• m_f@midwest.social
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    8 months ago

    Because there were not enough justices for a quorum—the court needs at least six and only Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson remained—the court affirmed the judgment of a lower court to dismiss the lawsuit.

    Clever. Appearing to do the right thing at face value coincides nicely with getting the case against you dropped. It’s likely impossible to sue a majority of the Supreme Court if they don’t care to be sued.

    • GiddyGap@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      It’s likely impossible to sue a majority of the Supreme Court if they don’t care to be sued.

      Only as long as you have the majority. If this had been a case against the liberal minority, they would not have been able to do the same.

    • VintageTech@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago

      This is a tactic Oregon representatives use quite often. So we voted on a bill stating that if you miss 10 or more sessions you’re in eligible to run for office again.

      • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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        8 months ago

        They’re already trying to weasel out of it by claiming that the language of the law means they still get to serve one more term.

    • Supermariofan67@programming.dev
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      8 months ago

      It’s a frivolous troll lawsuit and this is a clickbait article

      https://casetext.com/case/mactruong-v-abbott

      In his Complaint, Plaintiff alleges that he is an inventor of “Tele-Sex or Tele-Mining on Jupiter and other planets of the Solar System,” and appears to assert a claim for copyright infringement and constitutional violations.

      In his brief, Plaintiff makes fantastical allegations, stating, for example, that “Defendants are dangerous liars, criminals, traitors and co-conspirators.” Dkt. 18 at 31. He further states that Supreme Court Justices Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett “deserve the death penalty or at least to be disbenched from the U.S. Supreme Court.” Dkt. 18 at 40.

    • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      The lower court’s decision was upheld. A lower court that didn’t have the issue of defendants being asked to preside over their own case.

      • m_f@midwest.social
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        8 months ago

        Sure, but do you think if the lower court decided that the case could move forward, the justices would’ve sat out? I doubt it.

        • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Do you have an example of them doing that? Or are you simply lampooning them despite them making the best decision available.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      If a lower court ruled against them, they wouldn’t excuse themselves and rule in their own favor.

      And claim nothing hypocritical about it.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        If a lower court ruled against them, they wouldn’t excuse themselves and rule in their own favor.

        Or they would and they’d let the other three justices do the dirty work for them.

        Either way, you’d need a particularly career-advancement-adverse lower court judge to even consider advancing this to the SCOTUS on favorable terms.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Also sounds like a good justification for Biden to increase the number of Justices.

      Statement could go like this:

      “There are not enough sitting justices to adjudicate important issues before the court as demonstrated by the recent actions of honorable recusals. Therefore I calling for the addition of new seats on the court to supplement the body so it can carry out its important work as a check on Legislative and Executive branches of our government, just as the framers intended. We will begin confirmation hearings for new justices next week”

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Also sounds like a good justification for Biden to increase the number of Justices.

        Biden has had ample reason to seat additional justices, particularly in the wake of the ACB nomination. But he’s far too friendly with the US Senate to try such a thing.

        If you want someone willing to break ranks on this question, you’re ultimately going to need to wait for a governor. If DeSantis had a shot in hell of being president and taking a Senate majority in the process, I could see him trying to pack the court out of spite after losing a few court cases. If a guy like Sanders was a governor and not a Senate buddy-buddy with Schumer and Graham, maybe he would have tried it (but even then I wouldn’t bet on it). I could absolutely see Trump pulling this shit if someone whispered it into his ear at the right moment, but he’d fumble the bag without McConnell sheepdogging the candidate through.