Rocky Mountain Voice

Tag: U.S. Supreme Court

Bill Barr: Biden reforms would usher in ‘radical change’, purge Supreme Court’s conservative justices
Approved, National, THE HILL

Bill Barr: Biden reforms would usher in ‘radical change’, purge Supreme Court’s conservative justices

By Miranda Nazzaro | The Hill Former Attorney General Bill Barr offered his concerns about President Biden’s reform proposals for the Supreme Court on Monday, arguing they would eliminate the high court’s conservative justices and “destroy the independence of the judiciary.” “Americans need to understand that the campaign to radically change the Court is coming. While current proposals like term limits for the longest-serving justices and an imposed code of ethics threaten the Constitution and the separation of powers, the far left is demanding that Court be packed with additional liberal justices,” Barr and Kelly Shackelford — the president, CEO and chief counsel for First Liberty Institute — wrote in an op-ed published with Fox News on Monday. Barr ...
Supreme Court rules ex-Presidents have substantial protection from prosecution
Approved, Fox Business, National

Supreme Court rules ex-Presidents have substantial protection from prosecution

By Brooke Singman , Brianna Herlihy  | Fox News The Supreme Court ruled Monday in Trump v. United States that a former president has substantial immunity from prosecution for official acts committed while in office, but not for unofficial acts. In a 6-3 decision, the Court sent the matter back down to a lower court, as the justices did not apply the ruling to whether or not former President Trump is immune from prosecution regarding actions related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. "The President enjoys no immunity for his unofficial acts, and not everything the President does is official," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority.  "The President is not above the law. But Congress may not criminalize the President’s conduct in carrying...
Supreme Court sides with Jan. 6 defendant against obstruction charge
Approved, National, The Washington Times

Supreme Court sides with Jan. 6 defendant against obstruction charge

By Alex Swoyer and Stephen Dinan | The Washington Times The Supreme Court ruled Friday for a Jan. 6 defendant challenging an obstruction charge used by federal prosecutors to ding people who entered the U.S. Capitol that day in 2021. The 6-3 ruling wasn’t ideologically divided, with Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson switching wings of the court to join colleagues in their respective decisions. A majority of the court ruled that federal prosecutors couldn’t use an obstruction charge against a Jan. 6 defendant without showing the individual impeded or destroyed a document or evidence used in an official proceeding. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Davis: The final days of this Supreme Court term
Approved, Commentary, National

Davis: The final days of this Supreme Court term

By MIKE DAVIS | Substack, Guest Commentary The 2023-24 Supreme Court term already is a dynamic one. The justices, among other rulings, unanimously rejected a leftist effort to throw President Trump off of ballots based on the Insurrection Clause of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment. Several blockbusters await announcement this week. The most crucial case is Trump v. United States. The Court is considering whether a former president has immunity from criminal prosecution for his official presidential acts. Special Counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump after the January 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol. One of the allegations is Trump contemplated firing his acting attorney general—clearly an official act. If presidents fear their successors will imprison them for their official acts, this...
GOP resolution calls on SCOTUS to ‘intervene’ in Trump’s hush money case
Approved, National, Politico

GOP resolution calls on SCOTUS to ‘intervene’ in Trump’s hush money case

By GISELLE RUHIYYIH EWING | Politico Rep. William Timmons (R-S.C.) introduced a resolution Friday urging the Supreme Court to “intervene” in the hush money case against former President Donald Trump before the 2024 election — a move that experts say is a political stunt that faces significant legal obstacles. Citing the “All Writs Act,” by which the court “may issue all writs necessary or appropriate in aid of their respective jurisdictions and agreeable to the usages and principles of law,” the resolution calls on SCOTUS to intervene in the case “with all deliberate speed and possible urgency.” The resolution argues for the court’s intervention on the basis that Americans need to make “informed decisions” in the upcoming election. It also echoes Trump’s oft-us...
Supreme Court upholds ban on gun ownership by those under domestic violence court orders
Approved, National, The Daily Signal

