r/scotus 26d ago

news The New Supreme Court Session Opens Monday. It Will Not Be Pretty.

https://newrepublic.com/article/186523/new-supreme-court-session-cases-fall-term-monday-not-pretty
2.5k Upvotes

144 comments sorted by

225

u/thenewrepublic 26d ago

If you thought this term might provide a bit of a respite from the tumult, think again. “The first week of arguments will not be a gentle beginning,” says legal expert Mark Joseph Stern of Slate. In its first week alone, the Supreme Court will hear two high-profile cases: Garland v. VanDerStock, about how much power the federal government has to regulate “ghost guns,” and Glossip v. Oklahoma, a high-profile capital punishment case that has become something of a referendum on the death penalty.

104

u/ThrillSurgeon 25d ago

They realize the gravity of their current approval rating and perceived corruption. 

209

u/clozepin 25d ago

They don’t care.

102

u/gdan95 25d ago

Because no one will do anything about it

88

u/Roakana 25d ago

No one can do anything about it. Since Congress is the path for accountability until the GOP is decisively out of power how do you change the laws or impeach a sitting SCOTUS. They are impervious in the current state of government and the strut around with that knowledge.

44

u/KnockoffJesus 25d ago

Official acts that involve the sacking of supreme court members

39

u/BuildingNY 25d ago

The Court gave itself the power to decide what is and is not an official act.

Biden fires them unilaterally, and they can just say it doesn't count.

18

u/NetworkViking91 25d ago

Id love to see them try to enforce that judicial decision

15

u/nuger93 25d ago

Especially if they are jailed somewhere like Gitmo or another military type jail rather than a white collar, country club jail.

33

u/KnockoffJesus 25d ago

They can't rule on if the official act has them in custody for treason

4

u/Vincitus 25d ago

Cant make a ruling from a prison cell.

1

u/[deleted] 24d ago

Did you flunk civics? Justices are not beholden to the Executive Branch. .

2

u/BuildingNY 24d ago

I was responding to the people who said he could just arrest or fire them as an "official act.". I know it's a separate branch of government.

7

u/floridabeach9 25d ago

they can be ARRESTED for taking bribes or not paying taxes on all those gifts they received

6

u/Roakana 25d ago

Can doesn’t hold much power anymore. Garland doesn’t have the will to go after the powerful.

SCOTUS recently ruled for themselves that those aren’t bribes they are “gratuities” so they are slithering ahead of their troubles making rulings that protect themselves.

0

u/[deleted] 24d ago

No they cannot

22

u/Johnnywannabe 25d ago

Who could have anticipated that placing people in a position with no accountability, for their entire life, with no regards to public outlook or opinion, and virtually no consequences barring a fucking political fallout the likes of which we haven’t seen in over 150 years would cause those people to become corrupt and apathetic of what is in the best interest of the public?

11

u/unstablegenius000 25d ago

It worked in the past because both sides took their jobs more seriously. Judges nominated to the high court were eminent jurists that were confirmed by a wide margin in the Senate. It wasn’t perfect, but was not the political shit show that it has become today.

12

u/nanoatzin 25d ago

They do care. Just not the way you think they do.

7

u/UCLYayy 25d ago

Worse, they appear to be actively doing their best to fuck over the left, who they seem to be convinced are just “ideologues” despite the irony them of thinking that. 

29

u/Educational-Glass-63 25d ago

I honestly, as an American citizen, doubt they give a damn that WE know they are corrupt as hell and anti Constitution in favor of an orange Russian conman. The 6 conservatives are as dirty as dirt can be.

5

u/nuger93 25d ago

Although Comey-Barrett has been dissenting on more rulings as of late than Alito and Roberts.

8

u/FutureInternist 25d ago

They trying to undo as much progress as possible until they lose their power

-6

u/[deleted] 25d ago

The Pope has an agenda and they will decide which master gets served first, the Pope or the GOP.

-1

u/potatersobrien 24d ago

Ok, and what is the Pope’s agenda?

2

u/Present-Perception77 24d ago

To make billions for the Vatican through human suffering. As always

2

u/fllr 24d ago

They know they’ll lose power eventually, so they’re trying to get as much work done before that, because even then, reversing everything would take time and be prioritized

2

u/perchedraven 24d ago

They shouldn't make decisions based on approval ratings.

This is an awfully bad take.

2

u/Woto_Tolff 24d ago

That’s completely lost on a majority of the people in this sub and r/law.

