A bright light — and several dark warnings — in Wednesday's 5-4 vote rejecting the Trump admin's request to toss out a district court order requiring USAID payments.
The one consistent thing about Trump is that he doesn't pay his bills (which he touts as evidence of his superior intelligence). Four justices just said that approach is well and good for the United States government. Because what could possibly go wrong? Another justice took several days to think about it. (We don't really know Barrett's opinion on the matter for sure). And yet we have to be grateful that in the end it was just four justices and not five or six. That's where we are in 2025 America.
yes. The scariest thing is that Alito seems to think that it is perfectly OK to refuse to pay for work already performed. Anyone whose gets a paycheck should think about this really, really hard.
In a saucy alternative timeline the plantiff’s lawyer could have presented an example Alito and Thomas could relate to.
“Let’s say for example that you have a longstanding deal with a billionaire who pays for you to have lavish vacations, paid a family member’s private school tuition, bought your mother’s house and doesn’t charge her rent, etc. He does this in exchange for your extreme consideration of his personal interests as a wealthy business person and pseudo-Christian.
What if, after you’ve made several rulings this term against proper jurisprudence for his benefit, he tells you the gravy train is over.
You’ve already rendered the service he’s been patronizing you for. Isn’t he obligated to follow through on his end of the established quid pro quo?”
Alito being "stunned" doesn't seem noteworthy. His wife was stunned by a pride flag across the bay from her beach house. I'm sure the two of them get little done in a day, what with all the gasping and clutching of pearls.
What gives? The U. S. Supreme Court, once striving for justice, is now the province of sclerotic old men. Grumpy and greatly partisan … and pure manly obstruction.
The Federalist Society specifically picked them for having an agenda. They were already ideological zealots, but in the past they had to work a little at concealing it to keep up the game.
Now that these guys think they’ve won all the power, the masks are off. Even Paul Clement seems to fallen into the “righteous fury” phase of his law career, where he seems to think he can be openly dismissive and superior to the judges hearing his arguments if they aren’t the supremes.
I heard a reporter on NPR mention that a joint address or a SOTU is the rare time when SCOTUS and POTUS are in the same place. This led me to wonder how often Trump communicates with "his" Supremes off the record.
Thank you for this incisive analysis. We are indeed “hanging by a thread” here, in our hopes to preserve for ourselves and posterity this our (for now, still) constitutional Republic.
I thought the effusive “Thank You’s” to the members of the court who showed up last night much more telling and more of a warning than any ruling they made. They’re in trump’s tank and playing his game to delay, delay, delay while making the lower courts do more work to satisfy their every demand. To my mind, that bunch of rotten judicial bananas and its root, trump, have gotten very brazen. They just don’t give a shit any longer.
Alito is corrupt and intellectually dishonest. Thomas is bought and paid for by his billionaire cronies, Kavanaugh first abused women and now abuses his lofty position, and Gorsuch is on the court only because he lied to the Senate during his confirmation hearings, as did Thomas, Kavanaugh, and Alito. And there you have it. Our three branches of government are co-equal, yes, co-equally failing to fulfill theirs oaths and duties.
Alito is corrupt and intellectually dishonest. Thomas is bought and paid for by his billionaire cronies, Kavanaugh first abused women and now abuses his lofty position, and Gorsuch is on the court only because he lied to the Senate during his confirmation hearings, as did Thomas, Kavanaugh, and Alito. And there you have it. Our three branches of government are co-equal, yes, co-equally failing to fulfill their oaths and duties.
“A single district-court judge”!! Who should the plaintiffs gone before if not a district court judge? And should the district court judge have said, wow, this is too much money for little old me to be ruling on??
Do you think ultimately this Administration will simply ignore any and all court orders it doesn’t like? Even if one got through however many hoops, I feel like that’s the reality now, because who’s going to enforce the law?
Whereas the Judge tried to force the issue by issuing a non-appealable TRO, won't his preliminary injunction be appealable by the government? And I always thought TROs are intended to protect the status quo, whereas his TRO is trying to have $2,000,000,000 be paid out never to be recoverable even if it turns out on the merits that it needn't have been paid out. What kind of protecting of the status quo is that?
So, did you not actually read the article you’re commenting on?
This was specifically addressed.
Or maybe you’re just a troll here to push an untrue narrative?
Either way. If you did work under contract for anyone and then didn’t get paid for the work, would that be problematic?
I bet it would.
That’s the root of this case, paying bills for services and goods *already provided.*
But if you’d like the Supreme Court to take a wrecking ball to to the foundations of contract law, I guess you are welcome to foolishly argue that the government doesn’t need to adhere to contracts it has entered into.
If that’s the case, let’s just stop paying Lockheed and other weapons contractors for boondoggle projects they can’t finish on time or on budget. :P
More than once I've pondered the consequences of ridding ourselves of SCOTUS. How? I've no idea, but were it possible, would it be so terribly bad? Maybe not. After all, at present we don't have a SCOTUS anyway!
The one consistent thing about Trump is that he doesn't pay his bills (which he touts as evidence of his superior intelligence). Four justices just said that approach is well and good for the United States government. Because what could possibly go wrong? Another justice took several days to think about it. (We don't really know Barrett's opinion on the matter for sure). And yet we have to be grateful that in the end it was just four justices and not five or six. That's where we are in 2025 America.
yes. The scariest thing is that Alito seems to think that it is perfectly OK to refuse to pay for work already performed. Anyone whose gets a paycheck should think about this really, really hard.
