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Supreme Court Justices Say 2015 Same-Sex Marriage Decision Having ‘Ruinous Consequences’

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Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito said Monday that Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court case that mandated all states recognize same-sex marriages, is “found nowhere in the text” of the Constitution and threatens “the religious liberty of the many Americans who believe that marriage is a sacred institution between one man and one woman.”

The statement was written by Thomas and joined by Alito about the case of Kim Davis, a former Kentucky county clerk who said she would not give same-sex couples marriage licenses. The two justices said they agreed with the consensus of the court that it should not take Davis’ case, but only because it did not “cleanly present” the “important questions about the scope of our decision in Obergefell.”

Thomas and Alito dissented from the original Obergefell decision and their statement Monday could indicate that they would vote to overturn it if presented the chance.

“[T]his petition provides a stark reminder of the consequences of Obergefell. By choosing to privilege a novel constitutional right over the religious liberty interests explicitly protected in the First Amendment, and by doing so undemocratically, the court has created a problem that only it can fix,” Thomas wrote. “Until then, Obergefell will continue to have ‘ruinous consequences for religious liberty.'”

Obergefell was decided in 2015 by a 5-4 court, with then-Justice Anthony Kennedy writing the majority opinion joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer. (Read more from “Supreme Court Justices Say Same-Sex Marriage Decision Having ‘Ruinous Consequences'” HERE)

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Senate Dems Seek Delay in Amy Coney Barrett Hearings After Trump’s COVID Diagnosis

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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) issued a joint statement Friday calling on Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to hold off on moving forward with hearings on U.S. Supreme Court justice nominee Amy Coney Barrett, citing risks of spreading COVID-19 in light of President Donald Trump and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) testing positive for the virus.

Schumer and Feinstein — who have both been adamantly opposed to President Trump nominating a replacement for recently-deceased Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg ahead of the Nov. 3 election — wrote that it is “premature” for Graham “to commit to a hearing schedule when we do not know the full extent of potential exposure stemming from the president’s infection and before the White House puts in place a contact tracing plan to prevent further spread of the disease.”

The Democrats also stated that the “infection” of Lee, who also sits on the Judiciary Committee, “makes even more clear that health and safety must guide the schedule for all Senate activities, including hearings.” . . .

According to Schumer and Feinstein, virtual hearings on Barrett’s nomination would not be “an acceptable substitute” given the magnitude of deciding “a lifetime appointment to the federal bench.”

They argued that moving forward would turn “this already illegitimate process” into “a dangerous one.” (Read more from “Senate Dems Seek Delay in Amy Coney Barrett Hearings After Trump’s COVID Diagnosis” HERE)

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The Left Explodes When Republicans Nominate Women, Blacks, or Latinos

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Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s first Capitol Hill meetings were friendly encounters with Republican senators, but running the Supreme Court nomination gauntlet is bound to get tougher: Conservative women and minorities have aroused some of the most furious Democratic opposition.

“We want to pray for her family, as we know these will be interesting, tough weeks,” said Mercedes Schlapp, a senior adviser to President Trump’s reelection campaign, in a Catholics for Trump conference call. “I’ve gotta tell you, I’m really, really, really concerned,” added Trump deputy campaign manager Justin Clark.

Barrett’s gender and religion have already figured in some negative coverage of her nomination. An Associated Press report described the 48-year-old as having “close ties to a charismatic Christian religious group that holds men are divinely ordained as the ‘head’ of the family and faith,” quoting ex-members as saying it promotes the subjugation of women. Resistance Twitter has been more pointed in its characterization of Barrett’s beliefs. . .

It would not be the first time a Republican attempt to maintain the diversity of the Supreme Court while nominating a conservative to a seat held by a liberal has generated a strong reaction from the Left. Justice Clarence Thomas was bitterly opposed by civil rights groups when President George H.W. Bush chose him to succeed Thurgood Marshall. Thomas described his confirmation hearings as a “high-tech lynching.” The Senate Judiciary Committee, then chaired by Joe Biden, deadlocked on Thomas’s nomination, and he was confirmed by a narrow 52-48 vote despite Anita Hill’s allegations of sexual harassment, which he categorically denied.

“This time the president will nominate a right-wing extremist who happens to have a Hispanic surname rather than a black face,” Yale law professor Bruce Ackerman wrote in a liberal magazine when George W. Bush was elected president. “And if the Democrats have the courage to block this gambit, he will follow up with another ‘stealth candidate’ and count on the Senate to confirm her, as it did [Anthony] Kennedy.” (Read more from “The Left Explodes When Republicans Nominate Women, Blacks, or Latinos” HERE)

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Trump’s New SCOTUS Pick Just Received an Unlikely Endorsement

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. . .[T]he LA Times even had an editorial saying that ACB is qualified but shouldn’t be confirmed. We’re going to enter some silliness here, but ACB got an endorsement from an unlikely source: Noah Feldman. Mr. Feldman is a Harvard Law professor who backed the impeachment of Donald Trump. Feldman spoke highly of Barrett, noting her brilliance as a legal scholar, even though he disagrees with her on almost everything. Even still, she deserves to be on the Court (via Bloomberg):

…here I want to be extremely clear. Regardless of what you or I may think of the circumstances of this nomination, Barrett is highly qualified to serve on the Supreme Court.