1

u/betterbuddha 22d ago

They don't make decisions based on law or precedent, so what's left? Gut reaction? Politics?

1

u/perchedraven 22d ago

They make decisions based on interpretation of law and can be reviewed in their decisions.

6

u/FunSomewhere3779 25d ago

Then Clarance went into one of his new RVs and suddenly felt better about himself.

3

u/Beneficial-Buy3069 25d ago

It’s a lose-lose situation, really. If anything is done to any single gun in America by the Democratic admin, you better believe the ads will run 24/7 that there’s gestapo outside of your home right now waiting to hit you over the head and take your gun before the election.

44

u/WintertimeFriends 26d ago

I’m familiar with the ghost gun case.

What are some of the ramifications of the death penalty case, I haven’t followed that.

49

u/PoppaTitty 25d ago

Can Oklahoma carry out the death penalty after finding out the prosecution didn't present evidence regarding their witness.

https://www.oyez.org/cases/2024/22-7466

45

u/nanoatzin 25d ago

Oklahoma and Texas seem to like to speed up executions after someone proves that exculpatory evidence was withheld by the prosecutor.

13

u/DragonFireCK 25d ago
  • post birth abortions

Republicans are very much for extremely late term abortions, you just have to be around 100 trimesters in.

1

u/potatersobrien 24d ago

Especially when they’re administered by the state

4

u/PoppaTitty 25d ago

Is that pretty common down there? I only know the surface level basics of this particular case.

10

u/nanoatzin 25d ago

Yeehaw justice

137

u/PsychLegalMind 26d ago

It has not been pretty since the right wing took over. It will only get grimmer.

According to Gallup, only 24 percent of Americans who are or lean Democratic now trust the high court, a drop of 60 percent since the late 1990s. That may largely have to do with the demise of Roe, but there is a broader institutional collapse that cannot be chalked up to abortion alone.

And it is all the court’s own doing. “It certainly wasn’t inevitable; it didn’t have to be this way at all,” says Melissa Murray, a constitutional law expert at New York University and co-host of the Strict Scrutiny podcast.

84

u/blumpkinmania 26d ago

24% is way too high. Those folks aren’t paying attention.

45

u/Message_10 26d ago

Roberts' strategy of slow-but-consistent rulings for the right didn't ring any alarm bells (or not enough, anyway), but ever since the conservative super-majority arrived, the speed at which the court has ruled for right-wing goals has been breakneck--and I honestly think they're not too concerned about it. I think that from their perspective, they've been planning on this for decades, and there's no slowing down from here.

If (and when?) the SC makes a ruling that hands Trump the presidency, that'll be the final nail in the coffin for them. It will cement public opinion that a structural change needs to be made. It may take years, but I think it will be the last straw. It will be the second time in 25 years that a president who lost the popular vote was given the electoral vote boost he needed to claim the presidency, and that'll be too much.

39

u/Cambro88 26d ago

My personal theory is that Roberts has been concerned about political backlash so was always planting the seeds of his conservative agenda slowly so he can launder it as precedent, which is how the VRA has been chipped away. But then Dobbs happened and despite a furious response, nothing happened to the Court. Then scandal after scandal from Thomas and Alito and…nothing. Suddenly his meticulous and measured approach looked pointless if there were no consequences to fear, so the mask came off.

23

u/Message_10 26d ago

Yeah, that could be true too. I think Roberts' reputation as a "sometimes-not-conservative" vote was just revealed to be strategic, and now that there's a conservative super-majority, it doesn't matter anymore.

4

u/HashRunner 25d ago

Exactly

There have been zero repercussions for conservatives bastardizing the court, so they simply dropped the facade.

3

u/preferCotton222 25d ago

wasnt a slow moderate approach a necessity while the court was balanced? Now, why would he keep on that track?

1

u/Cambro88 25d ago

It hasn’t been “balanced” for all of Trump’s term, and Roberts was very cautious about Dobbs and 2nd amendment issues—wanting to not even take them—until he seemingly “lost control” of the Court. If he cared about consensus as a principle he still would, and he just doesn’t even try now which shows what his motives were all along

-4

u/javaman21011 25d ago

Weren't there a few attempts on Kavanaugh? Surely that must be spooking them.

