SCOTUS, SCOTUS, and More SCOTUS, Justice & Drew, 7.7.20 – 7.10.20
The Justice & Drew “Bat Signal” was busy this week!
To close out the first term of its “Gorsuch-Kavanagh” era, the Supreme Court issued a serious of decisions wherein it affirmed the role of the Electoral College in Presidential elections, protected religious freedoms and, contrary to how the mainstream media is reporting, handed President Trump victories in two cases involving subpoenas issued by a state prosecutor and Congress, respectively.
I called in to the show three times this week – which I believe is a record for me – to discuss these cases.
On Tuesday, we discussed Chiafalo v. Washington, wherein the Court upheld so-called state “faithless elector” laws.
On Thursday, religious freedom was the topic du jour as we discussed the Court’s rulings in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru (government cannot interfere with personnel decisions of private religious institutions), Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home v. Pennsylvania (upholding the Trump Administration’s “self-certifying” exemption to the contraceptive mandates of the Affordable Care Act), and Espinoza v. Montana Dept. of Revenue (a state private school voucher program could not exclude religious schools).
On Friday we discussed the last two major decisions of the term, Trump v. Mazars USA, LLP and Trump v. Vance, both having to do with President Trump’s claim of immunity from subpoenas for his tax returns, wherein Chief Justice Roberts provided the President with a roadmap as to how to further challenge the subpoenas issued by the Manhattan District Attorney and the U.S. Congress while rejecting Mr. Trump’s argument as to his having “immunity”.
On a related note, Redstate.com has an excellent piece analyzing the entire term and discussing how Chief Justice Roberts is using his position as Chief Justice to steer the Court in a more conservative direction (albeit gradually).
To hear my prior appearances on Justice & Drew, please check out the show’s page on my website.