Current mood this week provided by Atlanta Journal-Constitution cartoonist Mike Luckovich:
Supreme Court decisions coming down this morning at ten as well. Still seven major decisions left for the term by Amy Howe at SCOTUSBlog’s count, including rulings on the Fair Housing Act, death penalty injection drugs, the costs of EPA power plant restrictions, “three strikes” rules for felony convictions and the constitutionality of state redistricting commissions, and of course Obamacare subsidies in federal exchange states and marriage equality. Decision days today, tomorrow, and Monday should give us rulings on all seven cases.
Open thread.
satby
The waiting is almost over, but watch them release the decision on Obamacare subsidies on the last day just to torture everyone longer.
Germy Shoemangler
John Cole for president.
Anne Laurie VP.
Zandar Supreme Court Nominee
Betty Cracker Attorney General.
Richard Mayhew Healthcare Czar.
Valdivia
@satby: I am sure it will on the last day too. Though a bunch of those decisions–like fair housing & EPA–are pretty important too. I think marriage equality will be tomorrow.
Baud
@Valdivia:
Why?
debbie
@Valdivia:
I wonder how many of those decisions will be weasely?
Valdivia
@Baud: I read somewhere this week–I can’t recall right now–that tomorrow marks some anniversary that would make announcing the gay marriage decision on that day significant. The defeat of DOMA anniversary was on the 24th so I have no idea what it could be.
I think ACA will be on the last day because it’s the biggest one and it was argued late in the calendar.
@debbie: Yes me too. EPA and Fair Housing are big ones. The EPA one could really throw a wrench in Obama’s plans to deal with climate change on his own.
Baud
@Valdivia:
I’d be surprised if both weren’t on the last day. But the last day could be Friday if the justices are antsy for their summer vacation.
aangus
@Germy Shoemangler:
Doug J for Press Secretary.
Valdivia
@Baud: Yes I was sure they would both be on the same day too, but when they added Friday earlier in the week I wondered. I confess I am nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof waiting for these to come down.
Baud
@Valdivia:
I think they added Friday so they can end before the weekend and not have to come back on Monday.
TS
@Valdivia:
I also think it will be last – but not because it was argued late in the calendar – it was argued in February – there are cases remaining from March, April & one from January – as per Zandar’s link
JPL
If Scalia votes against ACA, I want to see his reasoning. It’s easy to say, he’s just a political tool of the right wing, but he’s going to have to justify his vote.
Valdivia
@TS: I thought it was argued in March as part of the February sitting. But I may be totally misremembering. I agree though, last day.
wuzzat
Back when Newt Gingrich represented the far right face of the GOP and Rush Limbaugh was considered a big fat punchline by everyone but the nuts on the fringe, there were at least as many racist fuckheads as today. They were quieter, because they didn’t have the mainstream support that today’s batch does, and flapping their gums outside of their well-defined racist conclaves was a prime path to public shaming/shunning. I’m kind of hoping this furor over the traitor flag is a pendulum swing in the right direction and that the public at large is ready to start telling these people to shut up and fuck off.
rikyrah
I know……I dread the decisions.
Betty Cracker
@Germy Shoemangler: That’s flattering, but I’m completely unqualified. I’d prefer an ambassadorship at Monaco or Liechtenstein. Or perhaps somewhere warmer where there’s very little chance of trouble breaking out, if such a place exists. Sadly, trouble always seems to break out in the warmer regions.
gene108
@aangus:
Nah…give hime a new job….Troll Czar…
Cervantes
@Betty Cracker:
Florida, for example!
JPL
My guess is the King decision comes today. Why you ask? The last time they decided that mandates could stay was on a Thursday. I’ll be away from the computer between ten and eleven, so there’s that.
bystander
@JPL: Scalia can justify his vote by acting as a tool of the right wing. That’s what they pay him to be.
President Obama’s assertion that racism hasn’t ended just because you can no longer say ni66er in public was prescient. I think it also encompasses the removal of confederate battle flags from public spaces. Skeptic me says you can count on the removal of the flags being offered as proof positive that there’s no need for an effective Voting Rights Act. completely stunned me otherwise.
raven
Don’t let it kill you baby, don’t let it get to you
Don’t let ’em kill you baby, don’t let ’em get to you
I’ll be your breathin’ heart, I’ll be your cryin’ fool
Don’t let this go too far, don’t let it get to you
gene108
@wuzzat:
I think it’s the cumulative effect of a lot of bad things happening over the last few years from Trayvon Martin to Tamir Rice to the latest church shooting; people who felt that racism was not a major factor because segregation ended and we have a black President are realizing they are wrong.
