Order Watch
The application for stay presented to The Chief Justice and by him referred to the Court is denied.
The final scheduled summer order list is coming up and there are five executions later this month. Meanwhile, other SCOTUS actions.
The first miscellaneous order concerns an attempt to delay prison time, appealing to a 1/6 related case. The crime:
Applicant, a former assistant inspector general and contracting official in the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), was convicted of violating 18 U.S.C. 1001 and 1519 by, among other things, omitting from his annual financial disclosure forms $80,000 in loans that he had received.
No dice and no comment. Of more note:
The Supreme Court has rejected Oklahoma's attempt to claw back millions in Title X family planning funds that it lost because it refused to comply with program rules requiring clinics to offer information about abortion to patients who request it.
Oklahoma sued the administration in 2023 after it lost roughly $4.5 million in annual Title X funds for refusing to comply with the abortion counseling and referral requirements. The lower court rejected the claim. Litigation continues, underlining abortion lawsuits will not end after Dobbs.
The Biden Administration offered to let them merely offer patients a national hotline number to obtain information about making an abortion appointment out of state. The state said "Nope."
The Biden administration redistributed the funding that had been going to Oklahoma’s health department to two independent providers who have agreed to abide by the abortion referral requirements.
This time, though there were no explanations, Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch publicly dissented.
Books
Someone recommended a 1960s book entitled A Supreme Court Justice Is Appointed, which discusses Justice Pierce Butler. Justice Butler is the least talked about of the four conservatives nicknamed the Four Horsemen (of the Apocalypse) during the New Deal.
(Here's a law article on Butler that argues he is worthy of somewhat more attention.)
They had liberal moments, including Justice McReynolds writing Meyer v. Nebraska and some well-known civil liberty rulings of George Sutherland. Pierce Butler dissented in the Olmstead (wiretapping) and Buck v. Bell (eugenics) cases too. Van Devanter wrote the least though he was around the longest. His forte was more behind the scenes.
The book is a mostly engaging discussion of the ins and outs of Butler's appointment. The last quarter of the book had some chapters that were written in academic-ese. Academics should be able to discuss such matters without causing eyes to glaze over.
Meanwhile, Justice Jackson's autobiography (she has a co-author, who she thanks but does not get a co-writing credit) is out. I have it on reserve.
She is doing interviews, including noting that she is okay with a binding ethics rule for SCOTUS. She was on Colbert* as was her old boss (Justice Breyer) earlier to promote his latest book (rather dull). Years back, in a rather nifty seven or so minutes, Justice John Paul Stevens was a guest on the Colbert Report.
In one interview, she was interviewed with her husband, who noted he always knew that she would be on the Supreme Court. He got a bit teary. Definite "awww" moment.
Sotomayor has multiple books. She now has a musical, which is based on one of her books for children. The musical has adults portraying children, discussing growing up with different disabilities.
Did any talk about watching Sotomayor on Sesame Street? Barrett and Kavanaugh's books are pending.
==
* Airing tonight.
ETA: Colbert referenced early that a justice will not discuss certain matters. It would have been helpful for Jackson to briefly explain why.
Jackson briefly explained her dissent in the Trump immunity case. She has decided this would be one of the things she could talk about.
Colbert noted the practice of dissenting from the bench. Jackson explained it was a way to express your strong feelings about a case.
She dissented from the bench twice this term, including in the Idaho abortion case. She said (or claimed) she didn't remember the exact cases. I have my doubts that she truly forgot them.
