Supreme Court Begins Hard Work of Deciding Cases
The easy part of the U.S. Supreme Court’s work is finished for the term – the oral arguments – and the hard part – deciding 26 cases – will probably be done sometime in June.
The court was able to dodge the technology of the second half of the 20th century, regular television, and the tool of the 21st century that everyone else who wears shoes has been accustomed to in the last two months, life by Zoom.
We use this video conferencing for church services, visiting with the grandkids, holding a book club, and no one has complained about someone spoiling the session by grandstanding.
Grandstanding is a major concern of the justices, when, in reality, the greatest grandstander of them all, Justice Antonin Scalia, has gone on to his otherworldly reward.
The telephonic arguments worked out just fine. Many people who had never been to the court or even heard the delayed exchanges between the court and counsel got to hear live, gaffes and all, history in the making.
What was even more remarkable was the unsinkable Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg from her hospital bed, just as sharp as ever.
It was exciting to listen to the consolidated Trump financial records cases – whether his accountants and banks had to honor subpoenas from Congress and a Manhattan prosecutor – because a Creighton grad argued on behalf of the president.
Pat Strawbridge, class of 2004 and a former clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas, did exactly what an advocate is supposed to do: he made a strong argument for his client (even if it’s my personal wish that he loses). Strawbridge graduated summa cum laude from Creighton Law and was the first ever Creighton alum to clerk for the Supreme Court.
The court has yet to decide the Trump cases, a major church-state case, the “faithless electors” litigation, June Medical Services (the big abortion case) and about 20 others.
But this year there’s no rush to the airport for those justices taking on summer gigs in Europe as professors in residence, unless they could get a safe spot in a socially distanced cocoon toward the back of Air Force One – if Mr. Trump should decide to pick another squabble in person with President Macron.
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