Scribble

Editor's Note :

Scribble

Government returns to Supreme Court on military transgender ban – Amy Howe

Symposium: Crosses and constitutional clarity – Lindsay See

Symposium: Cross purposes -- Why a Christian symbol can’t memorialize all war dead – Richard B. Katskee

Live blog of confirmation hearing | September 27, 2018

Live blog of confirmation hearing | September 27, 2018

We live-blogged as the Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony from Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.

We live-blogged as the Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony from Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.

Dec. 2018

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Conference of December 7, 2018

Orders

DAWSON V. STEAGER (17-419)

LORENZO V. SEC (17-1077)

BIESTEK V. BERRYHILL (17-1184)

HELSINN HEALTHCARE V. TEVA PHARMACEUTICALS (17-1229)

Supreme Court building closed for National Day of Mourning for George H.W. Bush

GAMBLE V. UNITED STATES (17-646)

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Holiday

3rd & 7 37yd

Kavanaugh: Calendars do show some weekday gatherings, but none with the people Ford identified.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:37:56 PM
Kavanaugh: Calendars obviously not dispositive on their own, but they are another piece of evidence for you to consider.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:38:44 PM
Dr. Ford's allegation is radically inconsistent with his character, both then and now.

by Edith Roberts 9/27/2018 7:39:16 PM
Kavanaugh: The allegation is not consistent with my reputation and behavior my whole life. I had lots of friends who were women. I talked almost every night on the phone with friends.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:39:57 PM
Kavanaugh: Several of those great women are in the seats behind me today.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:40:13 PM
Kavanaugh: I liked beer. But I did not drink to the point of blacking out and I never sexually assaulted anyone.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:40:47 PM
Kavanaugh: If every American who drank beer in high school is presumed guilty of sexual assault, we will be in an ugly new place in this country.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:41:19 PM
As high school students, we sometimes did stupid or goofy things. For one thing, our yearbook was a disaster.

by Edith Roberts 9/27/2018 7:41:44 PM
Kavanaugh: Our yearbook was a disaster. Many of us went along to the point of absurdity. This past week, my friends and I have cringed when we read about it and talked to each other.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:42:10 PM
Kavanaugh: One of our good friends got her name used with the phrase "Alumnus," she was one of us but in the media circus it has been related to sex.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:43:20 PM
Kavanaugh: This may sound trivial [tearing up], I want to make clear for the future: she was and is a great person.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:43:48 PM
Kavanaugh: As for sex, this is not a topic I imagined would come up at a confirmation hearing. I did not have intercourse in high school or for many years after. I was shy about this but also inwardly proud of it.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:44:25 PM
Kavanaugh: Letter signed by 65 female friends, came together in one night. They knew they would be vilified if they defended me. They put themselves on the line for me.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:45:27 PM
Kavanaugh going through support he has received from women friends of his in this process.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:46:40 PM
Kavanaugh: I thank all my friends. I love all my friends.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:47:22 PM
Kavanaugh: For judges, training law clerks is an important responsibility. Clerks will become next generation of American lawyers and leaders. After I took the mention, news story about low numbers of female clerks, so I took action -- the majority of my law clerks have been women.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:50:02 PM
Kavanaugh: In my time on bench, no judge has sent more women clerks to the Supreme Court than I have.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:50:35 PM
Kavanaugh: Thanks to what some of you on this committee have unleashed, I may never be able to teach again.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:52:22 PM
Kavanaugh: You saw my athletes, you have a letter from their parents. I coach because I know a girl's confidence in basketball translates to other aspects of life. Thanks to what's been unleashed, I may never be able to coach again.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:52:59 PM
Kavanaugh: I've been a judge for 12 years. I have a long record of service to the Constitution. I am grateful to President Trump for nominating me. I thank him for his steadfast support.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:53:35 PM
Kavanaugh: Ashley and I knew this process would be challenging. We never expected it would devolve into this. Explaining this to our daughters has been difficult. Ashley has been a rock.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:54:12 PM
Kavanaugh: Due process means taking allegations seriously. But if a mere allegation is enough to destroy a person's life and career, we will have abandoned principles of due process and fairness.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:54:44 PM
Is this the standard you would want applied to your father, husband, brother, son?

