Explosive cases flow to US Supreme Court from ‘bold’ district court Via Reuters
Written by Andrew Chung
(Reuters) – As three conservative justices sitting on a New Orleans-based appeals court declared the funding method approved by Congress for the consumer protection agency unconstitutional, they said the country’s history of separation of powers between the branches of government had forced their decision. .
It turns out that these judges – all appointed by former Republican President Donald Trump – did not make history right, the US Supreme Court decided on May 16 in a 7-2 decision approved by conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, saving the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from the status quo. a threat.
It was one of the most far-reaching decisions by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that the Supreme Court has reviewed in its current term, which began in October and is expected to end at the end of June.
The Supreme Court, itself by a 6-3 vote, has yet to rule on several of the highest-profile cases of the term from the 5th Circuit, including one on the abortion pill and two on gun rights.
“It speaks to the importance of those cases being overturned in the end,” said Adam Feldman, a legal scholar who tracks the court’s data at his blog Empirical SCOTUS. “When you have these split decisions coming out of the 5th Circuit, there’s probably a lot of movement on both sides of the (Supreme Court) to look at those, so it’s like fighting for those middle votes.”
The Supreme Court will issue its next decisions on Thursday and Friday.
The 5th Circuit is one of 13 appeals courts — and perhaps the most powerful of them all — that is one step below the Supreme Court. It handles appeals from federal courts in the Republican-led states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
Cases from the 5th Circuit represent a growing portion of the Supreme Court’s work in recent years, according to Feldman. It has heard 10 cases from the 5th Circuit, deciding two so far, including the CFPB’s reversal. The only lower court with more cases reviewed, out of 12, is the 9th Circuit in San Francisco, which covers nine western states including California and two US territories.
‘LOVED BODY’
The fact that such a handful of hot-button cases come out of the 5th Circuit is the result of conservative plaintiffs choosing to bring cases to a court they “see as a favorable platform,” according to Washington’s Adam Unikowsky. a lawyer who regularly argues before the Supreme Court.
Subsequently, the 5th Circuit has not been shy about ruling against federal laws and regulations, including federal bans on the possession of firearms by persons subject to court-issued domestic violence restraining orders.
“There are a lot of bold cases brought to the 5th Circuit, and bold decisions,” Unikowsky said.
Supreme Court justices have expressed skepticism about the 5th Circuit’s rulings amid controversy in other major pending cases, including one involving domestic violence gun restrictions.
Others have included the 5th Circuit’s support for abortion pill access restrictions and align with two Republican-led states that accuse Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration of violating the constitution’s freedom of speech protections by urging social media to remove certain posts that federal officials have deemed fictional.
On the other hand, the dissenting justices expressed sympathy for the 5th Circuit’s rulings that contradicted internal decisions of the US Securities and Exchange Commission as a violation of the constitutional right to a fair trial and upheld a Texas man who challenged the state’s ban on “bump stocks.” ” Devices that make automatic weapons explode as quickly as machine guns.
The Supreme Court overturned several decisions of the 5th Circuit on urgent matters without hearing arguments – it stopped the sale of homemade “gun” equipment, allowed US Border Patrol agents to remove the fence placed by Texas officials on the border with Mexico, and to remove restrictions on the Biden administration. officials in the case of lying on social media.
GREAT JUSTICE
Some legal experts said the various reversals and rejections show the Supreme Court won’t simply rubber stamp the 5th Circuit’s actions, despite strong leanings from both courts. During their 2022-2023 term, the justices heard nine cases in the 5th Circuit, upholding that court’s decisions only twice.
This shift may be due in part to conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, who, according to Feldman, does not want the public to view the Supreme Court as one that is predicated on favoring law enforcement.
In a May Reuters/Ipsos poll, 74% of US registered Republican voters expressed a favorable opinion of the Supreme Court, compared to 21% of Democrats.
“I think (Roberts) is trying to get some of these coalitions (judges), to take control a little bit. And in doing that, I don’t think that’s good news for some of these 5th Circuit’s brutal decisions,” Feldman said. said.
