06/30/23

Good morning! It’s Friday, June 30th.

International Asteroid Day.

Psh. Don’t threaten me with a good time!

And now, the news.

SCOTUS Ends Affirmative Action

-via SCOTUS Blog, Oyez, & Slate

Okay, let’s start with the top story but first I’m gonna tell you a lawyer word. From a nonlawyer. Just where you want to learn your lawyer stuff from!

Stare decisis is a Latin term that means “stand by things decided.” And it is… a big deal. It means, basically, hey, we need to honor precedent, or decisions from prior cases.

Okay, so we’ve got stare decisis. Now let’s talk about a 2003 Grutter v Bollinger Supreme Court case which asked - Does the University of Michigan Law School's use of racial preferences in student admissions violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment or Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

And in a 5-4 decision, the Court said – Nah. Since the Law School does highly individualized reviews everyone, acceptance or rejection is not based automatically on a variable like race and actually this process ensures that all factors that may contribute to diversity are meaningfully considered alongside race.

Two very important things. Now let me give you the third ingredient to me anger over this story. Oh, sorry, spoiler, this story made me mad. Okay, here’s the third one: Although he says he got into Yale on his own merit and does not believe he was ever treated differently, a New York Times study shows that Justice Thomas, one of only two Black justices on the Court, did in fact benefit from the country’s race-conscious admissions policy. He was one of 12 Black students accepted in a class of 175. Yale did evaluate Black applicants separately. Additionally, the Missouri AG who hired Thomas said this: “My ambition was that the AG’s office was to be the best law office in the state. Did I also think that it was important to have a diverse office? Yes, I did. And did I think that it was important, that it would be wonderful to hire Clarence Thomas for that reason? Yes.”

To review – stare decisis , Grutter v Bollinger, and Thomas’ personal history. Toss that all in a pot where the base is, you know, the history of this country… and we get a 6-3 ruling that says the Harvard and University of North Carolina admissions programs violated the Equal Protection Clause because they failed to offer “measurable” objectives to justify the use of race.

In other words… yesterday the Supreme Court gutted affirmative action.

And I’m not interested in the opinions written. I’m angry and I’m unsurprised. Three of these Justices were sat by a President who didn’t win the popular vote and was twice impeached and under investigation for planning a coup against this country. One of those three was stolen. Another of those three was accused of sexual assault and barely even investigated. The third just… I don’t trust her. Among the other Justices, we’ve got two that ride on private planes and never reported any of the gifts. One of them almost certainly leaked two Supreme Court rulings to his little buddies. And then Chief Justice Roberts just… you know… we stay suspicious of him because of his rulings on things like Affirmative Action and the Voting Rights Act.

So yeah, no, I’m not interested in the opinions written.

I will be later. This weekend I will read their opinions because we have to know what’s coming next.

But instead, I want to talk about the dissent, written Justice Sotomayor and joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson. “The result of today’s decision is that a person’s skin color may play a role in assessing individualized suspicion, but it cannot play a role in assessing that person’s individualized contributions to a diverse learning environment. That indefensible reading of the Constitution is not grounded in law and subverts the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection.”

Also, with her own dissent, Justice Jackson summed it all up: "With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announces 'colorblindness for all' by legal fiat. But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life."

Expand the Court. I know that’s complicated and it’s not like it can be done with the swoosh of a pen, but the number of Justices is not something that’s set in stone. We had eight for a while, while Mitch McConnell was stealing that 9th seat.

But back during the Civil War, the number of Justices increased to nine to cover the nine circuit courts. Hey, do you know how many circuit courts we currently have? 13!

Expand the dang Court. And investigate the Justices. And probably ditch a few of them.

Oh hey, real quick… no one worry, legacy admissions are safe. So… you know…

I’m furious. Here’s the woosh.

Other Supreme Court Rulings

-via Politico

Also on Thursday, the Court ruled that works who ask for religious accommodations should get them unless their employer could show that it resulted in substantial increased business costs.

It was a unanimous decision.

We’re still waiting to hear about student loans and the Christian website case.

There won’t be an episode out the next day, so here are my reactions:

If the student loan cancellation doesn’t get overturned: Hey, yeah that’s great.

When it inevitably does: These loans have not been due in years. The economy clearly doesn’t depend on them. This is so ridiculous and unsurprising.

And no matter how things shake out with the website, know I’ll be yelling this into the either: NO ONE ASKED YOU TO MAKE THE WEBSITE LORIE!

Parkland Cop Acquitted

-via AP News

Scot Peterson, the Parkland High security officer who did nothing to stop the shooter who entered the school and killed 17 people, was acquitted of the multiple counts of felony child negligence. Peterson entered the school after 11 people had already been killed and, upon hearing the shots fired, hid in a safe space for 48 minutes while, occasionally, radioing information to law enforcement.

I highly recommend not looking at the picture of him getting the news. It will not evoke any feeling that is not rage.

Parisian Riots

-via CNN

More than 100 people have been arrested in Paris after more than 150 violent protests broke out following the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old. He was killed after a traffic stop on Tuesday.

The French Interior Ministry has said they plan to deploy more than 40,000 officers around the country to quell the unrest.

And that’s it. That’s the news.

Hey! You know what Monday is? The 3rd. But also, like, kind of a holiday? So no news. But come on back for Tuesday’s special 4th of July episode. I haven’t written it yet, and who knows where my little noggin will be when I do but, if I had to guess right now, I’d say the energy would not be too unlike the energy of the first story.

You know what? I’m proud of asteroids. The real life version of hitting the volume and side buttons at the same time – just a classic force restart.

But more than that… because I would like to restart something things, but you better believe you’re not one of them… I’m proud of you.