A lot of people do not intentionally want to be bigots. They may not like things that are different from their comfort zone, so they avoid foreign foods (and the foreigners who cook it) and rap music (and the blackity blacks who rap it), but they have a general sense of right and wrong and they know what’s been happening the last few years is wrong.
rikyrah
Middle-Class Black Families, in Low-Income Neighborhoods
JUNE 24, 2015
Many of the nation’s racial disparities stem from the simple economic fact that white families make more money than black families on average, a gap that has remained stubbornly large in recent decades.
Yet neither this income gap nor blatant discrimination is the only reason for the disparities. A new study, by three Stanford researchers, highlights another big cause: the neighborhood gap.
Even among white and black families with similar incomes, white families are much more likely to live in good neighborhoods — with high-quality schools, day-care options, parks, playgrounds and transportation options. The study comes to this conclusion by mining census data and uncovering a striking pattern: White (and Asian-American) middle-income families tend to live in middle-income neighborhoods. Black middle-income families tend to live in distinctly lower-income ones.
Most strikingly, the typical middle-income black family lives in a neighborhood with lower incomes than the typical low-income white family.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/25/upshot/middle-class-black-families-in-low-income-neighborhoods.html?_r=0&abt=0002&abg=1
TS
@Valdivia:
Comment from the blog suggests ACA Friday & SSM Monday – no idea if that is via evaluation or a fortune teller
raven
@TS: They don’t know anymore than you or I do.
Valdivia
@TS: SCOTUSBlog? They’re pretty reliable so if they say tomorrow it could be.
lamh36
Reposting from last night cause right just live th is gif and I’ve taken an informal polls of friends fam amd twitter folk and we all agree…
Louisiana reacts to Bobby Jindal announcement that he’s running for President
http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/583/267/e8a.gif
burnspbesq
SCOTUSblog is the place to be. Bring donuts and coffee.
burnspbesq
@Betty Cracker:
Ladies and Gentlemen, your new United States Ambassador to Costa Rica..
geg6
@Valdivia:
I read the same thing, but I think it was that Kennedy’s other big same sex decisions (well, the ones he wrote; obviously the Court makes the decision) came down on a Friday or that same date or something. Can’t remember now and can’t remember where I read it. Maybe over at Ed Kilgore’s place?
Cervantes
@wuzzat:
He was and remains a vicious, foolish person — but never “the far right face of the GOP.”
It’s certainly a step in the right direction — and I’m with you in hoping that it can be even more — but just hoping won’t make it so.
Valdivia
@burnspbesq: Do you have any guesses as to what cases will be decided when?
@burnspbesq: As a native of CR I welcome Betty as our new overlord.
@geg6: yes that was it, it had to do with Kennedy and him caring about setting up the decision on a certain date. I saw a link on twitter and then couldn’t find it.
mainmata
@Betty Cracker: How about Ambassador to one of the “good-rock-and-roll-band-name” countries like St. Vincent and the Grenadines or Turks and Caicos or St. Kitts and Nevis?
debbie
I’m reading the SCOTUS live blog while listening to Glenn Beck’s predictions of chaos following the decisions. Ah, the range that is America!
Germy Shoemangler
@Betty Cracker: Little Boots as Cultural Attaché
TS
@Valdivia:
They are the best site for SCOTUS news but I don’t think they have any more knowledge than you and I as to the order of cases.
(as noted by raven)
@raven:
http://www.scotusblog.com/
Edit: There is a procedure of sharing the opinions between the Justices so it is possible at this time to give a likely Justice – which can be a hint as to the outcome – also discussed on the blog
lamh36
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: How about Upper Volta?