Supreme Court upholds ban on gun ownership by those under domestic violence court orders

By Elizabeth Troutman | The Daily Signal The Supreme Court upheld the federal law banning gun ownership by those under domestic violence restraining orders on Friday morning. In its U.S. v. Rahimi ruling, the court rejected Zackey Rahimi’s claim that the statue that prohibits the possession of firearms by persons subject to domestic violence restraining orders violates the Second Amendment. The court issued an 8-1 ruling, with Justice Clarence Thomas as the only dissenting vote. “Since the Founding, the Nation’s firearm laws have included regulations to stop individuals who threaten physical harm to others from misusing firearms,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. “As applied to the facts here, Section 922(g)(8) fits within this tradition.” READ THE F...
Supreme Court strikes down Trump-era ban on bump stocks, gun accessories used in 2017 massacre
Approved, National, The Washington Times

Supreme Court strikes down Trump-era ban on bump stocks, gun accessories used in 2017 massacre

By Lindsay Whitehurst | The Washington Times The Supreme Court on Friday struck down a Trump-era ban on bump stocks, a gun accessory that allows semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly like machine guns and was used in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. The high court found 6-3 the Trump administration did not follow federal law when it reversed course and banned bump stocks after a gunman in Las Vegas attacked a country music festival with assault rifles in 2017. He fired more than 1,000 rounds in the crowd in 11 minutes, leaving 60 people dead and injuring hundreds more. A Texas gun shop owner challenged the ban, arguing the Justice Department wrongly classified the accessories as illegal machine guns. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Supreme Court rules for Starbucks in union case over terminated ‘Memphis Seven’
Approved, National, THE HILL

Supreme Court rules for Starbucks in union case over terminated ‘Memphis Seven’

By ZACH SCHONFELD | The Hill The Supreme Court on Thursday tossed a lower court’s ruling ordering Starbucks to reinstate seven Memphis-based employees terminated amid a unionization drive.  The decision makes it more difficult to immediately block alleged unfair labor practices as they are litigated in a sometimes years-long administrative process. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the majority opinion on behalf of eight justices, while Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson partially dissented.  The case arose from the “Memphis Seven,” seven Starbucks employees who were terminated in 2022 during a unionization effort. The employees had publicly posted a letter addressed to the company’s CEO and sat down in the store with a television news crew to discuss the...
Supreme Court unanimously rules for NRA in free speech fight against NYC regulator
Approved, National, THE HILL

Supreme Court unanimously rules for NRA in free speech fight against NYC regulator

By ZACH SCHONFELD AND ELLA LEE | The Hill The Supreme Court unanimously ruled Thursday that the National Rifle Association (NRA) can move forward in its free speech fight against a former New York regulator. Authored by liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the ruling revives the gun-rights group’s First Amendment claim against Maria Vullo, who formerly ran the New York Department of Financial Services. Vullo began investigating the NRA in 2017, and the probe led her to encourage insurers and banks she regulated to sever ties with the gun-rights group after the Parkland, Fla., school shooting that killed 17 students and staff and reignited a national debate surrounding gun control measures. The NRA contended Vullo’s steps went beyond permissible advocacy and crossed into unconstitut...
Sloan: Weighing the immunity question facing the Supreme Court
Approved, Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice

Sloan: Weighing the immunity question facing the Supreme Court

By Kelly Sloan | Special Contributor, The Rocky Mountain Voice A fortnight ago, on CBS’s Sunday morning show “Meet the Press”, one of the guests interviewed was Doris Kearns Goodwin, Presidential historian, author of “Team of Rivals” and former staffer for President Lyndon Johnson. Mrs. Goodwin is a frequent guest of the show and, while unabashedly Democratic, often brings up some interesting points, as befitting her role as historian. On this episode, the conversation turned, naturally, to the pending threats to American Democracy – meaning, of course, Donald Trump. Goodwin expressed concern, as all good Democrats do, that the former President would, again, not accept the results of the upcoming election, and how deleterious an impact that could have on America’s political founda...