Tag Archives: Supreme Court

CNN reports: The Supreme Court on Friday struck down a federal ban on bump stocks approved by former President Donald Trump, the high court’s latest stroke limiting the power of federal agencies to act on their own. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the opinion for a 6-3 court. The court’s liberal wing, led by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, dissented. Trump had pushed …

Samuel Alito’s archenemy ProPublica reports: Billionaire political donor Harlan Crow provided at least three previously undisclosed private jet trips to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in recent years, an investigation by Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats has found. The flights, which were detailed by Crow’s lawyer in response to inquiries from the committee, took the justice to destinations including the region …

The Washington Post reports: The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a California lawyer’s free-speech claim that he may trademark the double-entendre phrase “Trump Too Small” for use on T-shirts criticizing former president Donald Trump. The Biden administration asked the justices to uphold the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s decision to deny the trademark application from attorney Steve Elster because federal …

NBC News reports: The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a challenge to the abortion pill mifepristone, meaning the commonly used drug can remain widely available. The court found unanimously that the group of anti-abortion doctors who questioned the Food and Drug Administration’s decisions making it easier to access the pill did not have legal standing to sue. As a result, …

The Business Insider reports: The man who was raised by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, Ginni, as their own son from ages 6 to 19 is in jail awaiting trial on drugs and weapons charges, Business Insider has learned. Mark Martin, the grandson of Thomas’ sister, Emma Mae Martin, lived with the Thomas family in Virginia from …

Rolling Stone reports: In a new recording, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito lashes out at the news organization ProPublica, describing the news organization’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Supreme Court as driven by political animus, insisting: “They don’t like our decisions.” Asked to elaborate, Alito got specific. “ProPublica,” he said. “ProPublica gets a lot of money, and they have spent …

NBC News reports: Sen. Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, plans to block an effort by Senate Democrats to unanimously pass a Supreme Court ethics bill Wednesday on the Senate floor. “I will object,” Graham, R-S.C., told NBC News. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who chairs the Judiciary Committee, said earlier Tuesday that he would make …

Rolling Stone reports: Martha-Ann Alito, wife of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, is incensed about seeing rainbow Pride flags during Pride Month, according to a new recording obtained by Rolling Stone. If it were up to her, she would be flying a Sacred Heart of Jesus flag in response. Or she might design her own flag, one sporting the Italian …

Rolling Stone reports: Justice Samuel Alito spoke candidly about the ideological battle between the left and the right — discussing the difficulty of living “peacefully” with ideological opponents in the face of “fundamental” differences that “can’t be compromised.” He endorsed what his interlocutor described as a necessary fight to “return our country to a place of godliness.” And Alito offered …

The New York Times reports: Justice Clarence Thomas acknowledged on Friday additional luxury travel he had accepted from a conservative billionaire, amending a previous financial disclosure to reflect trips he had taken to an Indonesian island and a secretive all-male club in the Northern California redwoods. The trips, taken in 2019, were earlier revealed by ProPublica, but it is the …

CNBC reports: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas accepted millions of dollars’ worth of gifts over the past two decades on the bench, a total nearly 10 times the value of all gifts received by his fellow justices during the same time, according to a new analysis. Thomas received 103 gifts with a total value of more than $2.4 million between …

The Daily Beast reports: The former neighbor of Samuel Alito and his wife, Martha-Ann, told CNN in her first television interview Wednesday that the Supreme Court justice’s account of a dispute between her and his wife didn’t add up—and that he was “at best mistaken, but at worst he’s just outright lying.” On OutFront, Emily Baden said that a verbal …

Reuters reports: The U.S. Supreme Court gave a boost on Thursday to the National Rifle Association in its free speech dispute with a New York state official it accused of coercing banks and insurers to avoid doing business with the influential gun rights advocacy group. The justices, in a 9-0 decision authored by liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, threw out a …

CBS News reports: Justice Samuel Alito is flatly rejecting calls to recuse himself in two cases before the Supreme Court involving Donald Trump because of two flags that flew outside his homes. In letters Wednesday to House and Senate Democrats, Alito said he had nothing to do with the flying of the flags, and that nothing about the incidents merited …

Rolling Stone reports: Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s husband is currently representing Fox Corporation, the parent company of Fox News, in a defamation lawsuit, according to court records reviewed by Rolling Stone. The lawsuit relates to reports by one of Fox’s local stations. Jesse Barrett is a trial lawyer and managing partner at SouthBank Legal. He heads the firm’s …

The Washington Post reports: The police in Fairfax County, Va., received an unusual phone call on Feb. 15, 2021. A young couple claimed they were being harassed by the wife of a Supreme Court justice. The couple placed the call after a series of encounters with Martha-Ann Alito, wife of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., that had gone from uneasy …

The Washington Post reports: The wife of Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. told a Washington Post reporter in January 2021 that an upside-down American flag recently flown on their flagpole was “an international signal of distress” and indicated that it had been raised in response to a neighborhood dispute. Martha-Ann Alito made the comments when the reporter went …

Axios reports: Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) requested a meeting with U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts “imploring” him to ensure Justice Samuel Alito recuses himself from Jan. 6-related cases, Durbin’s office announced on Friday. Alito is facing growing calls from Democratic lawmakers to recuse himself from cases related to the 2020 election and the Capitol insurrection after …

Slate reports: The Supreme Court, he argued, should overrule every precedent that limits gerrymandering—including the landmark cases establishing “one person, one vote”—because it has no constitutional power to redraw maps in the first place. And he places much of the blame for the court’s allegedly illegitimate intrusion into redistricting on a surprising culprit: Brown v. Board of Education. Brown was, …

“This incident is yet another example of apparent ethical misconduct by a sitting justice, and it adds to the court’s ongoing ethical crisis. For the good of our country and the court, Justice Alito must recuse himself immediately from cases related to the 2020 election and the January 6th insurrection. And the chief justice must see how this is damaging …