The Supreme Court ruled that states can penalize faithless electors, the members of the Electoral College who do not support the winner of their state’s popular vote in a presidential election.
The decision was unanimous.
Axios: “The 2016 presidential election saw 10 electors vote for someone other than their state’s chosen candidate — highlighting how faithless electors could have the potential to swing an election.”
“The Supreme Court is taking an unusually long time to complete its term this year, with decisions in eight cases still under wraps days after the justices would have typically cleared out its docket for the season,” CNN reports.
“The Supreme Court on Thursday dealt a significant blow to House Democrats’ efforts to have access to secret grand jury material from Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, saying it would decide next term whether Congress is authorized to see the material,” the Washington Post reports.
“The decision to hear the case next fall means the House Judiciary Committee cannot have access to the material before the election.”
“It is unlikely there could be a Supreme Court decision even before the end of the current congressional term in January.”
“As the Supreme Court hands his administration successive defeats at the same time his political standing craters, President Trump has begun to raise both publicly and privately the potential boon another nomination to the panel this year might provide,” CNN reports.
Ron Brownstein notes that despite assurances from Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) that he views abortion rights as “settled law,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh voted to severely restrict abortion access in Louisiana in the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this morning.
The Supreme Court struck down abortion restrictions in Louisiana in a 5-4 vote, “a sign that even if the court’s newly expanded conservative majority wants to chip away at abortion rights, it will likely do so incrementally,” Axios reports.
Chief Justice John Roberts said “respect for precedent compelled him to vote with the majority,” the New York Times reports.
“The case was the court’s first on abortion since President Trump’s appointments of two justices shifted the court to the right.”
“The Supreme Court will not take up a challenge to new federal death penalty protocols proposed by the Justice Department, which wants to resume executions as early as July for the first time since 2003,” the Washington Post reports.
“The court, without comment, declined Monday to take up the lawsuit filed by four death row inmates. As is customary, it gave no reason. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor said they would have accepted the case.”
“A divided Senate on Wednesday confirmed President Trump’s 200th judicial nominee, a milestone that reflects the breakneck speed at which he and fellow Republicans have moved to create a legacy that will endure regardless of the outcome of this year’s elections,” the Washington Post reports.
The Supreme Court will decide as soon as this week whether Trump’s accountants must turn his financial records and tax returns over to House Democrats and New York prosecutors investigating hush money payments, CNN reports.
NBC News: “Justin Walker epitomizes the conservative judicial project. He became a federal judge at 37 with no trial experience and sterling right-wing credentials. Eight months later, he has been promoted to the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, a frequent feeder to the Supreme Court.”
“Walker’s confirmation Thursday by a Senate vote of 51 to 42 puts President Donald Trump one shy of his 200th judicial confirmation, which is teed up for next week. It’s a number not achieved by any president at this stage in four decades.”
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“Do you get the impression that the Supreme Court doesn’t like me?”
— President Trump, on Twitter.
President Trump condemned “these horrible and politically charged” decisions from the Supreme Court as “shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives.”
He added: “We need more Justices or we will lose our 2nd Amendment and everything else. Vote Trump 2020!”
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) is coming under fire for her 2018 vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, after Kavanaugh dissented in Monday’s landmark ruling affirming that federal anti-discrimination laws protect gay and transgender employees, the Washington Post reports.
“The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that existing federal law forbids job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or transgender status, a major victory for advocates of gay rights and for the nascent transgender rights movement — and a surprising one from an increasingly conservative court,” NBC News reports.
“The decision said Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which makes it illegal for employers to discriminate because of a person’s sex, among other factors, also covers sexual orientation. It upheld rulings from lower courts that said sexual orientation discrimination was a form of sex discrimination.”
New York Times: “The vote was 6 to 3, with Justice Neil Gorsuch writing the majority opinion. He was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.”
“The Supreme Court wasted little time Monday making clear its reluctance to wade back into the national battle over gun rights,” USA Today reports.
“After refusing to rule on a challenge to New York City gun restrictions because they were rescinded while the case was pending, the court turned away all potential replacements that would have given its conservative justices a chance to strengthen the Second Amendment.”
Washington Post: “The court did not accept a batch of nearly a dozen cases that gun groups had hoped the court, fortified with more conservative members, might consider. Among them were cases involving restrictions in Maryland and New Jersey to permits for carrying a handgun outside the home.”
A federal appeals court in D.C. appears hesitant to order Judge Emmit Sullivan to dismiss the case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn, the Washington Post reports.
A former federal judge appointed to review the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss criminal charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn has found that the government’s request should be denied because there is “clear evidence of a gross abuse of prosecutorial power,” the AP reports.
Wrote ex-Judge John Gleeson: “There is ample evidence in the record that Flynn committed perjury in these proceedings, which would support the issuance of an Order to Show Cause to commence such a prosecution.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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