The Good News

Alliance for Justice is delighted by the Senate Judiciary Committee’s — and Senate Democrats’ — progress.  

First and foremost, AFJ celebrates today’s movement in the Senate on the candidacy of Judge Nancy Maldonado, nominated to the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, bringing her one step closer to a vote by the full Senate. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer filed cloture on Monday and today, Thursday, the Senate invoked cloture 43-27.  The final confirmation vote for Judge Maldonado (7th Cir., Ill.) is scheduled for Monday, July 8 at 5:30pm.

A talented jurist out of Illinois and civil rights lawyer with a robust background in labor and employment law, Judge Maldonado made history in 2022 when she became the first Latina to serve as a federal judge in Illinois upon her confirmation to the U.S. District Court for the District of Illinois. Next month, she will make history once more as the first Latinx judge to serve on the Seventh Circuit.  

Although Senate attendance snafus kept the Senate from voting on  Judge Mustafa Kasubhai's confirmation on Tuesday, the effort to see the vote through augurs well for the coming weeks—for Kasubhai and his fellow pending nominees alike. 

We are particularly pleased to see the Senate prioritizing voting on Judge Kasubhai: He currently serves as a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the District of Oregon, where he will serve as a district court judge upon elevation, and has extensive experience representing plaintiffs in labor law litigation. Judge Kasubhai would make history as the first Muslim to sit on the federal bench in Oregon and just the third Muslim to serve as a federal district court judge in the United States.  

Next Steps in the Senate

Last week, the Biden administration announced the 51st slate of judicial nominees: Judge Noël Wise (C.D. Cal.), Mary Kay Costello (E.D. Pa.), and Laura Provinzino (D. Minn.)  

What’s the Hold Up? 

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin and colleagues are still waiting on blue slips for Danna Jackson (D. MT) and Detra Shaw-Wilder (S.D. Fla.). Obstructionist home-state Republican Senators — Montana’s Senator Steve Daines and both Senator Marco Rubio and Senator Rick Scott of Florida — are blocking the way, preventing the SJC from being able to move forward with hearings — despite the pressing need to fill vacancies to help relieve the current backlog.  

The Final Countdown 

The Supreme Court announced an extra decision day — tomorrow — but even with the added day, the final two weeks of the Term will be packed: The justices are still sitting on 18 cases.  

Today the Supreme Court issued its decision in Moore v. U.S., ruling that taxes on investments are constitutional. The case was a challenge to Congress’s ability to tax income that has not been “realized” through sale of assets but also an attempt to preempt other forms of taxes on wealth. 

In the 7–2 decision, Justice Brett Kavanaugh notes Congress's “broad power to lay and collect” taxes and explains that the Mandatory Repatriation Tax is constitutional. While the Moores argued that their investment returns could not be taxed because they had not been “realized,” the opinion explains that the income has been realized by the company in which they are invested. The Court finds that it is thus constitutional for Congress to tax shareholders for their share of that income. 

Read AFJ’s statement on Moore here. 

Also decided in the last week: Food and Drug Administration v, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, the mifepristone case, and Garland v. Cargill, a gun safety case.  

Issued on June 13, the Court’s ruling in FDA v. AHM dismissed challenges to how mifepristone, which can be used for medical abortions, is accessed on standing grounds — a minor but meaningful plot twist, given far-right legal activists’ fondness for challenging laws they don’t like, whether they’ve got a legitimate plaintiff or not. While even Justice Clarence Thomas concurred, his separate opinion reads like a roadmap, giving the right’s impact litigation machine all the knowledge it needs to steer clear of this particular pitfall in the future. 

If the justices’ decision in the mifepristone case was slightly surprising, its holding in Garland v. Cargill was anything but. On June 14, the Supreme Court announced yet another 6–3 decision with terrible implications for public health and safety, holding that semiautomatic firearms equipped with bump stocks cannot be regulated as machine guns — even though bump stocks allow these weapons to fire just as fast. 

Crooked Clarence Does It Again 

Last Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee released documents showing Justice Thomas took even more trips courtesy of high-rolling Republicans than ProPublica had already documented. As with so many other of the perks Thomas has accepted from wealthy parties with interests before the Court, he left these jaunts to Bohemian Grove and Indonesia off his financial disclosure forms. 

What’s Next? 

Washingtonians, want to prove your legal prowess and enjoy a fun night out with friends?  

Alliance for Justice is hosting a Justice Trivia Night dedicated to all things “courts” at Stoney's on P Street NW on Thursday June 27th from 6:30 – 8:30 pm. Get ready to test your knowledge of the courts and unwind with free food and drinks! 

Feel free to bring friends or just link up with fellow legal eagles on gameday! Either way, you’ll want to register here to join! 

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