The AP (no, really, the AP) has this story posted.
I’m not surprised that the leftwing justices are coming under the same “ethical” scrutiny as the majority justices, but I wonder why a main stream media outlet is involved.
Hmmmm.
Karine Jean-Pierre was unavailable for comment.
15 Democrat Senators have signed a letter to the Appropriations Committee asking that the funding for security for members of the Supreme Court and their families be cut off until the Court does what those senators want them to do—accept a “code of ethics” being bandied about by the Left.
Meanwhile, there has been an assassination attempt on one justice and credible threats against others. The school that one justice’s children attend has been doxed. Demonstrations continue outside justices’ residences, and the Biden Administration has placed limits on the U. S. Marshals Service ability to enforce the law against demonstrations aimed at affecting a judge’s discharge of his duties.
UPDATE—It’s always nice to make Twitchy.
Since 2018, Brett Kimberlin has been attacking his conviction in the Speedway Bombing cases. First, he failed in the U. S. District Court in Indianapolis. Then, he failed in Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Now, he has asked the Supreme Court to consider his appeal, and the paperwork surrounding his petition for a writ of certiorari has been distributed to the justices for their conference on the 6th.
Tick, tock.
The most significant news about Brett Kimberlin in 2022 was the failures of his appeals in the Seventh Circuit of his attempts to attack his Speedway Bomber convictions.He’s now asking the Supreme Court to review one of the cases.
Kimberlin’s petition for a writ of certiorari, the government’s opposition, Kimberlin’s response, and an amicus brief supporting Kimberlin have been circulated to the justices for their conference next Friday.
Stay tuned.
Ian Millhiser has an article over at Vox suggesting that Justices Sotamayor and Kagan should retire while there is still time for Joe Biden to appoint youthful successors who can be confirmed by a Senate still under Democrat control.
If Sotomayor and Kagan do not retire within the next two years, in other words, they could doom the entire country to live under a 7–2 or even an 8–1 Court controlled by an increasingly radicalized Republican Party’s appointees.
He writes that as if it would be a bad thing for the country to have judges who follow the Constitution.
OK, I suppose that is a problem for Progressives who for most of the last century have used the courts to impose social policy that could not get enough votes in Congress or state legislature. Winning court cases based on emanations of penumbras was usually easier than convincing legislators and the public to amend the Constitution. A court that sticks to the written rules is just too much of a burden on their “democracy” to be tolerated by right thinking people.
In spite of his screw ups in the 2022 election cycle, we owe a debt of gratitude to Cocaine Mitch for his work getting good judges confirmed.
Brett Kimberlin has filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court seeking review of the Seventh Circuit’s denial of his motion to have his Speedway Bombing convictions set aside. The government filed its opposition to the petition earlier this month, and Kimberlin’s reply brief was filed yesterday.
I note that the counsel of record shown is no longer Neal Katyal, a partner at Hogan Lovells, but Jo-Ann Sagar, a senior associate with the firm.
Stay tuned.
The government has filed its reply with the Supreme Court to Brett Kimberlin’s petition for a writ of certiorari. Kimberlin is seeking to have his Speedway Bombing convictions overturned via a writ of coram nobis. The government has asked the Supreme Court not waste everyone’s time hearing Kimberlin’s appeal.
Here’s the TL/DR:
Given the weakness of petitioner’s substantive claims and his lack of any justification for the delay in raising them, this case would be a poor vehicle to review the bounds of coram nobis relief. Even if petitioner could establish that a vacatur of only some of his convictions could satisfy the collateral consequences requirement, he still would not be entitled to the relief he seeks.
There are 83 entries in the Related Proceedings section, and that reminds me of this quote from Kimberlin himself—
I have filed over a hundred lawsuits and another one will be no sweat for me. On the other hand, it will cost you a lot of time and money.
The government’s reply to Brett Kimberlin’s petition to the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari in his appeal trying to set aside some of this Speedway Bombing convictions is due on the 10th.
Stay tuned.
