With The Supreme Court On Sideline For Now, Trump's Lawyers Press Immunity Claims Before Lower Court

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump was acting within his role as president when he pressed claims about “alleged fraud and irregularity” in the 2020 election, his lawyers told a federal appeals court in arguing that he is immune from prosecution.

The attorneys also asserted in a filing late Saturday night that the “historical fallout is tremendous” from the four-count indictment charging Trump with plotting to overturn the election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

Supreme Court Rejects Special Counsel Request To Rule On Trump Immunity Claim Immediately

WASHINGTON ― The Supreme Court on Friday denied a request from special counsel Jack Smith to step in and immediately rule on Donald Trump’s claim that he is immune from prosecution for his actions leading up to the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol because they were “official” acts and part of his job.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan earlier this month ruled that Trump’s attempt to overturn the election and remain in power was not part of his official duties and he would have to stand trial on the charges listed in Smith’s indictment.

Jack Smith To SCOTUS: Yes, There Absolutely Is A Reason To Rush Trump’s Case

WASHINGTON — Responding to Donald Trump’s claim to the Supreme Court that there was no reason to rush the proceedings in the Jan. 6 criminal case against him, special counsel Jack Smith on Thursday told the high court: Oh, yes, there is — the former president’s unprecedented attempt to remain in power despite losing his election.

“The charges here are of the utmost gravity. This case involves ― for the first time in our nation’s history ― criminal charges against a former president based on his actions while in office,” Smith wrote in a 14-page filing. “And not just any actions: alleged acts to perpetuate himself in power by frustrating the constitutionally prescribed process for certifying the lawful winner of an election. The nation has a compelling interest in a decision on respondent’s claim of immunity from these charges ― and if they are to be tried, a resolution by conviction or acquittal, without undue delay.”

Justice Neil Gorsuch took 10 minutes to approve Dobbs abortion opinion – report

The conservative supreme court justice Neil Gorsuch took just 10 minutes to approve without changes a 98-page draft of the opinion that would remove the federal right to abortion that had been guaranteed for nearly 50 years, the New York Times reported.

According to the paper, Samuel Alito, the author of the opinion in Dobbs v Jackson, the case that struck down Roe v Wade, from 1973, circulated his draft at 11.16am on 10 February 2022.

‘Plain historical falsehoods’: How amicus briefs bolstered Supreme Court conservatives

Princeton Professor Robert P. George, a leader of the conservative legal movement and confidant of the judicial activist and Donald Trump ally Leonard Leo, made the case for overturning Roe v. Wade in an amicus brief a year before the Supreme Court issued its watershed ruling.

Roe, George claimed, had been decided based on “plain historical falsehoods.” For instance, for centuries dating to English common law, he asserted, abortion has been considered a crime or “a kind of inchoate felony for felony-murder purposes.”

Supreme Court Conservatives Appear Hostile To Securities And Exchange Commission's Powers

During oral arguments on Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court’s six conservative justices questioned the constitutionality of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s ability to take enforcement actions outside of the court system in a case that could have sweeping consequences for the power of federal agencies to enforce the law.

In SEC v. Jarkesy, the financial regulatory agency had charged conservative radio host George Jarkesy Jr. with securities fraud for allegedly misrepresenting and inflating the assets in two investment funds he ran. After an internal judicial proceeding, the SEC found Jarkesy guilty and fined him $300,000 in 2013. In response, Jarkesy brought suit against the agency, challenging not only the fine but also the SEC’s right to even conduct an administrative judicial process in the first place.

Democrats Pull Vote On Harlan Crow Subpoenas After GOP Threatens 'S**t Show'

WASHINGTON ― Senate Democrats on Thursday abruptly canceled a vote to subpoena Republican Texas billionaire Harlan Crow and conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo for more information regarding their relationships with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas after Republicans filed a last-minute gambit to stall the proceedings.

“It is going to be a long day and we’re going to get nothing done ... you’re gonna have a complete shit show,” warned Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, ahead of the planned vote.

The Supreme Court dismantled Roe. States are restoring it one by one

Justice Samuel Alito challenged voters to decide the future of abortion when he wrote the U.S. Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade last year.

“We do not pretend to know how our political system or society will respond,” he noted as he threw out half a century of precedent.

Now, 17 months later, the court has an answer: Americans want to preserve or restore Roe-like protections. In contest after contest, including a major victory in Ohio this week, voters decisively chose abortion rights over limitations — even in deep-red pockets of the country.

The Supreme Court Shot Down Mike Johnson’s Argument Against Certifying The 2020 Election

Ahead of then-President Donald Trump’s effort to steal the 2020 election, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) played the role of providing a constitutional rationale for Republican House members to justify voting against certifying the electors from a handful of states.

Johnson argued in favor of an idea known as the independent state legislature theory, which holds that the Constitution grants the power to set election rules to state legislatures alone. And since changes to election rules during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure ballot access were made by various other state government officials and bodies, including state and federal courts, Johnson argued that those rules violated the Constitution and, therefore, the submission of electors under those rules was also unconstitutional.

Senate Democrats Want To Subpoena Harlan Crow Over Ties To Clarence Thomas

Republican Texas billionaire Harlan Crow could soon receive a subpoena to produce information about his relationship with conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as the Judiciary Committee steps up its ethics probe into the high court.

Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin (Ill.), who chairs the panel, and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), who heads a subcommittee on federal courts, oversight, agency action, and federal rights, on Monday announced they would hold a vote to authorize subpoenas for Crow, conservative legal activist Leonard Leo and GOP donor Robin Arkley II.

Democrats Propose 18-Year Term Limit for Supreme Court Justices in Most Cases

A group of Democratic senators has introduced legislation that would drastically alter how often Supreme Court justices are chosen, and limit the cases justices can hear after a certain time on the bench.

The new legislation, sponsored by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island), Cory Booker (D-New Jersey), Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), and Alex Padilla (D-California), is called the Supreme Court Biennial Appointments and Term Limits Act. A number of Democratic senators have signed on as co-sponsors of the bill. It has not yet been endorsed by any Republicans.

Supreme Court likely to side with South Carolina GOP in racial gerrymandering case

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Wednesday appeared likely to uphold a Republican-drawn congressional district in South Carolina that a lower court found was racially gerrymandered.

The case — Alexander v. South Carolina Conference of the NAACP — tests the legal limits of partisan gerrymandering when it intersects with race. The NAACP is accusing Republican lawmakers of drawing the state’s 1st District, represented by GOP Rep. Nancy Mace, by shuffling Black voters in and out of the district to make it reliably Republican.

Brett Kavanaugh Finds Himself At The Center Of The Supreme Court’s Big Cases This Term

The Supreme Court’s latest term has just begun, and it is set to shove one of former President Donald Trump’s appointees into the spotlight: Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Since the court achieved its six-vote conservative supermajority in 2020, Kavanaugh has issued concurrences in high-profile decisions that provided guidance or guardrails on the majority opinions that he joined. In each case, Kavanaugh’s effort to guide future decisions and place himself at the center of the court will be tested in this term.

It’s Not Personal: Why Clarence Thomas’ Trip to the Koch Summit Undermines His Ethics Defense

For months, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his allies have defended Thomas’ practice of not disclosing free luxury travel by saying the trips fell under a carve-out to the federal disclosure law for government officials.

But by not publicly reporting his trips to the Bohemian Grove and to a 2018 Koch network event, Thomas appears to have violated the disclosure law, even by his own permissive interpretation of it, ethics law experts said. The details of the trips, which ProPublica first reported last month, could prove important evidence in any formal investigation of Thomas’ conduct.

Right-Dominated Supreme Court Is Poised to Do Grave Harm in Upcoming Term

The 2023-2024 Supreme Court term will begin on Monday, October 2. Dominated by six right-wingers, the court has agreed to review cases in which voting rights, consumer protection, and the regulation of health and safety, workers’ rights and the environment are in jeopardy. The cases present the issues of gerrymandering and the power of administrative agencies. In light of its recent conservative rulings, we should be wary about how the court will rule on these critical matters.

Besides the cases already on the Supreme Court’s docket, the court will add more cases by mid-January. Their decisions will be issued by the end of June or beginning of July 2024.

The Supreme Court May Soon Eviscerate The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

The conservative Supreme Court could soon eviscerate a key part of Congress’ response to the 2008 global financial crisis, with payday lenders challenging the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in one of the first hearings of the court’s new term.

In its challenge to the CFPB, the Community Financial Services Association of America, a trade association for the payday lending industry, argues that the agency’s funding through the Federal Reserve is unconstitutional under the Constitution’s appropriations clause. It is the latest attack on the CFPB by the financial industry following a 5-4 decision in the 2020 case of Seila Law v. CFPB, which allowed the president to fire the CFPB director at will instead of giving them a defined six-year term.

Revelations of Clarence Thomas’s Koch links stoke supreme court reform calls

A report detailing how Clarence Thomas secretly participated in donor events staged by the hard-right Koch network drew more fierce protests and outrage over the conservative supreme court justice’s proliferating ethics scandals.

Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat on the Senate judiciary committee who has advanced ethics reform amid reports about Thomas and other justices, said: “Oh, my.

Supreme Court Asked To Decide Fate Of Abortion Pill Mifepristone

The fate of mifepristone, the abortion drug used widely for over two decades across the United States, may rest in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court if its members decide to take up requests from the drug’s manufacturer and the Justice Department.

Both Danco Laboratories and the Biden administration have asked the high court to overturn a lower court’s ruling that would limit access to the medication nationwide. That ruling is currently on hold.

Samuel Alito Won’t Take Himself Off Case Involving Lawyer Who Interviewed Him For Flattering Articles

Justice Samuel Alito, part of the U.S. Supreme Court’s six-judge conservative majority, said Friday he had no intention of stepping back from considering a case involving a lawyer with whom he had spent several hours in interviews earlier this year and who had written two articles in defense and praise of Alito.

“There is no valid reason for my recusal in this case,” Alito wrote in a statement released Friday with the court’s periodic listing of cases it will take up or reject considering.

Kavanaugh predicts ‘concrete steps soon’ to address Supreme Court ethics concerns

CLEVELAND — Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh told a judicial conference on Thursday he hopes there will be “concrete steps soon” to address recent ethics concerns surrounding the court, but he stopped short of addressing calls for justices to institute an official code of conduct.

“We can increase confidence. We’re working on that,” Kavanaugh told the conference attended by judges, attorneys and other court personnel in Ohio. He said all nine justices recognize that public confidence in the court is important, particularly now.