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:55:04 PM
Kavanaugh: I swear under oath that I am innocent of this charge.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:55:27 PM
Grassley is explaining that the process will be the same as before. Mitchell now up.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:55:59 PM
Mitchell: Have you been copy of questions I'll be asking? [No]

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:57:04 PM
Mitchell: Review definition before you of sexual behavior.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:57:19 PM
Kavanaugh appears to still have his Sharpie.

by Mark Walsh 9/27/2018 7:57:31 PM
Kavanaugh reading.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:57:38 PM
Mitchell: Two parts, among examples are rubbing or grinding genitals against somebody, whether or not sexually motivated. Do you understand? [I do]

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:58:19 PM
Mitchell: Ford stated 5-6 people present at the gathering -- you, Mark Judge, Leland, PJ, Dr. Ford, and an unnamed boy. Do you know Mark Judge? How? [Friend at Prep starting in 9th grade.]

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:59:00 PM
Kavanaugh speaking about Judge. I haven't spoken to him in a couple years.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 7:59:53 PM
Mitchell: How did you know PJ? [Also ninth grade. We lived close to one another.]

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 8:00:12 PM
Kavanaugh: He lives in the area. I see him once in a while. Not since "this thing."

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 8:00:51 PM
Kavanaugh: I know of Leland. I don't want to rule out having crossed paths with her.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 8:01:13 PM
Feinstein, D-Calif.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 8:01:23 PM
Feinstein: You deny all three allegations? [Correct]

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 8:01:36 PM
Feinstein: All three women have wanted the FBI to investigate. Why aren't you asking the FBI to investigate?

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 8:01:55 PM
Kavanaugh: I'll do anything the committee wants. I wanted a hearing the day after the allegation came out. Instead it's been 10 days and all this nonsense comes out. I wanted a hearing the next day.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 8:02:29 PM
Kavanaugh: Whatever the committee decides, I'm all in immediately.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 8:02:45 PM
Feinstein: We're not in a position to prove or disprove. It would seem to me that when allegations came forward, you would want FBI to investigate and clear up.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 8:03:12 PM
Kavanaugh: I'm here.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 8:03:21 PM
Kavanaugh: It's an outrage that I wasn't allowed to come in and clear my name immediately.

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 8:03:50 PM
Feinstein: These hearings are set by the majority. I'm talking about getting the evidence and having the evidence looked at. We hear from the witnesses but the FBI isn't interviewing them. [You're interviewing me.]

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 8:04:38 PM
Feinstein: You're saying the allegations are wrong. [That is emphatically what I'm saying.]

