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☆ Inside the new database disclosing judicial wealth and potential conflicts, from Justice Neil Gorsuch's $700 cowboy boots to Justice John Roberts' Irish cottage
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Jack Newsham | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

One judge disclosed a six-figure investment in cryptocurrency. Those judges' financial lives, and more than 400 others, are laid bare in a new federal database that went live this month. Litigants looking for potential conflicts of interest, and pretty much anybody else, can see what federal judges own, who they owe, what side hustles they have, and what their spouses do. And while private-sector 401(k) plans need to be disclosed, federal employee retirement plans, known as thrift savings plans, don't. It only includes 2021 financial disclosures, and users who want information about previous years' disclosures will have to submit their requests manually.

☆ The Public Has a Right to Know Who Leaked the Dobbs Draft
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Alan M. Dershowitz | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Justice Samuel Alito stated last week that the leak of his draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization endangered the justices’ lives: “It gave people a rational reason to think they could prevent that from happening by killing one of us.” A man who was found heavily armed outside the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh two weeks before the court decided Dobbs has been charged with attempted murder. The leak constituted “a grave betrayal of trust,” Justice Alito added. So why hasn’t the perpetrator been identified and punished?

☆ Supreme Court's conservative majority seems open to eliminating affirmative action in university admissions process: 'Why do you have these boxes?'
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

The Supreme Court heard two high-profile challenges to race-conscious university admissions processes. The court's conservatives appeared open to ending race as a factor in university admissions. Thomas, the second Black person to ever serve on the bench, has long been critical of race-conscious admissions policies. They cannot adopt race-conscious admissions and sit back reflexively and let that play out forever into the future," Prelogar said. "At present, it's not possible to achieve that diversity without race-conscious admissions, including at the nation's service academies."

☆ Fox News' Jesse Watters criticized the police response to Pelosi's husband being attacked
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-29 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A Fox News host claimed the police response to the attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband was harsher than usual. Jesse Watters referenced right-wing talking points accusing the Democratic party of being soft on crime. The assailant broke into Pelosi's San Francisco home on Friday and "violently" attacked her 82-year-old husband, Paul Pelosi with a hammer, leading to him being hospitalized, authorities said. "The Democrats in the media have been ignoring the crime wave and only cover it when Nancy Pelosi's husband's attacked," he said. Watters said he "wanted to see the alleged perpetrator being treated the same as if he attacked anyone else."

☆ Assault on Nancy Pelosi's husband is dangerous escalation of political violence because individuals now feel 'empowered' to carry out these acts alone, extremism expert says
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-29 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | Charles R. Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

But one extremism expert told Insider that the isolated assault is in many ways more dangerous. Individuals now feel "empowered to carry out those acts of political violence," Eric Ward said. "This is the unfolding of events since January 6," Eric Ward, senior advisor to the Western States Center, told Insider. Authorities said a 42-year-old man broke into the Pelosi residence early Friday morning and violently attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer, sending him to the hospital. "The attacker who injured Paul Pelosi was looking for Nancy Pelosi, likely wanting to finish the job of Jan.

☆ Threats against judges skyrocketed during the Trump era, and experts are now fearing for the worst
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( C. Ryan Barber | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Federal judges involved in matters related to the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago have also faced threats. The number of logged threats to judges and other officials nearly doubled early in the Trump era. He's a hater," Trump said of Judge Gonzalo Curiel, a 2012 appointee to the federal trial court in San Diego. But, as the threats to the federal judges in South Florida showed, the trend is extending down through the lower courts. It declined to give a broader assessment for the increase in threats to judges and other Marshals Service protectees.

Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker denied a new allegation from a woman Wednesday that Walker, who is running on an anti-abortion Republican platform, drove her to a clinic to have an abortion while they were engaged in a romantic relationship decades ago. Walker has admitted the check was his but has said he did not know what the money was used for. NBC News has not independently verified the abortion allegation. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., campaigning with Walker in Dillard on Wednesday, suggested a political motive was behind the latest allegation. Herschel Walker shouldn’t be representing Georgians in the U.S. Senate.”

☆ Alito says leaked abortion opinion made conservative justices 'targets for assassination'
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Zoë Richards | Zoë Richards Is The Evening Politics Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said Tuesday night that the leak of the draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade this year endangered the lives of justices by putting a target on their backs. Alito, who was nominated by former President George W. Bush and is part of the court’s 6-3 conservative majority, authored the draft and the final opinion that removed constitutional protections for abortion. Now we're in a new term," Alito said Tuesday, adding that the justices and staff members "want things to get back to normal, the way they were before all of this last term, before Covid." Additional security measures were put in place in the aftermath of the leak and in response to demonstrations outside several justices’ homes. Last week, a Georgia man was arrested on weapons charges after police said they found two handguns and a shotgun in a van he was driving in Washington with plans to “deliver documents” to the Supreme Court.

[1/2] Associate Justice Samuel Alito poses during a group photo of the Justices at the Supreme Court in Washington, U.S., April 23, 2021. Alito, speaking at an event organized by the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington, also condemned the leak last May of his draft opinion overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide, saying it made the justices "targets." Everyone is free to strongly criticize the court's decisions or the reasoning behind them, Alito said. In blunt terms, Alito also commented on the man who was charged with attempted murder after being arrested near the Maryland home of conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh in June. The conservative majority has shown an increasing willingness to take on divisive issues as it steers the court on a rightward path.

