Breaking News

Author: Mark Walsh

By on Oct 8, 2018 at 10:15 pm

New Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh said tonight he has “no bitterness” over his contentious confirmation battle, as he took a ceremonial oath in front of scores of supporters who filled the East Room of the White House.

“The Senate confirmation process was contentious and emotional,” Kavanaugh said. “That process is over. My focus now is to be the best justice I can be. I take this office with gratitude, and no bitterness.”

[caption id="attachment_276122" align="alignright" width="275"] Retired Justice Anthony Kennedy administers oath to Justice Brett Kavanaugh (photo by Mark Walsh)[/caption]

President Donald Trump struck a different note, referring obliquely to the extended confirmation fight brought about by the sexual misconduct allegations raised against the nominee.

“On behalf of our nation, I want to apologize to Brett and the entire Kavanaugh family for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure,” Trump said.

All eight members of the court were in attendance, with Chief Justice John Roberts looking down slightly as Trump referenced the controversy, while Justice Clarence Thomas applauded in support of the president’s point.

By on Oct 1, 2018 at 4:34 pm

So this is what all the fuss is about.

The Supreme Court returns from its summer recess with cases for argument today about the dusky gopher frog and age discrimination in government agencies with fewer than 20 employees. As Adam Liptak observes in The New York Times, the court’s docket presents “lower-profile but still consequential legal questions” that may allow the justices “to find ways to bridge the usual ideological divides” amid the continuing battle over the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the court.

The courtroom is quite full this morning. Ginni Thomas, the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, has taken her seat in the guest box. In the spectators’ seats is Anna Salvatore, the New Jersey high school junior who founded High School SCOTUS, which started as a blog about Supreme Court cases affecting students but has morphed into a more general blog about the court. Today, Salvatore and five other contributors to the blog have secured seats for the day’s arguments. The justices take the bench at their new rotation, reflecting the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy. Thomas is now the senior associate justice, and he moves to the right of Chief Justice John Roberts. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is now at the chief justice’s immediate left. [caption id="attachment_275814" align="aligncenter" width="540"] Eight justices on the first Monday of OT2018 (Art Lien)[/caption]

By on Jul 10, 2018 at 8:16 am
I’m in an Uber on my way to the White House for President Donald Trump’s announcement of his Supreme Court nominee when we hit a time warp of sorts. A few blocks of Pennsylvania Avenue just west of the White House are being transformed to the era of President Ronald Reagan by film crews for “Wonder Woman 1984,” the sequel to the hit 2017 movie about the female superhero that has been filming around the city the last few weeks. Since much of Washington looks like it could still be in the 1980s, the crew does not appear to have had to make too many dramatic period touches for this outdoor scene. Down the street, at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, a different set of writers and producers are putting the final touches on their own script that will aim to evoke the Reagan era. When I arrive at the White House press quarters, there is a crew from a TV station in South Bend, Ind., where finalist Judge Amy Coney Barrett lives and maintains her 7th Circuit chambers. Cable news outlets are reporting that Barrett is at home this evening, so it appears this crew will not be getting a big local story. One technician mentions that Judge Thomas Hardiman of the 3rd Circuit, another of the four finalists (and one of the two “final” finalists), attended the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, so that would be a story for that crew. But they are in for disappointment. Still, with just under an hour to go before the announcement, the Trump administration has again kept the president’s Supreme Court choice remarkably under wraps. There is a slight buzz among a few White House reporters that Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will get the nod, but there are also well-known network TV news correspondents who are pressing any Trump administration official who walks by with questions such as, “So, is it Hardiman or Kavanaugh?”

By on Jun 27, 2018 at 6:41 pm
It’s the last day the justices will take the bench for this term, with just two decisions pending. When the term ends, the justices will be scattering in short order. Justice Anthony Kennedy is heading to Salzburg, Austria, for his usual teaching stint with the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law. Check-in at the dorms is this Sunday, and a reception with the justice is scheduled for July 6. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be the guest lecturer in Rome for the summer law program of Loyola University Chicago, along with her daughter Jane Ginsburg. Justice Neil Gorsuch is heading to Padua, Italy, where he and his former law clerk Jamil Jaffer will teach two courses in national-security law for the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, the Associated Press reports. [caption id="attachment_272197" align="aligncenter" width="540"] Mark Janus seated between Illinois Governor Rauner, left, and Liberty Justice Center's John Tillman, waiting for opinion in Janus v. AFSCME[/caption]

