Kelsey Reichmann, a SCOTUS and politics reporter with Courthouse News, reported on Thursday that “Justice Samuel Alito was not on the bench for opinions this morning,” with the Court ruling on three cases. On Friday, Alito was absent again, as the Court delivered more decisions including upholding a law preventing domestic abusers under restraining orders from legally obtaining guns, a decision from which only Justice Clarence Thomas dissented.
Despite Alito’s absence from the court, for which no reason was given, he is a participant in the decisions being delivered — the gun restriction case, for example, was 8-1 with Thomas’s lone dissent.
Noting that he wrote the Violence Against Women Act, Biden said the ruling protects survivors of domestic violence. He called on Congress to further strengthen these protections.
“No one who has been abused should have to worry about their abuser getting a gun.” @CourthouseNews https://t.co/jbtmryjG2k
— Kelsey Reichmann (@KelseyReichmann) June 21, 2024
Alito, who has recently faced loud criticism for lax reporting of personal gifts and for flying controversial (and reportedly pro-Trump) flags at his residences, has refused requests that he recuse himself from cases involving Donald Trump and the 2020 election.
So though Alito is personally absent from court this week, his adamant insistence on full participation means that all the decisions the court issues will come from nine justices, including the keenly awaited decision on Trump’s claim of complete “presidential immunity” from prosecution for his actions surrounding attempts to overturn the 2020 election results, including charges that the former president incited the January 6th attack on the Capitol.
Justice Samuel Alito was not on the bench for opinions this morning
— Kelsey Reichmann (@KelseyReichmann) June 20, 2024
The Supreme Court on Thursday also upheld a 2017 tax on foreign corporate investments, ruled against a convicted drug mule from California who had thousands of dollars worth of methamphetamine found in her car, and ruled, as NBC reported, in favor of “a Texas woman who served on a small-town council and was arrested following her criticisms of a senior official.”
Reichmann of Courthouse News added on Thursday: “With 19 rulings left, the Supreme Court has announced two upcoming opinion days: tomorrow and Wednesday. Big outstanding rulings include: Trump immunity, 1/6 charges, emergency abortions, cross state air pollution, DV gun access, $6 billion opioid settlement and more.”
After Friday, 12 decisions remain to be issued.
Supreme Court is done with rulings for today, issuing five. Next ruling day is Wednesday, with 12 cases left to be decided.
— Lawrence Hurley (@lawrencehurley) June 21, 2024
Supreme Court scholar, Dr. Adam Feldman, delivered his take on Thursday about the pace of the cases: “Two 6-3 split decisions in SCOTUS today and neither were along ideological lines. It’s almost the end of the SCOTUS term which makes this much more interesting (although my money is seeing more ideological splits in the remaining cases).”
Feldman’s prediction proved accurate on Friday: The 8-1 decision restricting, in a limited way, gun acquisition was obviously also an ideological line buster.
It’s Supreme Court phony war week. Hold fire on your hot takes until the end of next week. https://t.co/I4vqRNycpi
— Lawrence Hurley (@lawrencehurley) June 20, 2024
Lawrence Hurley, Pulitzer Prize-winning Supreme Court reporter for NBC News responded: “It’s Supreme Court phony war week. Hold fire on your hot takes until the end of next week.”
Meant to describe a period after war has been declared and yet before fighting has truly commenced, the term “phony war” is believed to have been coined by isolationist U.S. Sen. William Borah (R-Idaho), who in September 1939 said of the not-yet-war-torn Western Front: “There is something phoney about this war.”
Hurley appeared to be indicating that not until next week will the SCOTUS hot war begin — and with Friday’s session leaving the Trump immunity decision unread, he seems to have had it right. Next decision day is Wednesday.
[NOTE: When the Western Front got hot and decidedly not phony, the results included “the Battle of Verdun, in 1916, with a combined 700,000 casualties, the Battle of the Somme, also in 1916, with more than a million casualties, and the Battle of Passchendaele, in 1917, with 487,000 casualties.”]