The Good News

On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee moved forward with a hearing for Judges Adam Abelson, a District of Maryland U.S. Magistrate Judge nominated to that district court; Joseph Saporito, a Middle District of Pennsylvania U.S. Magistrate Judge nominated to that district court; Meredith Vacca, currently of New York’s Monroe County Court, nominated to the Western District of New York; and Embry Kidd, a Middle District of Florida U.S. Magistrate Judge nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Alliance for Justice strongly supports the nomination of Judge Saporito, who has decades of public defense experience, and celebrates the potential for Judge Vacca to make history as the first woman of color to sit on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York. The number of district courts that have never had a non-white judge remains staggering. To learn more about Judge Saporito, please see our recent letter of support: [[link removed]]


What We’re Waiting On…

If it’s June, it’s blockbuster season at the Supreme Court. In keeping with the tradition of saving their biggest decisions for last, the justices have yet to issue rulings in the latest major cases implicating gun safety (and the durability of “originalism”), agencies’ ability to implement and enforce critical legal protections, access to mifepristone, the rights of pregnant people to access reproductive health care in emergencies, and, last but not least, the question of whether a former president can be prosecuted.

The last of these cases has especially timely implications.

According to Donald Trump, presidents cannot be prosecuted for any crimes committed while in office. However, according to a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit “it would be a striking paradox if the President, who alone is vested with the constitutional duty to ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,’ were the sole officer capable of defying those laws with impunity.”

Trump appealed the D.C. Circuit’s ruling to the Supreme Court, which obligingly granted cert on February 28. The Court’s decision to hear the case means that Trump’s myriad criminal trials—at least those in which he’s not yet been found guilty—are effectively paused until the Court issues a ruling. Thanks to his justices, Trump is unlikely to be held to account in any case before the 2024 election.


SCOTUS and Its Scandals

We may be waiting on the final word in major cases from 1 First Street NE for a few weeks yet but there’s been no slowdown when it comes to revelations surrounding unethical conduct by members of Chief Judge John Roberts’s uber-conservative uber-majority.

On May 16, the New York Times broke the news that the Alitos flew an upside-down American flag—a symbol of distress appropriated by “Stop the Steal” activists who sought to undermine the 2020 election results—at their Virginia home days after the January 6 insurrection. Justice Alito’s response? Blame Martha-Ann.

Alito doubled down on his strategy of blaming his spouse a week later after we learned the couple’s use of flags to signal objections to democracy—and/or Martha-Ann’s rogue flag-flying and Alito’s selective blindness— is a habit, not an outlier.

Aware of public scrutiny and the ethical implications of their flag choices thanks to the Washington Post, the Alitos nevertheless flew an “Appeal to Heaven” flag at their New Jersey beach house last summer. The latter flag is associated not just with the 2021 insurrection and efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election but with Christian nationalists.

Sound bad? It is. That’s why Alliance for Justice called for Alito to recuse himself in Trump v. United States, concerning the former president’s claim he is immune from prosecution for inciting the January 6 insurrection, and related cases. But Alito’s not budging. In fact, he’s tripled down.

In a letter to Senators Dick Durbin and Sheldon Whitehouse, Alito officially and extensively blames his wife for flags flown and claims he is “duty-bound” to hear the case because “a reasonable person” would not find that repeatedly, publicly signaling support for the overthrow of the U.S. government meets the “applicable” standard for recusal.

Alito’s intransigence comes as little surprise as Roberts continues to fail to address ethical violations at the Court and Justice Clarence Thomas, though even more egregiously ethically compromised, likewise refuses to recuse himself when he should.

For more on the call for Supreme Court accountability, check out today’s Democracy Docket post by AFJ President Rakim Brooks and VP Keith Thirion. [[link removed]]

What’s Next?

Alito and Thomas are actively damaging the integrity of the Supreme Court and Roberts is refusing to acknowledge that they’ve gone way, way too far.

Majority leader Senator Chuck Schumer has stepped up his criticisms of the Court’s conservative bloc. But stronger words—and real resolve—are needed: Congress must act to create the accountability this Court refuses to create for itself. It’s past time to establish a code of conduct with a mechanism for enforcement that applies to the Supreme Court and term limits to rein in the abuses of power.

ICYMI

On Tuesday, nearly 400 people tuned in for Alliance for Justice’s latest edition of Holding Court [afj.org/holdingcourt], featuring writer, lawyer, and professor Madiba K. Dennie, author of The Originalism Trap: How Extremists Stole the Constitution and How We the People Can Take it Back and Deputy Editor and Senior Contributor at stellar legal commentary site Balls and Strikes.

Released that same day, The Originalism Trap has already attracted high praise from constitutional law heavyweights—a mean feat for a debut author recommending an entirely new framework for constitutional interpretation.

To watch or listen to Dennie in conversation with AFJ Senior Fellow and Senior Aron Justice Counsel Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza on topics from the Supreme Court and the advent of originalism to the solution she proposes—inclusive constitutionalism—check out Holding Court on YouTube. You can also find Madiba at her personal site or on Twitter as @AudreLawdAMercy.

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