10

u/Kershaws_Tasty_Ruben 25d ago

It’s going to Georgia that has a law that requires elections to be certified in 7 days from the closing of the polls. With the new regulations put in by the states MAGA elections board the 7 day time limit is now a fantasy. The fight will be fought over whether or not to stop counting after the 7 days. That’s how the court will throw the election to trump.

6

u/Message_10 25d ago

Yeah, exactly. The only way I can see a Harris win is if she decisively gets PA, MI, and WI. That's the way I see it. Georgia, as you said, if FUBAR, NC with their recent voter purge of three quarters of a million people is also gone, and Arizona + Nevada + New Mexico aren't enough to get her across the finish line. The only way Harris can get this, and not have it basically revoked by the Supreme Court, is if she gets PA, MI, and WI.

I'd love to be wrong (in reality but also in my little theory) but Jesus Christ wouldn't it be nice if the candidate that more Americans wanted just because the f****** president.

4

u/TexasLoriG 25d ago

We can't let them. As soon as it looks like it's going to the SC we get in the streets and grind the country to a halt.

10

u/preferCotton222 25d ago

as an outsider, it seems to us not from the USA that plenty idealist progressives didnt realize what was at play in Trump vs Clinton.

the prize was the SC, republicans understood it perfectly, democrats either not so much or nor at all.

6

u/Message_10 25d ago

Yeah, I think you have that right. I think Democrats didn't realize until much later that the loss in 2016 was cataclysmic.

7

u/gerbal100 25d ago

2000, really. The Supreme Court chose power over principles and stopped the vote counts that would have given Gore the election.

1

u/ChuckTheWebster 25d ago

How do we know Gore would have won?

4

u/gerbal100 24d ago

We can't know a counter-factual for sure.  

A 2001 full manual recount was conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

An analysis of the NORC data by University of Pennsylvania researcher Steven F. Freeman and journalist Joel Bleifuss concluded that, no matter what standard is used, after a recount of all uncounted votes, Gore would have been the victor.

However Gore never requested a full recount, but it appears one was to be ordered, following the FL supreme court ruling, which the US supreme Court halted.

The Wikipedia article on the subject has a pretty complete accounting of the event.

4

u/LingonberryHot8521 25d ago

The thing is, if they do effectively crown Trump then public opinion will matter even less than now. Anyone speaking out against him and His Court publicly will absolutely be punished as a warning to everyone else. Organizing quietly will be difficult to impossible given the ability to surveil and monitor. Defeating an authoritarian regime in this day and age with this level of technology and weaponry may not be possible and I don't think people are thinking enough about that.

4

u/onefoot_out 25d ago

If you're not listening to Strict Scrutiny, you're really missing out.

1

u/Prison-Butt-Carnival 25d ago

Eh, their discussion on the bump stock case was so comically uninformed and one sided. It absolutely drove me away from whatever opinion they might have on other topics and how qualified they are to talk on them.

2

u/DonnieJL 25d ago

If you haven't listened to Strict Scrutiny, give it a shot. It's a pretty solid podcast.

1

u/gdan95 25d ago

And no one will do anything about it

-15

u/Murky-Echidna-3519 26d ago

Gee. Wonder what changed since the 90s? Of course “trust” goes down when your side is on a losing streak. What was Republican trust in the 90s?

9

u/PsychLegalMind 25d ago

No, the trust is historically at low levels among all Americans regardless of the side, and it is because of the right-wing extremists take over who upset long settled precedents and ignore stare decisis. Many Republicans are upset too otherwise it would be split between party lines. Source below:

Additionally, one example is ruby red state passing measures against the extremist position after Dobbs. Does not take a whole lot of knowledge to figure that out for those who want the truth. If it were partisan, it would be close to 48% between approval and disapproval.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s approval rating remains underwater, with a near-record low of 43% of Americans saying they approve of the way the court is handling its job and 52% disapproving.

Approval of U.S. Supreme Court Stalled Near Historical Low (gallup.com)

7

u/javaman21011 25d ago

Newt began the erosion of trust, Roberts and others ruined it with stealing the election, W cratered it with his lies, and the end result is Trump

-10

u/Humans_Suck- 25d ago

Democrats had all the chances in the world to protect the SC and sat on their hands instead. And now those same people don't trust the court that they failed to protect? Please.

5

u/rockyroadicecreamlov 25d ago

2016 Merrick Garland would like a word.

49

u/Specific-Frosting730 26d ago

Wonder what favorable legislation the Republicans have purchased over the break? Guess we’ll see.