☆ Suspicious packages, white powdery substances, and a 'swatting': Inside the threats federal judges are facing across the country
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-23 | by ( C. Ryan Barber | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

The US Marshals Service has been responding to a remarkable rise in threats against federal judges. At least three times this year, the federal court in Washington, DC, received suspicious packages. Arriving just months apart, the packages sent to DC's federal courthouse served as reminders of threats judges are increasingly facing across the country. Lawmakers have blamed Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, for blocking legislation to help protect federal judges. Greg Nash/AP ImagesCongressional solutionsCongress has approved additional funding for bolstering the security of federal judges.

☆ A Supreme Court battle between pork producers and California over an animal cruelty law could affect how much you pay for bacon
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The Supreme Court on Tuesday heard a battle between pork producers and California. A California law requires producers to raise pigs with enough space to roam freely in order to sell pork in the state's market. Pork producers argued that the law is unconstitutional because it impedes interstate commerce. Pork producers nationwide have balked at the standard, claiming it's costly to meet, disruptive to the industry, and unconstitutional. Ultimately, the groups argued the California law impedes interstate commerce, in violation of a legal doctrine in the Constitution called the dormant commerce clause.

☆ See the first-ever Supreme Court photo with 4 female justices as Ketanji Brown Jackson joined the bench
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-07 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The Supreme Court posed for a group photo with its newest justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson. Bottom row, from left, Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, and Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts. Top row, from left, Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, and Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson stands between Associate Justice Samuel Alito, left, and Associate Justice Elena Kagan, right. Scott ApplewhiteThe group photo came as the Supreme Court kicked off its new term, which is shaping up to a be a consequential one.

☆ Supreme Court announces partial reopening to public for new term
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Lawrence Hurley | Lawrence Hurley Covers The Supreme Court For Nbc News Digital. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

The court said in a statement Wednesday that people will be able to attend oral arguments when its new term starts Monday, although "the building will otherwise remain closed to the public." In March 2020, the justices initially pivoted to holding remote oral arguments by teleconference before they resumed in-person oral arguments in a largely empty courtroom last fall. In a major development, the court began livestreaming audio of oral arguments at the beginning of the pandemic, for the first time allowing the public to hear the court proceedings without being present in the courtroom. Throughout the pandemic, tourists have been barred from the court building, with only some court staff members, lawyers and journalists allowed access at certain times. In June, as the court issued its abortion ruling and other big decisions, a security fence surrounded the court.

The Supreme Court in June announced it would hear the case in its new term, which begins on Monday. This showed the increasing willingness of its 6-3 conservative majority take on divisive issues as it steers the court on a rightward path. According to Irv Gornstein, executive director of Georgetown University Law Center's Supreme Court Institute, Kavanaugh now wields outsized influence over the speed and limits of the court's rightward shift. In its most recent term, there were 14 rulings decided on a 6-3 tally with the conservative justices on one side and the liberals on the other. The court appears likely to continue to take up cases particularly important to conservatives, Feldman said.

☆ Yeshiva University halts all student club activity amid high court LGBTQ ruling
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

NEW YORK — Yeshiva University has abruptly suspended student club activity in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision earlier this week that ordered the school to recognize — for now — an LGBTQ student group. The disagreement among the justices appears to be mostly about procedure, with the majority writing in a brief unsigned order that Yeshiva should return to state court to seek quick review and temporary relief while the case continues. If it gets neither from state courts, the school can return to the Supreme Court, the majority wrote. A New York state court sided with the student group and ordered the university to recognize the club immediately. The matter remains on appeal in the state court system, but judges there refused to put the order on hold in the meantime.

☆ Justices join debate on Supreme Court's legitimacy after abortion ruling
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-18 | by ( Lawrence Hurley | Lawrence Hurley Covers The Supreme Court For Nbc News Digital. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +9 min

Chief Justice John Roberts, one of the court’s six conservatives, pushed back against some of the criticism in a recent public appearance, saying people should not question the court’s legitimacy just because they disagree with its rulings. It is important that the public think the justices are reaching decisions in good faith based on the law, Girgis said. Sotomayor said at an event in California on Thursday that “there’s going to be some question about the court’s legitimacy” if people think the justices are acting based on politics, according to a Courthouse News Service report. But I don’t understand the connection between opinions people disagree with and the legitimacy of the court,” he said. Conversely, in 1954, Southern states resisted enforcing the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling, which ended segregation in public schools.

☆ Senate confirms Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman nominated to the Supreme Court, in a bipartisan vote
▼ + stars: | 2022-04-07 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The Senate on Thursday confirmed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. Jackson makes history as the first Black woman to become a Supreme Court justice. The 51-year-old jurist currently serves on the second-most powerful court in the country, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, often considered a launchpad to the Supreme Court. Biden appointed her to that seat a year ago, which, at the time, sparked rumors that she would make the shortlist if a Supreme Court vacancy arose. In her opening statement, she pledged to "support and defend the Constitution" if confirmed to the Supreme Court.

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