Germy Shoemangler
@lamh36: He plans on skipping town after the decision? That can’t be good…
burnspbesq
@Valdivia:
One possible agenda would be to clean out the other five cases today, and then do King tomorrow and Obergefell on Monday (or vice versa). But that’s just a WAG.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: It’s the heat.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@wuzzat: I think it’s the ubiquity of cameras these days. Those dimwits were doing and saying the same crap but no one was catching it on camera. Also the rise of social networking makes it easier for them to find each other and create their own virtual bubbles of deranged thought. It’s at a fever pitch right now because one of “those people” is in the White House though – they still can’t wrap their heads around that one.
OzarkHillbilly
@Germy Shoemangler: He doesn’t want to get tarred and feathered, and run out of DC on a rail by the RWNJs.
Valdivia
@burnspbesq: I guess we’ll know soon enough. Ahh, the nerves! Better go get some coffee.
Hal
The whole no cameras rule by the SC seems to be based on the idea of avoiding sentimentalization of the court, but then they go ahead and release the most controversial/biggest deal decisions the last few days, up to the last day. Why not just get it all out of the way so people know where they stand in their lives and how their lives are going to be affected just a few weeks after some of these decisions, depending on how they rule?
debbie
From the live blog:
I have $20 that Scalia is the author of the opinion granting same sex marriage rights to all Americans. Am I going to lose my lunch money?
Amy Howe
I hope you brought a snack.
cahuenga
Sorta the way I felt about it. Everyone was busy swinging at a flag; guns and racism, not so much. But, flag achieved.
bystander
Plus, waiting until Monday to deliver Obergefell might be a concession to the losing side. Thomas and Scalia couldn’t bear watching the jubilation at the NY gay pride march on Sunday.
Or they were all afraid Sunday’s march would turn into another Stonewall. You decide.
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: That’s my reading of the tea leaves too. Let it be so!
dmsilev
@debbie: I really hope Scalia writes the dissent in that case and reads it from the bench. Sweet sweet schadenfreude.
OzarkHillbilly
@Hal: Haven’t you ever watched a movie? The climax always comes at the end.
jayjaybear
June 26, 2003, is the date that Lawrence v Texas decriminalized sodomy. June 26, 2013, is the date that US v Windsor struck down parts of DOMA and also the date that the Court dismissed the California Prop 8 case due to standing.
Betty
@Betty Cracker Barbados for your ambassadorship. Very little trouble for now at least.
Steeplejack
@Betty Cracker:
I know trouble always breaks out in my warmer regions.
JPL
Scotusblog is saying three to four opinions today and I have to leave…. ugh
Cervantes
@mainmata:
Turks and Caicos is a British possession: no ambassadors there, alas.
The others on your list share one US ambassador, currently Larry Palmer — and if I know Larry you’ll have to pry the keys to the Embassy in Bridgetown out of his cold (well, cool) dead hands!
Valdivia
@Hal: Apparently there is a reason for that. I just saw an article about it in the WaPo I think by Norm Ornstein.
@Steeplejack: Oh boy. Should we know more about that?
Valdivia
Two boxes, I guess that means two decisions.
raven
Watch for the number of boxes.
Just One More Canuck
@OzarkHillbilly: It’s not the heat, it’s the stupidity
raven
@Valdivia:”Two boxes of opinions. Means 3 or 4 opins., probably.”
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: My first laugh out loud of the day.
Elizabelle
Terrific op ed today, Beth Macy, author of Factory Man, in the NY Times
Worth the click, beyond these excerpts
Who’s Speaking Up for the American Worker?
Valdivia
@raven: Got it, last week they had 4 boxes and 4 opinions so I obviously made an erroneous leap today.
Grist for the King guessing game.
Wow, fair housing went the right way?
dogwood
May guess has always been that they would affirm gay marriage and probably gut Obamacare. Guys like Kennedy know plenty of elite gay people, and discriminating against people like the Eddie Windsors of the world is uncomfortable for them. But they don’t know anyone who doesn’t have access to health care so they don’t give a shit.
OzarkHillbilly
@Just One More Canuck: Yes but it’s the heat that releases the stupidity, like a kraken.
Steeplejack
@Valdivia:
Probably not.
OzarkHillbilly
@dogwood: I’ll bet they know a few health care execs.
burnspbesq
Big win for the good guys in the first case announced, Texas Housing. Disparate-impact claims are allowed under the Fair Housing Act.