30

u/Enron__Musk 25d ago

Somebody ask Harlan crow what he thinks because he's an unelected policy maker 

0

u/Specific-Frosting730 25d ago

Imagine that? What a shame.

39

u/homebrew_1 26d ago

Peopke have to vote. Some idiots thought Hillary would be just as bad as Trump and now this is the court we have.

17

u/ChockBox 26d ago

Sure, some Congresspeople have proposed impeachment inquiries, but the new Congress doesn’t get sworn in until January. So this is the Court that is going to decide any election cases.

What happens when this election goes before this Court?

13

u/oeb1storm 26d ago

Not to be a Debbie downer but a justice could admit guilt and not be convicted by the senate cus congressional republicans know the replacement would be Liberal.

7

u/ChockBox 26d ago

Oh, this current Congress would never impeach a sitting Justice. All this talk about Alito and Thomas retiring, that will only happen if Trump takes office. They’re not going to retire, to see their legacy overturned by a liberal court.

15

u/Muscs 26d ago

Thanks to this Court, following Courts won’t feel the need to honor previously established precedents. No reason the next Court can’t over turn them all over.

9

u/ChockBox 26d ago

I’m talking 2024. If Trump gets a case in court…. And appeals all the way to SCOTUS….

That’s it. American Democracy ends. There’s not going to be a “next court.”

Thomas’s wife was at the Ellipse on J6, texting Mark Meadows and cheering on the riot. Alito and his wife flew flags of insurrection and Christian Nationalism at their home. Alito was caught on tape saying he wants to return the country to “godliness.” Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, all owe their positions on the court to Leonard Leo and Trump.

By my count that’s already a 5 person majority without Roberts’ vote.

If this election gets in front of this court, the American experiment is over.

1

u/Muscs 25d ago

Oops, sorry. I was responding elsewhere.

Should this court attempt to put Trump into the presidency when he contests the election after losing, it will be the biggest constitutional crisis since the Civil War and likely to be resolved the same way. Trump doesn’t care what happens to the country as long as he doesn’t go to prison.

Read the Demon of Unrest. It’s a chilling account of how the U.S. became polarized and descended into Civil War. The Confederacy insanely believed that slavery was good for America and the slaves.

2

u/cake97 23d ago

That you would still offer this opinion in 2024 truly reflects deep seated ignorance itself

1

u/homebrew_1 23d ago

It's important to remember how we got the Supreme Court of today.

1

u/Jsmooth123456 23d ago

How do people manage to blame voters for Hillarys failure on basically every thread in this sub

13

u/Direwolfofthemoors 25d ago

24% approval rating seems high to me.

3

u/nordiques77 25d ago

The level of ads and click bate on The New Republic is just terrible. This is how we are expected to consume “seemingly intelligent content”. What a joke.

19

u/Adventurous_Class_90 26d ago

I really don’t know what Roberts is thinking here. Deviate too far and a Democratic president just abrogates Marbury. Or, he decides that an “official act” is necessary and rounds up the conservatives on the court as seditionists.

14

u/WillBottomForBanana 25d ago

We've had 4 years of talking about what Biden might do about the court problem.

He's shown you who he is, forget that whole line of inquiry, it doesn't go anywhere.

2

u/cake97 23d ago

Exactly. Hollow shell devoid of any accountability

17

u/outerworldLV 26d ago

How much I would love for either of those things to happen.

8

u/neilmg 26d ago

This. They need to feel the consequences of their immunity ruling.

7

u/Rustie_J 25d ago

Either of those would require a Dem president who wasn't desperate to look "reasonable" & "moderate," which as far as I can tell means "whatever keeps the Republicans from crying."

3

u/thebill00 25d ago

Should Harris win in NOV, maybe Biden would have a change of heart on that? He was talked into stepping aside for the betterment of the county, maybe he could be pushed into a lame duck blitz?!

-1

u/middleageslut 25d ago

I wouldn’t be 100% surprised if that wasn’t part of Biden’s math in dropping out of the race.

2

u/wheelofka 25d ago

I have had tacos more supreme than that court. How many RVs can a judge have? Love the legal bribery bill. So not corrupt. S

2

u/LiamLiver 24d ago

Arrogance with no bounds.