I disagree with much of her judicial philosophy and expect to disagree with many, maybe even most of her future votes and opinions. Yet despite this disagreement, I know her to be a brilliant and conscientious lawyer who will analyze and decide cases in good faith, applying the jurisprudential principles to which she is committed. Those are the basic criteria for being a good justice. Barrett meets and exceeds them.

I got to know Barrett more than 20 years ago when we clerked at the Supreme Court during the 1998-99 term. Of the thirty-some clerks that year, all of whom had graduated at the top of their law school classes and done prestigious appellate clerkships before coming to work at the court, Barrett stood out. Measured subjectively and unscientifically by pure legal acumen, she was one of the two strongest lawyers. The other was Jenny Martinez, now dean of the Stanford Law School.

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Barrett, a textualist who was working for a textualist, Justice Antonin Scalia, had the ability to bring logic and order to disorder and complexity. You can’t be a good textualist without that, since textualism insists that the law can be understood without reference to legislative history or the aims and context of the statute.

(Read more from “Trump’s New SCOTUS Pick Just Received an Unlikely Endorsement” HERE)

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Anticapitalist Sponsored By Twitter CEO Accuses Amy Coney Barrett Of ‘Colonialism’ For Adopting From Haiti

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Ibram X. Kendi, a top proponent of racist critical race theory and author of the bestselling book “How to Be an Antiracist,” attacked President Donald Trump’s likely Supreme Court nominee, federal Judge Amy Coney Barrett, as a white supremacist on Saturday for adopting two children from Haiti.

“Some White colonizers ‘adopted’ Black children,” Kendi wrote on Twitter. “They ‘civilized’ these ‘savage’ children in the ‘superior’ ways of White people, while using them as props in their lifelong pictures of denial, while cutting the biological parents of these children out of the picture of humanity.”

Kendi was responding to a tweet featuring parents with black children that didn’t even depict Coney Barrett. Kendi said it didn’t matter, because reasons.

(Read more from “Anticapitalist Sponsored by Twitter CEO Accuses Amy Coney Barrett of ‘Colonialism’ for Adopting From Haiti” HERE)

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Trump to Nominate Amy Coney Barrett to Supreme Court, Dems Launch Smear Attacks on Her Adopted Children

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By CBS News. President Trump is expected to nominate Judge Amy Coney Barrett to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court, CBS News has confirmed, according to multiple sources involved in or familiar with the selection process.

It’s possible Mr. Trump could change his mind, but at this point, Barrett is expected to be announced as the president’s choice Saturday afternoon at the White House.

The White House has begun reaching out to Republican Senate offices to schedule meetings with the Supreme Court nominee to take place next week, starting Wednesday morning, according to two sources familiar with the planning. The Senate will be out Monday and Tuesday for Yom Kippur.

She has been a leading candidate and was a finalist to be Mr. Trump’s second Supreme Court pick. Barrett met with the president at the White House on Monday. CNN first reported that the president intends to announce Barrett as his pick. . .

If confirmed, Barrett, who serves on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, would be Mr. Trump’s third Supreme Court appointee, following Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, and just the fifth woman to serve on the high court. With her ascension to the Supreme Court, Barrett would further solidify its conservative majority, widening it to 6-3 and diluting the power of Chief Justice John Roberts as a swing vote. (Read more from “Trump Is Expected to Nominate Amy Coney Barrett to Supreme Court” HERE)

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Democrats Launch Smear Attacks on Amy Coney Barrett’s Adopted Children

By Breitbart. Democrats began smearing Judge Amy Coney Barrett on Friday night before President Donald Trump even nominated her to become the next Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, which he is expected to do on Saturday afternoon.

Dana Houle, a Democrat activist who was once a chief of staff on Capitol Hill to a Democrat lawmaker, tweeted Friday night that he hopes Barrett is investigated over the children she and her husband adopted from Haiti. “I would love to know which adoption agency Amy Coney Barrett & her husband used to adopt the two children they brought here from Haiti,” Houle wrote.

“So here’s a Q: Does the press even investigate details of Barrett’s adoptions from Haiti?” Houle wrote in a follow-up tweet. “Some adoptions from Haiti were legit. Many were sketchy as hell. And if the press learned they were unethical & maybe illegal adoptions, would they report it? Or not bc it involves her children”

In a third follow-up tweet, Houle added: “Would it matter if her kids were scooped up by ultra-religious Americans, or Americans weren’t scrupulous intermediaries & the kids were taken when there was family in Haiti? I dunno. I think it does, but maybe it doesn’t, or shouldn’t.”

(Read more from “Democrats Launch Smear Attacks on Amy Coney Barrett’s Adopted Children” HERE)

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Murkowski Backtracks on RBG Vacancy

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. . .Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) said he wouldn’t block the nominee. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) is a ‘no,’ but as we’ve said before—Maine is an oddball state. She gets a pass. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), a runner up in the biggest pain in the a** contest among the GOP, did initially say that she’s opposed to filling the Supreme Court vacancy left by Ruth Bade Ginsburg, but is now changing her tune. The last justice passed away last Friday making the 2020 election even more interesting. And now, Murkowski is changing her tune (via Alaska Public Media):

If Democrats were counting on Lisa Murkowski to vote against President Trump’s next nominee to the Supreme Court, they should think again.

