday America!!” @the_resistor tweeted. “Meanwhile, the GOP is Celebrating the Flag of Liberia! Vote Blue Democrats KNOW which Country we Live in!!”

    “The country was originally founded by the American Colonization Society, a group of white Americans who proposed solving the “problem” of freed Black slaves by relocating them to Africa.”

    Or, maybe it was a Freudian slip?

  5. The Doughty injunction would stand little chance of surviving an interlocutory appeal in probably 11, and possibly 12, of the 13 circuit courts. Unfortunately its review would be in the 5th Circuit – the most likely circuit in the federal court system to uphold it.

  6. pogo, if the 5th does uphold it and DOJ appeals to scotus, what are it’s chances there of (1) even being heard and (2) upheld with their further blessings? 

  7. BB, what do you make of this strange turn of events just reported:

    ‘Exiled’ Wagner Boss Yevgeny Prigozhin Returns to Russia and Gets His Weapons Back (thedailybeast.com)

    The Russian mercenary boss who got off unscathed after staging an armed uprising against the country’s military leadership has returned to St. Petersburg to collect an arsenal of weapons confiscated from him by the security services.
    Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin was spotted Tuesday arriving at an FSB office in St. Petersburg along with his security team, local news outlet Fontanka reports. He had reportedly been invited to collect several weapons seized by security services in the wake of his attempted insurrection last month.
    Authorities handed over two Saiga rifles, a Mannlicher rifle, and several other firearms, according to Fontanka. The lot reportedly also included a Glock pistol gifted to the foul-mouthed mercenary boss by none other than Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, whom Prigozhin had allegedly hoped to capture in his armed uprising and march on Rostov.
    Prigozhin was also reportedly given back 10 billion rubles (more than $100 million) that law enforcement had found during a raid on one of his vehicles.
    The news comes after Prigozhin released a new audio message earlier this week promising new “victories on the frontline” even as the Kremlin insists he and Wagner have been banished to Belarus.
    “We need your support today more than ever. Thank you for that. I want you to understand that our ‘justice march’ was aimed at fighting traitors and mobilizing our society. I think we achieved a lot of that,” Prigozhin said in the message shared by the Wagner-affiliated GreyZone Telegram channel.
    The Wagner boss managed to dodge criminal charges for his June 24 mutiny, despite several Russian service members having been killed when his fighters shot down army choppers. But the rebellion has “worsened existing fault lines within Russia’s national security community,” according to British intelligence.
    In addition to General Sergei Surovikin, the deputy commander of Russian troops in Ukraine, reportedly facing scrutiny for his ties to Prigozhin and possible role in the uprising, Deputy Defense Minister Colonel General Yunus-bek Yevkurov was also conspicuously absent from a recent meeting of top military brass.
    The Russian military is now thought to be hoping to fill gaps in the Ukraine frontline left by Wagner’s departure by sending more prison inmates and Chechen troops, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

  8. patd,  the injunction is pretty far out there.  The key in its language is 

    [for] the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech [under the free speech clause of the first amendment to the US constitution.]

    Nothing in the 1st Amendment prevents government from talking with and even collaborating and coordinating with third party actors to PROMOTE THEIR free speech rights.  The issue of regulation of the internet and internet providers is implicated in this action – and without any guidelines on the issue from SCOTUS about that, as if that is likely to be a fair reading of the Constitution in that context, there is no telling whether a 5th Circuit panel would uphold or vacate the injunction and if it’s upheld whether SCOTUS would hear it of or what a SCOTUS appeal on the injunction might yield, but with Sam (take away medical privacy rights from over half the US population – no problem) Alito as the justice assigned to the 5th, you can probably guess that if he thinks SCOTUS would uphold the injunction on appeal, he’ll deny the government motion to reverse and vacate and will ask for the high court to consider it.

  9. Pogo, maybe now Democrats will catch up with Republicans who have known for decades that elections matter for choosing judges. Seems like a no-brainer, but now maybe we get it.

    Former Republican, Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin:

    “Unhinged from judicial standards, the court now roves through the policy landscape, overturning decades of law and reordering Americans’ lives and institutions. It upends women’s health, revamps college admissions, snatches student aid from millions and redefines public accommodations (allowing egregious discrimination). In aggrandizing power, the court illegitimately dominates policymaking, undermining democracy to an extent we have not seen in nearly 100 years”

  10. Someone put up this photo with the question “Why is there a column next to the stove?”   My answer was 2-fold    1.  He has “stupid money” for making things a bit more gaudy for no good reason.    
    And 2.  He had 6” of cabinet space he wouldn’t be needing.    12” counting the one on the other side.
     