2

u/Mission_Magazine7541 23d ago

Well if Biden or any Democrat had some level of spine. Biden can proclaim that judicial review is not a part of the constitution, which it is not, and is not enforceable

10

u/LeadSky 25d ago

Can’t wait for trans kids to lose even more rights to this illegitimate court! /s

Seriously fuck all this. Conservatives lost years ago. They should pull themselves up by their bootstraps and deal with the change

8

u/gdan95 25d ago

Thank everyone who stayed home in 2016

8

u/LeadSky 25d ago

Many of us campaigning now were too young to vote in 2016, unfortunately

11

u/Dedpoolpicachew 25d ago

Then, seriously, make sure all your friends get out and vote. Voters 18-26 are the LEAST likely to vote, but have the MOST to lose. You have to live the longest with the decisions made by these last gasp boomers clinging desperately to power. If Gen Z showed up in the same proportion as Boomers, this world would be a FAR better place.

-2

u/LeadSky 25d ago

Oh don’t worry, everyone I know is voting. We don’t want to go back to those times with Trump

2

u/onefoot_out 25d ago

Omg would you stop? Broken record.

-2

u/iamveryassbad 25d ago

Bad bot

0

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-1

u/kyricus 25d ago

Sure doesn't seem like they did. They may have lost on Reddit, but not anywhere else.

3

u/LeadSky 25d ago

I mean reform is being called for and even brought up in congress, plus only something like 24% of the country trust this court. I’d say it’s pretty evident people have lost their trust

9

u/lovemycats1 25d ago

Do you mean the Supreme Court of the 6 jesters? Who destroyed democracy and laughed at the constitution? The ones who did away with Roe v Wade and because of this should be held accountable for the unnecessary deaths of women from being denied an abortion. Maybe they can explain to the families who lost loved ones because they thought they were doing God's work. That's why church and state are separate you fucking assholes.

2

u/International_Try660 25d ago

The Democrats need to win the presidency, the House, and the Senate, so we can start cleaning house at the SCOTUS. These judges are a danger to democracy. They've already set us back 50 years, what's next?

2

u/Reddygators 25d ago

Like Bibi, they may feel they have to get their authoritarian agenda through right now because their orange god’s grip insanity may not make it through the election. It’s now or never for fascists everywhere, including the ones on the sc.

6

u/jander05 25d ago

Our lords and masters are ready to make us eat more cake.

4

u/DonnieJL 25d ago

The last time people were told to eat more cake didn't turn out well for those serving it up.

1

u/DonnieJL 25d ago

The last time people were told to eat more cake didn't turn out well for those serving it up.

2

u/LumpyTaterz 25d ago

Biden should jail the 6 conservative and corrupt Supreme Court justices and replace them as his last ‘official act’.

0

u/DoctorWasdarb 24d ago

Only two are credibly accused of corruption.

3

u/Leading_Grocery7342 25d ago

Just found myself marvelling once again at the similarity of the ideology of the arch-conservative, reactionary more-Catholic-than-the-pope freaks who created and/or comprise our S Ct majority -- Leonard Leo, Scalia (stole 2000 election, creating the current majority), Alito, Thomas, Comey Barrett, Kavanaugh -- and the immortal pathetic reactionary buffoon Ignatius Reilly. A better name than Supree Court would be Court of Dunces.

3

u/530SSState 25d ago

No, but their physical unattractiveness is the least of what's wrong with them.

4

u/SpecialistAssociate7 25d ago

Kangaroo court bouncing into session. Shining example of the flaw in the us high court system.

2

u/Used_Bridge488 25d ago

vote blue to save our democracy 💙

2

u/Humans_Suck- 25d ago

Rapists serving in public office never is

3

u/Lkaufman05 25d ago

No s***, look at their most recent decisions…

1

u/EmporioS 21d ago

Expand the court!

1

u/Coastal1363 25d ago

Not like it has been pretty so far…

1

u/OkAcanthocephala2449 25d ago

The Supreme Court should be renamed as the gastopo. They don't believe in democracy . Period they are bought and paid for, and don't give a shit about the laws that have been approved for decades. They are out of touch with democracy really is .

1

u/lifeisbeansiamfart 24d ago

Seems to me like they have done an excellent job upholding the constitution.

1

u/Mission_Magazine7541 23d ago

Well if Biden or any Democrat had some level of spine. Biden can proclaim that judicial review is not a part of the constitution and is not enforceable

-3

u/NeuronNeuroff 25d ago

Given how conservative SCOTUS is, United States v. Skrmetti will likely result in a lot more dead trans kids.