SCOTUS Watch: Almost October Edition

Update: Stolen Seat Gorsuch, as noted below, took part in some public event remotely in honor of Constitution Day and honored RBG, who received some honor, but did not personally show up. So, it sounded like things were the same, as she fought cancer (again).

It has now been announced she died. Moscow Mitch via his Calvinball rules says Trump's replacement for her will get a vote. We shall see. Dems need to stand up. It takes a bit of time, maybe over a month really, for the normal process of confirmation to occur. Either way, Dems have to draw a line -- no confirmation before the new presidential term or expansion of the Supreme Court. RBG bet on HRC or outliving Trump. Thought she'd do it.

I guess, noting her great contributions, it reminds us she still with but one person. Some will do a "told ya so" regarding their belief she was selfish for not resigning during the Obama Administration. If that makes you feel better. Anyway, her legacy, contra one comment, cannot simply be voided now. Too much has happened in the last forty plus years. Let's hope the current society she helped form will help address this.

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I noted recently that this month had a few more non-presidential primaries. One more notable election: it looks like we will have the first trans state senator.

September 17th was Constitution Day, in honor of the day the Constitution was agreed upon at the Constitution Convention. Breyer and Stolen Seat Gorsuch (one person noted on Twitter he now has a beard; another Ted Cruz?) had appearances per SCOTUSBlog.

Breyer left the law students with a piece of advice: Participate in civic life. While waving his pocket Constitution on the screen, he smiled and said, “The people who wrote this thought, if you do not participate, this won’t work.”

Yes. The current participation moment, of which I'm taking part as a census enumerator, is filling out and helping ("proxies" give information for neighbors) with the completion of the census. We also are working toward the November elections. A range of things are involved there. Plus, there are other aspects of civic life. The effects of a single person there can be hard to quantify (see the duty to vote book) but it adds up as a whole. I'm concerned like Breyer with educating and furthering civic enagement.

Not sure when it occurred, but at some point in the last few weeks the Supreme Court updated its website to provide links to webpages that are cited in opinions. They post downloads of the pages to avoid dead links. They also announced, at least for the October sitting, that they will continue telephonic arguments. These arguments were appreciated by many people as promoting openness. On that front, I think more use of the page to post speeches and appearances (such as the Breyer one) would be ideal. Opinion announcements. And, perhaps recognition by Roberts during the argument that something different is going on.

Such things, including personal involvement by state supreme court judges, are seen in courts below. So, doubting this idea that protests (they don't need to release the video live; can edit) and security issues cited by Breyer. Not that this level of thing is necessary, but four women state judges (maybe inspired by Strict Scrutiny Podcast!) actually started a podcast to talk about state courts. Posting a video on the Supreme Court website introduced by a justice wouldn't be a bad idea though; not sure why they can't post a basic "intro" type video there. Like the one they play for tourists.

We are getting closer to the October 2020 term. They will soon have a long conference or whatever to catch up with all the petitions and stuff. The term is actually about two weeks away. Not sure how much time that is in Big V time.