We’ve been following the progress of Brett Kimberlin’s attempt to have some of his Speedway Bombing convictions set aside. His latest effort failed in the U.S. District Court in Indianapolis and the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Last month, he filed a petition for a Writ of Certiorari with the Supreme Court, and the government’s response was due on 6 September. The government asked for an extension of time to respond until 11 October, and the Court granted that request yesterday.
Stay tuned
Back in 2016, Brett Kimberlin tried to sue Mitch McConnell and Chuck Grassley to force the nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court through the Senate. The District Court dismissed the suit sua sponte (on its own motion) because Kimberlin lacked standing to bring thee case. The Dread Deadbeat Pro-Se Kimberlin appealed to the Fourth Circuit. Six years ago today, the TKPOTD contained a court paper Kimberlin filed as part of that appeal.
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I almost posted this one as an I’m Not Making This Up, You Know—
Self-important twit.
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One of Kimberlin’s specious claims for standing in that case was that one of his lawfare cases might wind up being appealed to the Supreme Court and that he had a right for a full count of nine justices to hear his appeal. Neither the District Court nor the Court of Appeals agreed.
He now claims to have a lawyer who is working on a petition for a writ of certiorari for the Seventh Circuit’s denial of an appeal related to the Speedway Bombing. While Merrick Garland didn’t make it to the Court, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett did, so if certiorari is granted, a full court will consider the case.
Given the Dobbs, Bruen, and West Virginia v. EPA decisions and orders in multiple cases such as Box v. Planned Parenthood and Bianchi v. Frosh, the Supreme Court appears to have decided that government by experts, including “expert” judges, must yield to democratic processes spelled out in the Constitution and that those experts should keep their noses out of the people’s personal business the Constitution shields from government intrusion.
I’ve heard it said that Conan best summarized the results thus far—
To crush your enemies. See them driven before you. And to hear the lamentations of their women—
although the Barbarian probably wasn’t a biologist.
This is from today’s Order List of the Supreme Court—
Bianchi v. Frosh is the challenge to Maryland’s “assault weapons” ban.
The Court also granted certiorari petitions on the New Jersey and California standard capacity magazine ban cases, vacated the lower courts’ judgments, and sent the cases back to the Third and Ninth Circuits, and the Court granted the certiorari petition the challenge to Hawaii’s carry permit system, vacated the Ninth Circuit’s judgment, returned that case to the circuit court.
Things are proceeding more quickly than I had foreseen.
We know of no other constitutional right that an individual may exercise only after demonstrating to government officers some special need. That is not how the First Amendment works when it comes to unpopular speech or the free exercise of religion. It is not how the Sixth Amendment works when it comes to a defendant’s right to confront the witnesses against him. And it is not how the Second Amendment works when it comes to public carry for selfdefense.
—NY State Rifle & Pistol Asso. v. Bruen, 20-843, Slip Op., 62, 63 (S. Ct.).
It appears that the would be assassin of a Supreme Court justice bought his Glock in California. It that be true, then it came with limited-capacity 10-round magazines—<sarc>making it so much less dangerous.</sarc>
Brett Kimberlin has carried through on his statement that he would appeal his recent loss in the Seventh Circuit to the Supreme Court. His counsel has asked for an extension of time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari, and that request has been granted.
Here the application that was filed—
Stay tuned.
I’ve skimmed the document which Politico alleges to be a draft decision by Justice Alito striking down Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. It seems to me the gist of his argument is that the Supreme Court exceeded its authority by inventing a right that had no foundation in either the Constitution or American common law or our civil traditions. Therefore, regulation of abortion is a matter for each state.
I’m not surprised by that reasoning. I hope the Court’s final ruling goes that way.
This leads me wonder what the reasoning in the pending New York State Rifle & Pistol Association case will be. That case deals with a state’s regulation of a right explicitly protected in the Bill of Rights, a right the Court has previously ruled is bound on the states via the Fourteenth Amendment. Will the justices find some new extra-Constitutional doctrine that will allow states to continue to suppress an enumerated right? Or will they tell the states that Second Amendment is fully applicable nationwide?
The TKPOTD for six years ago today dealt with my ability to foreseen upcoming events.