In a saucy alternative timeline the plantiff’s lawyer could have presented an example Alito and Thomas could relate to.
“Let’s say for example that you have a longstanding deal with a billionaire who pays for you to have lavish vacations, paid a family member’s private school tuition, bought your mother’s house and doesn’t charge her rent, etc. He does this in exchange for your extreme consideration of his personal interests as a wealthy business person and pseudo-Christian.
What if, after you’ve made several rulings this term against proper jurisprudence for his benefit, he tells you the gravy train is over.
You’ve already rendered the service he’s been patronizing you for. Isn’t he obligated to follow through on his end of the established quid pro quo?”
:P
Exactly!
Yikes.
Alito being "stunned" doesn't seem noteworthy. His wife was stunned by a pride flag across the bay from her beach house. I'm sure the two of them get little done in a day, what with all the gasping and clutching of pearls.
“Alito, raising his flag of opposition” — punny? The Appeal to Heaven flag?
What gives? The U. S. Supreme Court, once striving for justice, is now the province of sclerotic old men. Grumpy and greatly partisan … and pure manly obstruction.
The Federalist Society specifically picked them for having an agenda. They were already ideological zealots, but in the past they had to work a little at concealing it to keep up the game.
Now that these guys think they’ve won all the power, the masks are off. Even Paul Clement seems to fallen into the “righteous fury” phase of his law career, where he seems to think he can be openly dismissive and superior to the judges hearing his arguments if they aren’t the supremes.
Once again, it seems that all this grievance and fury comes from being previously unsuccessful crooks (Trump) and bigots (the rest).
Meanwhile, Trump thanked John Roberts twice last night before saying "Won't forget" and patting him on the arm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo_uknQLZog
I heard a reporter on NPR mention that a joint address or a SOTU is the rare time when SCOTUS and POTUS are in the same place. This led me to wonder how often Trump communicates with "his" Supremes off the record.
Thank you for this incisive analysis. We are indeed “hanging by a thread” here, in our hopes to preserve for ourselves and posterity this our (for now, still) constitutional Republic.
Fantastic piece of analysis…
Scary stuff. American Democracy on a knife edge.
I thought the effusive “Thank You’s” to the members of the court who showed up last night much more telling and more of a warning than any ruling they made. They’re in trump’s tank and playing his game to delay, delay, delay while making the lower courts do more work to satisfy their every demand. To my mind, that bunch of rotten judicial bananas and its root, trump, have gotten very brazen. They just don’t give a shit any longer.
Alito is corrupt and intellectually dishonest. Thomas is bought and paid for by his billionaire cronies, Kavanaugh first abused women and now abuses his lofty position, and Gorsuch is on the court only because he lied to the Senate during his confirmation hearings, as did Thomas, Kavanaugh, and Alito. And there you have it. Our three branches of government are co-equal, yes, co-equally failing to fulfill theirs oaths and duties.
Alito is corrupt and intellectually dishonest. Thomas is bought and paid for by his billionaire cronies, Kavanaugh first abused women and now abuses his lofty position, and Gorsuch is on the court only because he lied to the Senate during his confirmation hearings, as did Thomas, Kavanaugh, and Alito. And there you have it. Our three branches of government are co-equal, yes, co-equally failing to fulfill their oaths and duties.
Will the status reports be required to have at least 5 bullet points?
“A single district-court judge”!! Who should the plaintiffs gone before if not a district court judge? And should the district court judge have said, wow, this is too much money for little old me to be ruling on??
I can think of a few single district court judges who wielded quite a bit of power against Biden and the dissenters at least didn’t seem too bothered.
Do you think ultimately this Administration will simply ignore any and all court orders it doesn’t like? Even if one got through however many hoops, I feel like that’s the reality now, because who’s going to enforce the law?
Whereas the Judge tried to force the issue by issuing a non-appealable TRO, won't his preliminary injunction be appealable by the government? And I always thought TROs are intended to protect the status quo, whereas his TRO is trying to have $2,000,000,000 be paid out never to be recoverable even if it turns out on the merits that it needn't have been paid out. What kind of protecting of the status quo is that?
So, did you not actually read the article you’re commenting on?
This was specifically addressed.
Or maybe you’re just a troll here to push an untrue narrative?
Either way. If you did work under contract for anyone and then didn’t get paid for the work, would that be problematic?
I bet it would.
That’s the root of this case, paying bills for services and goods *already provided.*
But if you’d like the Supreme Court to take a wrecking ball to to the foundations of contract law, I guess you are welcome to foolishly argue that the government doesn’t need to adhere to contracts it has entered into.
If that’s the case, let’s just stop paying Lockheed and other weapons contractors for boondoggle projects they can’t finish on time or on budget. :P
Top of mind for Roberts must be the “pace” at which the administration will comply with any orders his court ultimately upholds.
More than once I've pondered the consequences of ridding ourselves of SCOTUS. How? I've no idea, but were it possible, would it be so terribly bad? Maybe not. After all, at present we don't have a SCOTUS anyway!