This is actually a BFD.
dogwood
@OzarkHillbilly:
I hope you’re right.
Valdivia
So should we now be freaking out that Kennedy saved Fair Housing so he will feel free to nuke ACA? Hmmm. I don’t like playing the how will the justices balance their decisions guessing game.
FUck. Its King.
MomSense
I’m reading scotus blog through my fingers with my hands over my eyes–like I would watch a horror film.
I hate this King case.
burnspbesq
Rut-roh. Somebody pointed out that announcing Texas Housing, a Kennedy opinion, first means that only Kennedy, Scalia, and Roberts will have opinions today, because case are announced in reverse order of seniority.
Cervantes
@burnspbesq:
Yes, and a very tough fight for that last vote, I’m pretty sure.
dogwood
I haven’t read much about the Obamacare case in terms of court watchers and what they think will happen. Is it conventional wisdom that subsidies are pretty much gutted?
raven
Decision of the Fourth Circuit is affirmed in King v. Burwell. 6-3.
dmsilev
Healthcare is up. “Decision of the Fourth Circuit is affirmed in King v. Burwell. 6-3.”
burnspbesq
FOURTH CIRCUIT AFFIRMED IN KING, 6-3!
Valdivia
yay!!!!! Go ACA!
Cervantes
@MomSense:
Snuff film.
MomSense
YES!!!!!
dmsilev
And, across the land, millions of people will continue to have affordable health insurance.
Edit: “Dissent is by Scalia.” This should be fun…
geg6
A win on fair housing (allowing disparate impact consideration) today. I must say I’m shocked. I really thought that would go the other way.
ETA: Holy shit!!!!!!!! ACA for everybody!!!!!!
Scratch
Subsidies upheld in King v Burwell, 6 – 3. Three against had to be Thomas, Scalia, and Alito.
Bobby Thomson
Moops defeated!
princess leia
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Elizabelle
Here’s link to Beth Macy’s blog, Intrepid Paper Girl, about her book, “Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local — and Helped Save an American Town.”
Tom Hanks is doing an HBO project on the book.
Links to some earlier articles and essays too. Beth reported for the Roanoke Times. Here’s a great essay on “My Life and Work”, from the “Follow What Moves You” tab.
Emma
SCOTUSblog report King v. Burwell is upheld!
shortstop
YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY.
Baud
@MomSense: I’m so happy and relieved for you.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
*happy dance*
MomSense
I shouldn’t chop onions at work. I think people are staring. Fuck it. May do a happy dance just for fun.
Gin & Tonic
@Scratch: Yes.
MomSense
@Baud:
Hugs to you!!
burnspbesq
And that’s it for the day.
Josie
@MomSense: I am so relieved for you and millions of others.
Cervantes
@Scratch:
Them’s the three, yes.
The dissent, written by Scalia, is (unintentionally) hilarious.
Betty Cracker
Whew. ACA saved.
I guess I’ll have to wait until Monday to find out if FL can send my NYC-married sister and SIL to the back of the bus again.
Steeplejack
Must lodge a (minor) gripe about the SCOTUSblog live blog: it bugs me that new comments come in at the top and push everything down. It means you have to read in reverse order from the bottom up, and the paragraph you’re reading might get pushed out from under you.
It feels like it would be better to have new comments come in at the bottom. You could park yourself just as easily down there to catch new comments, and it feels more natural for older comments to get pushed up.
I think the live-blog software used on Balloon Juice a couple of times worked like that. And it had the added benefit that if you were reading older comments—that is, the “next comment” slot was not visible on the screen—your text didn’t get pushed up at all. You could read at your leisure and scroll down manually to catch up to real time.
Okay, rant over.
burnspbesq
Link to King opinion.
http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/14-114_qol1.pdf
debbie
Done!
MomSense
@Josie:
Thank you!!!
Wow what a day.
chopper
king.
CaseyL
YEE-HAWWW!!!
And huge breath of relief (not personal; I’m covered through my employer).
Oh, the opinions on that one should be a lot of fun to read. SCOTUSblog says the Court specifically refused to apply Chevron, which is also interesting.
Thank you, SCOTUS.
burnspbesq
The vote is as you would expect. Scalia dissenting joined by Thomas and Alito.
debbie
@dmsilev:
Just heard in his dissent that Scalia literally said we should call ACA “SCOTUSCare.”