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OK. Some of the Gentle Readers are wondering, “Did Hoge really foresee that LOLsuit The Dread Pro-Se Kimberlin filed against Senators McConnell and Grassley?” The truthful answer is yes and no. Yes, I foresaw that Kimberlin was likely to do something amazingly bold but mind-bogglingly stupid. No, I didn’t foresee Congress as his target. OTOH, he’s sued Senator Orin Hatch several years ago and Madeleine Albright when she was Secretary of State, so I’m not surprised by the grandiosity of his really futile and stupid gesture.
Some days, all one has to do is sit back, watch, and wait for the mistake to be made.
* * * * *
Some days, things proceed better than I have foreseen.
Thurgood Marshall was unavailable for comment.
I listened to the oral argument in the OSHA mandate cases today. I’m in a bit of a quandary about how to comment. (Before I go any further, let me remind the Gentle Reader that I am not a lawyer; I’m an engineer, and I’m not your engineer.) As multiple commentators have pointed out, Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan made several factual statement that were simply wrong. It is possible for vaccinated individuals to catch and spread covid. There aren’t now—nor has there be across the entire pandemic—100,000 acute pediatric cases. The omicron variant is not deadlier than the delta.
I suppose it is possible that being kept in a bubble by handler/clerks could explain a certain level of ignorance, but when the cat’s so far out of the bag even outlets such as NPR are having to begin truthful reporting, it’s hared to imagine those justice really believe what they were saying.
If they do believe what they said, that’s kinda scary.
If they don’t believe it and said it anyway, that’s even scarier.
UPDATE—Typo corrected.
Maryland has a patently unconstitutional ban of certain firearms. A panel of the Fourth Circuit struck down the Maryland ban, but a en banc decision reversed the panel, so the law is still on the books.
A petition for a writ of certiorari has been filed with the Supreme Court.
Bench slaps are fairly rare in Supreme Court decisions, and it’s almost unheard of for one to be directed at a fellow justice. Justice Gorsuch wrote this in the majority opinion in Whole Women’s Health v. Texas.
He was joined by Justices Kavanaugh, Barrett, and (for this part of the opinion) Thomas.
Monday was a bit of a rocky start with the Supreme Court hearing oral arguments about challenges to the Texas law that allows citizens to bring lawsuits against persons who perform abortions. Based on the justices’ questions, the case isn’t a slam dunk for either side. A win for the Left isn’t a gimme.
Tuesday was election day. The Democrats lost bigly in Virginia, and were reduced to referring to the first black woman to win state-wide office as a “white supremacist.” They lost a special election in Texas in a heavily Latino legislative district. Most stunning, they barely able to keep the vote within the margin of theft in New Jersey.
Wednesday, oral arguments in the challenge to the New York handgun permitting system were heard by the Supreme Court. Most commentators are projecting a 6 to 3 decision vindicating the petitioners’ Second Amendment rights. (I’m betting on 5 to 4.)
Thursday, the first actual arrest was made in the Russia Collusion Hoax case. The supporting indictment filed by Special Prosecutor John Durham paints a picture of collusion by the Clinton campaign with Russians.
Friday, was the day that Nancy Pelosi was going give Joe Xiden a win by passing his more-than-a-trillion dollar “infrastructure” bill. She failed to do so, and also failed to move the legislation for the Build Back Better scam either.
And that’s just some of what went right this week.
UPDATE—Well, well, well … Mrs. Pelosi did move some legislation. She did get the Senate’s version of the infrastructure bill through 228 to 206 (7 not voting). 13 Republicans voted for the bill: Katko, Bacon, Van Drew, Young, Upton, Kinzinger, Gonzalez, Fitzpatrick, Reed, Gabarino, Malliotakis, McKinley, and Smith of New Jersey. Pelosi couldn’t have pulled this off without that Republican support. It will be interesting to see how many of these congresscritters are reelected.
During the oral argument in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen this morning, Chief Justice Roberts asked the Solicitor General of New York, “Well how many muggings take place in the forest?”
He asked the question as part of an exchange with the Solicitor General in which she was trying to justify the suppression of Second Amendment rights in populated areas.
Oral argument is scheduled in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen at 10 am this morning. The case is a challenge to New York’s may-issue gun permitting scheme.
The court’s live audio feed is here.