By on Jun 26, 2018 at 4:47 pm
Heading upstairs to the courtroom this morning, we overhear a court employee telling some members of the public who will make it inside, “Welcome to today’s non-argument session.” Although the court officially refers to opinion days such as today as “non-argument sessions,” that description will be tested today by justices offering arguments and opinions on both sides of two key cases. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. [caption id="attachment_272079" align="aligncenter" width="540"] Next to last non-argument session, with opinions in NIFLA v. Becerra and Trump v. Hawaii[/caption]

By on Jun 25, 2018 at 3:23 pm
Today is the last day scheduled on the court’s calendar for the justices to take the bench. But most observers are not expecting the court to issue all six remaining merits opinions. For one thing, although it was once routine for the justices to release as many as six opinions on a single day, the court generally sticks to fewer than that these days. For another, Chief Justice John Roberts this past Friday did not give the customary indication that today would be the last one and “at that time we will announce all remaining opinions ready during this term of the court.” (I mistakenly suggested in Friday’s “view” that it was Marshal Pamela Talkin who makes that statement, but as some astute readers reminded me, it is the chief justice.) [caption id="attachment_271963" align="aligncenter" width="540"] Chief Justice Roberts stops Marshal Pamela Talkin from gaveling out the Court "prematurely" (Art Lien)[/caption]

By on Jun 22, 2018 at 2:47 pm
It’s a rainy day in Washington, and some people entering the courtroom have wet shoulders. This opinion day was added only yesterday, and the public gallery is not completely full. The bar section is even emptier than it was yesterday, with a few regulars in attendance again because they are awaiting one decision or another. Solicitor General Noel Francisco leads the contingent from his office, joined by his deputies Edwin Kneedler and Malcolm Stewart, as well as a handful of others. In the VIP box, Jane Roberts, the wife of Chief Justice John Roberts, is here today. Across the courtroom, in the press seating, this leads to speculation that a decision could be coming from the chief justice in Carpenter v. United States, about warrantless police searches of cell-site location information. The chief justice is the only member of the court who hasn’t written a majority opinion out of the December sitting. Reporters’ guesses are usually correct, as long as one ignores all the times that our speculation misses the mark. [caption id="attachment_271849" align="aligncenter" width="540"] The bench as Chief Justice Roberts announces opinion in Carpenter v. United States (Art Lien)[/caption]

By on Jun 21, 2018 at 6:20 pm
Welcome back, guest user! It’s the first day of summer, and here at Viewfromthecourtroom.com, we are having a season-ending closeout sale, today featuring items from our April catalogue. It is another extra opinion day as the court winds down. In the sparsely populated bar section, Jordan Lorence of Alliance Defending Freedom takes a seat, likely hoping for a decision in National Institute of Family Life Advocates v. Becerra. Arthur Spitzer, the head of the District of Columbia office of the American Civil Liberties Union, is shown to a seat near Lorence, and the two great each other amicably, even if their organizations are often at odds.

By on Jun 21, 2018 at 4:15 pm
Justice Anthony Kennedy had essentially invited a test case to overrule Quill Corp. v. North Dakota and its physical-nexus rule for the states being able to require out-of-state retailers to collect sales tax. So it was not a huge surprise that Kennedy had the opinion for the court today in South Dakota v. Wayfair. Except, of course, that the oral argument in the case in April had left many observers wondering whether the court could get to a majority willing to overrule the 1992 Quill decision and its 1967 predecessor, National Bellas Hess Inc. v. Illinois Department of Revenue. In an unusual voting lineup, the court did reach such a majority, and Kennedy announced that the physical-presence rule was unsound and incorrect, and that Quill and Bellas Hess were overruled. [caption id="attachment_271758" align="aligncenter" width="540"] Justice Kennedy with opinion in South Dakota v. Wayfair (Art Lien)[/caption]

By on Jun 18, 2018 at 3:19 pm
Extreme heat has descended on Washington, and outside the Supreme Court building there is a long line of tourists and others seeking seats to the courtroom, or perhaps just entry into the building and its hearty air conditioning. Earlier this morning, a friend spotted Justice Neil Gorsuch arriving for work and being let out of an SUV in the company of a small dog. The justice and the dog got out in front of the Library of Congress’ Jefferson Building on First Street Northeast, evidently to allow for a short “constitutional” walk to the court building. [caption id="attachment_271420" align="aligncenter" width="540"] Chief Justice Roberts announces opinions in two partisan-gerrymandering cases (Art Lien)[/caption]