by Andrew Hamm 9/27/2018 8:05:05 PM

Featured Posts

Government returns to Supreme Court on military transgender ban – Amy Howe

Symposium: Crosses and constitutional clarity – Lindsay See

Symposium: Cross purposes -- Why a Christian symbol can’t memorialize all war dead – Richard B. Katskee
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This Week at the Court
The Supreme Court released orders from the December 7 conference on Monday; the justices added Kisor v. Wilkie to their merits docket for this term. The justices also released their decision in United States v. Stitt on Monday.
The justices will meet next for their January 4 conference. The calendar for the January sitting, which will begin on January 7, is available on the Supreme Court's website.
Recent Decisions
- United States v. Stitt The term "burglary" in the Armed Career Criminal Act includes burglary of a structure or vehicle that has been adapted or is customarily used for overnight accommodation.
- Weyerhaeuser Company v. United States Fish and Wildlife Service An area is eligible for designation as “critical habitat” under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 only if it is habitat for the listed species; and the decision by the secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior not to exclude an area from critical habitat under 16 U. S. C. §1533(b)(2) is subject to judicial review.
- Mount Lemmon Fire District v. Guido State and local governments are covered employers under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 regardless of the number of employees they have.
see all this term’s cases »
Current Relists
- City of Escondido, California v. Emmons (1) Whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit erred in denying the officers qualified immunity by considering clearly established law at too high a level of generality rather than giving particularized consideration to the facts and circumstances of this case; (2) whether the lower court erred in denying the officers qualified immunity by relying on a single decision, published after the event in question, to support its conclusion that qualified immunity is not available; and (3) whether the lower court erred in failing or refusing to decide whether the subject arrest was without probable cause or subject to qualified immunity.
- Hester v. United States Whether the rule of Apprendi v. New Jersey–which held that any fact, other than a prior conviction, that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury and proven beyond a reasonable doubt–should apply to the imposition of criminal restitution.
- Kennedy v. Bremerton School District Whether public school teachers and coaches retain any First Amendment rights when at work and “in the general presence of” students.
More Petitions »
Major Cases
- Kisor v. Wilkie
  Whether the Supreme Court should overrule Auer v. Robbins and Bowles v. Seminole Rock & Sand Co., which direct courts to defer to an agency’s reasonable interpretation of its own ambiguous regulation.
- In re Department of Commerce
  Whether, in an action seeking to set aside agency action under the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 701 et seq., a district court may order discovery outside the administrative record to probe the mental processes of the agency decisionmaker—including by compelling the testimony of high-ranking Executive Branch officials—when there is no evidence that the decisionmaker disbelieved the objective reasons in the administrative record, irreversibly prejudged the issue, or acted on a legally forbidden basis.
- The American Legion v. American Humanist Association
  (1) Whether a 93-year-old memorial to the fallen of World War I is unconstitutional merely because it is shaped like a cross; (2) whether the constitutionality of a passive display incorporating religious symbolism should be assessed under the tests articulated in Lemon v. Kurtzman, Van Orden v. Perry, Town of Greece v. Galloway or some other test; and (3) whether, if the test from Lemon v. Kurtzman applies, the expenditure of funds for the routine upkeep and maintenance of a cross-shaped war memorial, without more, amounts to an excessive entanglement with religion in violation of the First Amendment.
- Gamble v. United States
  Whether the Supreme Court should overrule the “separate sovereigns” exception to the double jeopardy clause.
- Timbs v. Indiana
  Whether the Eighth Amendment’s excessive fines clause is incorporated against the states under the Fourteenth Amendment.
- Apple Inc. v. Pepper
  Whether consumers may sue anyone who delivers goods to them for antitrust damages, even when they seek damages based on prices set by third parties who would be the immediate victims of the alleged offense.
see all this term’s cases »
Recent Special Features
Statistical Snapshot

Cases argued 32

Cases decided 3

Summary reversals 0

Merits cases granted to date 57

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Justice Sotomayor at Harvard

On November 13, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit and Judge Susan Carney of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit presided over the final round of the 2018 Ames Moot Court Competition at Harvard Law School.

Peabody Award
Awarded the Peabody Award for excellence in electronic media.
Sigma Delta Chi
Awarded the Sigma Delta Chi deadline reporting award for online coverage of the Affordable Care Act decision.
National Press Club Award
Awarded the National Press Club's Breaking News Award for coverage of the Affordable Care Act decision.
Silver Gavel Award
Awarded the Silver Gavel Award by the American Bar Association for fostering the American public’s understanding of the law and the legal system.
American Gavel Award
Awarded the American Gavel Award for Distinguished Reporting About the Judiciary to recognize the highest standards of reporting about courts and the justice system.
Webby Award
Awarded the Webby Award for excellence on the internet.

3
Orders
DAWSON V. STEAGER (17-419)
LORENZO V. SEC (17-1077)

4
BIESTEK V. BERRYHILL (17-1184)
HELSINN HEALTHCARE V. TEVA PHARMACEUTICALS (17-1229)

5
Supreme Court building closed for National Day of Mourning for George H.W. Bush

6
GAMBLE V. UNITED STATES (17-646)

7
Conference

10
Orders
Opinions

Cases argued	32
Cases decided	3
Summary reversals	0
Merits cases granted to date	57