  12. I’m astonished at how this court is overlooking standing issues to get its way. As one legal scholar pointed out, a liberal court could now conclude that in environmental cases trees have standing.

  13. sturge, how handy if those are sliding shelves on which things stove related could live. was that “someone” complaining or just jealous?  that kitchen must have cost a pretty penny.

  15. Pat Probably a mite too skinny, but maybe. 
    I’ve done them close to that size, but I’d wager there’re no moving parts in that column.

  16. Yeah were there any moving parts it would have started 4” off the deck.  
    Unless they were just determined that it should look like that and slide out too. Money, my dear, can fix it and put a ribbon on it.

  18. Poobah, roger that to the (a) judges and (b) standing issues.  Re: standing in the website case, I don’t know how in hell the fact that the supposed request for a website was from a married straight guy who didn’t inquire about building a wedding website escaped the other side’s attorneys (would that have been the office of the attorney general?)
     
    Sturge, that snarky comment is questioning the little post to the left of the stove?  I bet there’s another one at the left hand corner of that bank of base cabinets as well. I think designers call those design elements.  I have to laugh about the “column” comment and your picture – in our kitchen there is a column to the right of the stove – from ceiling to floor immediately to the right of the stove. (and one just like it in the bathroom above the kitchen – go figure).  Has water, electrical and sewer pipes in it that would have cost $1000s to bury in the wall to get an additional foot of run for the upper cabinets.  We built a dummy on the left side of the stove to balance it out. But now that someone has pointed out the horror of having a column next to the stove I guess we’ll just have to consider moving.  BTW, love that corner column.

  19. That Monêt rack is on Mrs. P’s short list to fill a 6″ space we have in our garage apartment (storage facility with kitchen and bath).  Hmm – I wonder who’ll end up installing it.

  20. https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/05/asia/afghanistan-taliban-beauty-salon-ban-intl-hnk/index.html

    “Beauty salons in Afghanistan have been given one month to close as the country’s Taliban leaders extend their repressive rule over women, who are already largely confined to their homes with bans on most work and study.”

    “According to a recent report by United Nations experts, the Taliban has committed “egregious systematic violations of women’s rights,” by restricting their access to education and employment and their ability to move freely in society.”

    That’s exactly what the Chicken-fried Taliban aka Republicans have in store. They’re already banning books and destroying public education by deferring tax dollars to a voucher system for alternative indoctrination/education. Abortion care, done. Birth control is up next. And, there are brainwashed women like Josh Hawley’s wife who are pushing for it. Willfully ignorant? Monsters? It doesn’t matter, as the outcome is the same.

    SCOTUS? So much for checks and balances. What I don’t get is that some of those f**jets in Congress and SCOTUS are not exactly spring chickens, but they seem hellbent on taking in cash and favors…and ya can’t take it with ya.

  21. patd,  for the dipshit in that picture I’d have to say money for a kitchen is of no great concern.  Prolly has a way to steal daddy’s campaign contributions to pay for it.

  22. Broadway trivia:  The Booth Theater in NYC bears the name of Edwin Booth, who was John Wilkes Booth’s brother.   

  25. Pogo, Laurence Tribe said the fraudulent facts just exposed in the web case would prompt a normal court to vacate its decision and sanction the parties and lawyers involved. 

  27. Have to wonder about the possibility of retirement for the elder Supremes.  Making Thomas and Alito gone would be a good thing.  

  28. Laurence is right. Rule 11 Poobah.  Short interpretation of the rule – you can’t just trust your client to give you the facts; better check those facts out before filing your shit with the court because clients lie and when you sign the pleadings you’re telling the Court you checked it out and the facts are true.

  29. liberals: “we must be mindful of slippery slopes and unintended consequences”
     
    ‘conservatives’: “let’s just make up whatever bullshit we have to”

  30. Craig

    I do think the court should be expanded to cover the number of appellate courts.  The nine were based on that number following the Civil War.  Appellate are now 13.  Adding four more couldn’t be done all at once, but maybe stretch out over at least two Presidential elections.