Elizabelle
Fabulous! Champagne time tonight.
ACA subsidies upheld, and the flag of treason in disfavor and coming down in many places.
What a week.
RIP Clementa Pinckney and fellow Bible group members, though.
Valdivia
I can’t wait for the gay marriage decision. Not Court related but add then the Iran Deal in the next few weeks and peak wingnut head explosion will be complete.
Steeplejack
I think I’ll schedule some elective surgery to celebrate the ACA win.
debbie
“The country as you know it is done.” — Glenn Beck.
Happy days! He’s even talking about getting a new Constitution.
dmsilev
@Cervantes:
Man, you’re not kidding. First paragraph:
Can’t you just feel the feral scream of futile disgust?
Edit:
Guess Roberts and Kennedy are off Scalia’s Christmas card list this year.
chopper
@burnspbesq:
and their dissent basically boils down to “derp”.
Betty Cracker
@Steeplejack: I think I’ll open an Abortionplex and run a Twofer Tuesday special.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: So happy for you! And for millions of other people, and our ability to be a society that isn’t totally shameful, of course.
opiejeanne
@geg6: I just read that! YAY!!
burnspbesq
What I’ve read of the opinion so far is really good. Like his politics or not, Roberts knows his shit (or hires really good clerks).
dmsilev
More Scalia:
I’m having a Princess Bride flashback. Inconceivable!
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: More skin stuff?
Steeplejack
@Betty Cracker:
I’m in! Got some lady friends with trouble in their warmer regions.
Gin & Tonic
@dmsilev: At 6-3 it sound to me as if, on the contrary, it is heard of.
MomSense
@WaterGirl:
Yes we can!
/throwback Thursday
burnspbesq
I’m not sure that I agree with the instant analysis from SCOTUSBlog that the majority didn’t apply Chevron. The opinion sure reads like a Chevron Step One analysis.
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
I was joking, but I am the poster boy for (benign) skin cancer. And before the ACA I was turned down or slow-walked for health insurance by several companies, including the one with which I now have insurance (Kaiser Permanente). And I am in a non-exchange state (Virginia). So this decision is a big deal for me personally, as well as for the country at large.
wuzzat
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: I think you’re right, especially about social media making it easier for the racists to band together. Of course, this has also encouraged a lot of public figures to forgo the dog whistles for a bullhorn.
Poopyman
IANAL, of course, but the dissent seems to boil down to the assertion that “State” cannot mean (or include) the Federal Govt.
That would be a new one on me.
Cervantes
@burnspbesq:
Well, I see where you’re going but here’s what the majority asserts up front:
Cervantes
@Valdivia:
Chicken-counting should not precede egg-hatching.
Or more felicitous words to that effect.
Cervantes
@dmsilev:
Yes, but the one I feel is mine! — whenever I think of Scalia.
burnspbesq
@Cervantes:
But ultimately the case turns on whether the regulation is a permissible interpretation of the statute.
Roberts’ opinion reminds me to some extent of a Tax Court case called Swallows Holdings, where the issue was the validity of an IRS regulation under Code Section 882. Prior to the Supreme Court decision in Mayo Foundation in 2011, the Tax Court wasn’t required to, and didn’t, follow Chevron; it had its own test, based on an older Supreme Court case called National Muffler Dealers. But over time, the Tax Court’s opinions, while paying lip service to National Muffler Dealers, came to look more and more like they were applying Chevron.
If it floats, it’s a witch.
Cervantes
@burnspbesq:
Roberts is not the worst judge of clerks — Thomas, for example, famously hired both John Yoo and Laura Ingraham — yet I’d argue his choices (and increasingly, all the Justices’ choices) are based too much on superficial ideological considerations. Thomas went so far as to say his chambers are a fox-hole and even the slightest dissent is unwelcome. This is not the way things should be, or used to be, at One First.
Brachiator
@Valdivia:
The only cases that quickly come to mind are:
Griswold v Connecticut, right to privacy, contraception, decided June 7, 1965
Loving v Virginia, interracial marriage, decided June 12, 1967
WaterGirl
@MomSense: Yes, we can!
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: Today, the good guys won. Thank god.