Sen. Murkowski said Tuesday she could not rule out that she would vote to confirm a Trump nominee if the Judiciary Committee approves one before the November election.

“I know everybody wants to ask the question, ‘will you confirm the nominee?’” she said outside the Capitol, as her Republican colleagues were gathering for their weekly policy lunch. “We don’t have a nominee yet. You and I don’t know who that is. And so I can’t confirm whether or not I can confirm a nominee when I don’t know who the nominee is.”

Editor’s note: typical of Murkowski’s duplicity, just days ago she said she would oppose Ginsburg’s replacement this close to an election.

(Read more from “Murkowski Backtracks on RBG Vacancy” HERE)

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President Trump to Announce Supreme Court Pick This Weekend

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By Breitbart. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he would announce his Supreme Court nominee at 5:00 p.m. EST on Saturday.

“The decision will be announced on Saturday, 5:00 on Saturday at the White House,” Trump told supporters at a campaign rally in Moon Township, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburg.

Supporters chanted “Fill that Seat!” as the president spoke about his plan to fill the seat left vacant after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. . .

Without naming Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska or Sen. Susan Collins of Maine specifically, Trump complained that there would always be some dissent in the party.

“There’s always got to be the two, those two,” Trump said. (Read more from “President Trump to Announce Supreme Court Pick This Weekend” HERE)

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Cuban-American Judge Barbara Lagoa on Trump High Court List

By Associated Press. A daughter of Cuban exiles who has had a swift rise as a lawyer and judge is on President Donald Trump’s short list to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court.

The president said Monday that he does not personally know Barbara Lagoa, but praised her as “terrific.” Barely veiled was the fact that, as a Cuban-American from South Florida’s city of Hialeah, her selection could benefit Trump in the Nov. 3 election, when Florida could be the ultimate kingmaker. Lagoa grew up in a heavily Hispanic suburb of Miami.

“She’s excellent. She’s Hispanic. She’s a terrific woman from everything I know. I don’t know her. Florida. We love Florida. So she’s got a lot of things — very smart,” Trump said in a call-in interview with “Fox and Friends.” (Read more from “Cuban-American Judge Barbara Lagoa on Trump High Court List” HERE)

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Mark Levin Bashes Democrats for Wanting to Pack Supreme Court: This Is a Party That Is Following a ‘Stalinist Model’

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Conservative commentator Mark Levin argued that Democrats proposing to pack the Supreme Court are a threat to the Constitution and are following “a Saul Alinsky, Stalinist model.”

“The Democrat Party is a diabolical institution that’s getting worse and worse. It has a diabolical history, whether it is slavery, segregation, Jim Crow, or today, the so-called socialism,” Levin said, adding, “Our school systems are under attack. A vaccine is under attack. Our borders are under attack. The courts are under attack. Everything’s under attack with the current Democrat Party because their attitude is, if we can’t control everything, then burn it down. They’re the mob in the street, without Molotov cocktails. That’s exactly what the modern Democrat Party is today.”

“This is a party that is following a Saul Alinsky, Stalinist model. I can’t put it any other way, and they’re taking it into the election,” Levin continued. “Joe Biden was the leader of the pack, destroying the nomination process, destroying the Supreme Court. He was the leader of the pack, which is why he was hiding yesterday because he didn’t want to talk about the vacancy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.”

Following the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday, President Trump urged Republicans to confirm a new justice quickly, while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promised a Trump nominee would see a vote in the Senate. (Read more from “Mark Levin Bashes Democrats for Wanting to Pack Supreme Court: This Is a Party That Is Following a ‘Stalinist Model'” HERE)

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Who Is Barbara Lagoa, Possible Trump Supreme Court Contender?

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President Trump is expected to announce his new pick for the Supreme Court by the end of this week, following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. . .

[Judge Barbara] Lagoa, 52, previously served on Florida’s 3rd U.S. District Court of Appeals and the Florida Supreme Court.

Lagoa was overwhelmingly approved by the Senate when she was confirmed to the 11th Circuit bench with a vote of 80-15 in November 2019. Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J.; Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; Kamala Harris, D-Calif.; Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.; and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., did not vote. All five were campaigning in the Democratic primary race at the time.

The American Bar Association gave Lagoa a unanimous rating of “Well Qualified” prior to her 11th Circuit confirmation, which is the highest rating possible.

Lagoa was involved in the Eleventh Circuit’s 6-4 decision upholding a Florida law requiring ex-felons to pay all outstanding fines, fees, and other costs before being permitted to vote. She drew complaints from Democrats, who accused her of possibly violating the Code of Conduct for United States Judges for not recusing herself from the matter, as she had previously issued an advisory opinion and participated in oral arguments in the case at the state level when she served on Florida’s Supreme Court. (Read more from “Who Is Barbara Lagoa, Possible Trump Supreme Court Contender?” HERE)

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