Monday round-up
on Dec 24, 2018 at 7:00 am
Amy Howe reports for this blog, in a post that first appeared at Howe on the Court, that on Saturday “the Supreme Court was asked to step into a clash over a grand jury subpoena that is widely believed to be related to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into interference in the 2016 election,” when, “[i]n a filing made under seal, an unnamed corporation … apparently asked the justices to block the subpoena after the lower courts refused to do so”; on Sunday Chief Justice John Roberts put a temporary hold on the district court’s order, giving the government until December 31 to respond. Additional coverage comes from Katelyn Polantz at CNN, who reports that “[t]his is the first known legal challenge apparently related to Mueller’s investigation to make its way to the Supreme Court.” At Law.com, Tony Mauro observes that if the case reaches the Supreme Court on the merits, past history suggests that the justices are not likely to “clear their court chamber like the D.C. Circuit did, and leave the public and press outside, scratching their heads.”
On Friday, the Supreme Court denied the federal government’s request to allow the Trump administration to enforce a ban on asylum for migrants crossing into the United States illegally across the southern border, pending appeal of a lower-court order blocking the ban. Amy Howe has this blog’s coverage, which first appeared at Howe on the Court. At Fox News, Bill Mears and Judson Berger report that “Chief Justice John Roberts provided the critical vote against the administration Friday, siding with the four liberal justices.” Greg Stohr reports at Bloomberg that “[a]lthough the legal fight isn’t over, the high court rebuff of Trump’s request to block the order suggests skepticism about the administration’s legal case.”
Amy Howe reports for this blog, in a post that first appeared at Howe on the Court, that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had surgery on Friday to remove two cancerous growths from her left lung. At NPR, Nina Totenberg reports that “[s]hort of complications in recovery, doctors say prospects look good for a full recovery for Ginsburg, 85,” who “hopes to be back on the court for the start of the next argument session in early January.” Additional coverage comes from Alex Pappas at Fox News.
Briefly:
- For The New York Times, Adam Liptak writes that “[l]eading the court through an ideological minefield at a time of intense political partisanship will tax the leadership of Chief Justice Roberts, who has earned the respect if not affection of his colleagues during his time as the court’s leader,” noting that even if Roberts “wants to avoid major controversies for now, his more conservative colleagues may not let him.”
- In an op-ed at The Hill, Rachel VanLandingham urges the justices to review Larrabee v. United States, “a military retiree’s pending court-martial appeal,” arguing that “[i]f and when a military retiree engages in criminal conduct, the state or U.S. attorney should appropriately prosecute him or her, not the military through a court-martial primarily designed for swift imposition of punishment for offenses harmful to the services.”
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