SCOTUS Watch: Summer Order Day

For your planning purposes, summer order lists are scheduled to be issued on July 24, August 21, and September 8, 2023. Summer order lists usually consist of actions taken by the Court on motions in pending cases, petitions for rehearing, and other miscellaneous matters. Emergency orders, such as in applications for stays, will continue to be released as required.

The summer is moving along. We have our first order list, which generally was going to be nothingburgers as a whole given past experience.

The little over one-page order fulfilled expectations. A "Third Interim Report of the Special Master" is addressed and we get a reference to "sur-replies."  Some rehearings (of lower court cases) are denied.  I am not aware of any granted though I guess a few were over the years.  And, one attorney discipline matter is addressed.  Someone chose to resign. 

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I referenced the Senate Judiciary Committee vote by party-line vote to move along a Supreme Court ethics bill.  It is on some level absurd that no Republican in the committee voted for the bill.  

The bill is a mild one which if anything will help protect the reputation of a majority that leans the Republicans' way.  It is in their practical self-interest even if they think it is also a type of criticism of the people their ideological and financial backers deem heroes.  

(One asinine vote that should get attention was a Tom Cotton amendment that was rejected on a pure party-line vote that would require those with SCOTUS press passes to promise not to leak internal deliberations. A rank violation of freedom of the press among other things.) 

This is not to say the ethics bill is of little value.  The bill not only is of some use on its merits but also sends a general message. Obviously, the bill is partially a dig on the current Supreme Court.  But, it also applies to everyone, and Republicans can cite (if often not too convincing whataboutisms) liberal justices doing something wrong.  Republicans too can get some cred without really giving much up at all.  

As noted here, the Supreme Court is a bit full of themselves about how special they are.  This is not a one-sided thing.  Justice Breyer, for instance, wrote a little book (more of a speech) while he refused to retire in 2021 about how criticism of the Supreme Court would threaten its ability to do its job.  He did not want the Court to be tainted by partisan politics. 

(I will leave it to Prof. Leah Litman -- who is writing a book on the Supreme Court -- to respond though I myself did as well.)  

I think we can go too far in treating judges as mere politicians in robes. Judges are (and do) act in "judge-y" ways in certain respects, including even when being blatantly ideological.  Still, judges serve for "good behavior," something that seems to be blatantly ignored. People seem to think the Constitution says "for life."  Legislators and executive officials do not have a similar constitutional expressed responsibility.  

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I noted on Friday that there are executions scheduled in August. The opinion page also appears to show that a few more opinions have been translated into preliminary official reports form.  And, various cases are being addressed behind the scenes.  The justices are in recess, but as we say with the execution out of Alabama, they are not totally on break.