     

  32. https://www.axios.com/local/columbus/2023/07/05/ohio-issue-1-august-election-2023
     
    Ummm, Ohio special election in August…which looks like they want to undermine the election in November.

    “Supporters and opponents of Issue 1, the lone statewide ballot item proposing a higher threshold to amend the Ohio Constitution, see in it what they want to see.”

    “….supporters see the threshold change as valuable toward fending off specific policy proposals from Ohioans — including abortion access and a higher minimum wage.”

    “Issue 1 would make it harder to amend Ohio’s constitution by requiring approval from 60% of voters, up from a simple majority.”

    “It’s widely reported that the August timing is meant to preempt a pro-abortion rights amendment expected for November’s ballot.”

    “The Ohio Environmental Council says Issue 1 would “make it harder for Ohio voters to fight for clean air, land [and] water.”

    So, if this goes through in August, that would mean it would only take 41% in November to rule the roost.

  33. If the cocaine was found in an area through which yours were led, maybe a MAGAt planted it. It doesn’t belong to a Biden, Orange Adolf. Hunter has been to rehab; Don Junior has not.  Now, why doesn’t the DEA track down JR and his gargoyle’s dealer?

  35. Something about that 41% figure sounds familiar. They been consulting with that Vance feller?

  37. I can see this 60% super-majority thing catching on with Republicans.  They can see women, POC, and younger generations posing a threat.   Can Dems get enough folks to the polls?

  39. about that standing issue for trees and rivers, i would hope that Happy the asian elephant at the bronx zoo would make the cut too.   remember this story from last year?  here’s an excerpt

    The Elephant in the Courtroom | The New Yorker

    […]

    American law treats all animals as “things”—the same category as rocks or roller skates. However, if the Justice granted the habeas petition to move Happy from the zoo to a sanctuary, in the eyes of the law she would be a person. She would have rights.

    Humanity seems to be edging toward a radical new accommodation with the animal kingdom. In 2013, the government of India banned the capture and confinement of dolphins and orcas, because cetaceans have been proved to be sensitive and highly intelligent, and “should be seen as ‘non-human persons’ ” with “their own specific rights.” The governments of Hungary, Costa Rica, and Chile, among others, have issued similar restrictions, and Finland went so far as to draft a Declaration of Rights for cetaceans. In Argentina, a judge ruled that an orangutan at the Buenos Aires Eco-Park, named Sandra, was a “nonhuman person” and entitled to freedom—which, in practical terms, meant being sent to a sanctuary in Florida. The chief justice of the Islamabad High Court, in Pakistan, asserted that nonhuman animals have rights when he ordered the release of an elephant named Kaavan, along with other zoo animals, to sanctuaries; he even recommended the teaching of animal welfare in schools, as part of Islamic studies. In October, a U.S. court recognized a herd of hippopotamuses originally brought to Colombia by the drug lord Pablo Escobar as “interested persons” in a lawsuit that would prevent their extermination. The Parliament of the United Kingdom is currently weighing a bill, backed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, that would consider the effect of government action on any sentient animal.

    Although the immediate question before Justice Tuitt was the future of a solitary elephant, the case raised the broader question of whether animals represent the latest frontier in the expansion of rights in America—a progression marked by the end of slavery and by the adoption of women’s suffrage and gay marriage. [continues]

  40. https://gothamist.com/news/nycs-air-quality-after-july-4th-fireworks-was-as-bad-as-wildfire-pollution

    “New York City’s air quality spiked to hazardous levels early Wednesday morning following the Macy’s fireworks display and other Independence Day celebrations, raising questions about whether a beloved annual tradition should continue in the face of growing concerns over air pollution.”

    “Air quality has been front of mind for New Yorkers as Canadian wildfires spewed smoke over the Northeast in recent weeks. But a spike in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) late Tuesday and early Wednesday was more of a self-inflicted issue, researchers said.”

    “Around 1 a.m. Wednesday, the air quality index climbed to 434 citywide. Anything above 301 is considered hazardous, which should trigger emergency warnings urging people to stay indoors and limit outdoor activities.”

    Synchronized drones are cooler to watch than fireworks, too.

    patD- I hope so.

  41. i saw a UFO, yesterday, and even though i doubt, intellectually, that an advanced civilization capable of traversing intergalactic distances would allow themselves to be witnessed hanging around by a mote like me, had to concede there are infinite phenomena in this universe i can’t explain, but then i realized it was just some schmuck with a drone

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