All posts tagged: Alito

The Alito flag scandal and the supreme court’s ethics problem – podcast | Politics

The Alito flag scandal and the supreme court’s ethics problem – podcast | Politics

Published by skeptic

Reports surfaced a few weeks ago that the supreme court justice Samuel Alito had flown an upside-down US flag outside his home days after insurrectionists flew similar flags when they stormed the Capitol on 6 January 2021. Alito has blamed his wife, saying he wanted her to take down the flag down after a dispute with neighbours. Democrats want Alito to recuse himself from any supreme court case involving 6 January, but he has refused to do so. Jonathan Freedland speaks to Amanda Marcotte of Salon about whether this latest scandal is proof that the supreme court is incapable of being unbiased How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know Source link

Alito reignites fetal rights debate in Idaho abortion case

Alito reignites fetal rights debate in Idaho abortion case

Published by skeptic

The Supreme Court justice who authored the Dobbs ruling overturning Roe v. Wade jumped headlong Wednesday into the debate about whether a fetus is entitled to the same rights as a person.   Abortion-rights advocates were concerned ahead of arguments that the case about whether Idaho’s abortion ban violated a federal emergency care law might be used to advance the fight for fetal rights.   The Department of Justice argued that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) requires hospitals that take Medicare funds to provide stabilizing treatment to a patient in an emergency, even if that treatment is an abortion.   Idaho said the law doesn’t mention abortions, and the state has set its own standard: a total ban on abortions except when it is needed to save a pregnant woman’s life, but not to prevent serious risks to her health.   As the Supreme Court wrestled for the first time with the fallout of a state abortion ban since it overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Justice Samuel Alito seemed to endorse the idea that a …

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Argues Presidents Must Be Allowed to Commit Federal Crimes or Democracy as We Know It Will Be Over

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Argues Presidents Must Be Allowed to Commit Federal Crimes or Democracy as We Know It Will Be Over

Published by skeptic

On Thursday the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for and against Donald Trump’s claims of absolute presidential immunity. The good news is that the Court appeared unlikely to just completely rule in his favor, agree that he should not face prosecution for anything he did in office, and kill the federal election case against him. The bad news is that, unsurprisingly, they’re not just going to tell him to fuck off, as some justices suggested that presidents should receive some immunity—a move that would potentially limit Special Counsel Jack Smith‘s case and delay a trial until after the November election. The insane news? That conservative justice Samuel Alito literally tried to argue that we should allow presidents to commit crimes without fear of prosecution in order to save democracy. That’s right: Speaking to Michael Dreeben, and attorney representing the special counsel, Alito began by stating: “I’m sure you would agree with me that a stable democratic society requires that a candidate who loses an election, even a close one, even a hotly contested one, leave …

Experts Fear Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito Are Laying the Groundwork for a Nationwide Ban on Medication Abortions—And Maybe Even All Abortions

Experts Fear Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito Are Laying the Groundwork for a Nationwide Ban on Medication Abortions—And Maybe Even All Abortions

Published by skeptic

If you were worried the Supreme Court was going to ban the abortion drug mifepristone—an entirely reasonable concern given the Court’s conservative majority and the fact that it gleefully overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022—you can likely breathe easy: The consensus following Tuesday’s oral arguments is that US Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine will likely be dismissed on standing. Not because the Court’s conservatives love reproductive freedom and respect a pregnant person’s right to choose, but because the case is so embarrassingly meritless. (The plaintiffs are a group of antiabortion medical associations and doctors who don’t prescribe mifepristone themselves but claim that one day they could be put in the horrible position of treating a patient who took the drug and would be irreparably scarred from the experience—the doctors, not the patients.) So, that’s the good news. The bad, terrifying news is that archconservatives Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito—the latter of whom, in his opinion overturning Roe, cited a 17th-century jurist who supported marital rape and had women executed—can’t just dismiss the case …

Alito argues that religious bias is better than any other kind

Alito argues that religious bias is better than any other kind

Published by Sam

(RNS) — A couple of weeks ago, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito became wrought up about possible religious discrimination in a case involving a lesbian who successfully sued the Missouri Department of Corrections for discriminating against her because of her sexual orientation. What upset Alito was the fact that the trial judge had dismissed a couple of jurors on the grounds that their religious beliefs about homosexuality rendered their impartiality suspect. During the phase of jury selection known as voir dire, the plaintiff’s counsel asked jurors, “How many of you went to a religious organization growing up where it was taught that people that are homosexuals shouldn’t have the same rights as everyone else because it was a sin with what they did?” A few said they had, and the court excused two for maintaining the belief that homosexual behavior is a sin, despite their claiming they could be impartial.  “Any defense lawyer in a criminal case or a lawyer in a civil case would be committing malpractice if they failed to object,” said …