David Hume
davidhume
Jr. Member
Posts: 1,619
Political Matrix
E: -0.77, S: 1.22
|
 |
« on: September 06, 2021, 07:47:01 PM » |
|
What's the procedure for Supreme Court to reschedule a case for a later conference to decide if to grant cert?
The Mississippi abortion case was rescheduled more than 20 times before cert was granted. Is it just up to the Chief, or they need to vote to reschedule?
If Roberts can decide by himself, as long as there were no four votes to grant cert in one conference, he can simply deny. Why bother reschedule?
We Know Thomas and Alito will always grant cert to overturn Roe, as long as the vehicle is good, even if their position may lose. I am not 100% sure about Gorsuch, but it gives me the same impression. So for this abortion case, there were 3 votes to grant, only 1 more needed.
This means Kavanaugh and Barrett were not sure at some point. I am inclined to Kavanaugh did not want to grant. He was reported to urged the court to avoid taking controversial abortion cases. Note this is different from June Medical, in which the LA abortion restriction was upheld by 5th circuit. It may be the 4 liberals who want to grant cert to strike it down.
I bet Kavanaugh doesn't want to be the 5th vote to overrule Roe. It's way better for him to not take this case at all.
So the reason it got rescheduled so many times may be that Barrett felt hard to make a decision, and she asked Roberts for more time to consider.
Roberts wanted to be good with her, to compete for her with Thomas. For Barrett, it's almost clear she thinks Roe was wrongly decided. Yet she cares stare decisis more than Scalia, as well as the court's reputation and her own image.
For the Dobbs case, the 5th circuit upheld the district court's ruling to strike down the anti abortion law (which they should), and the application for en banc was denied. For those supporting abortion, it's very likely they don't want to grant cert. It may be possible that they want to use this case to reaffirm Roe and to tell red states to stop passing similar laws, but this is not very likely.
So my guess is, at the initial conference, only three votes to grant cert. Barrett was not sure, and asked more time to decide. She might even privately communicated with Roberts. Roberts was faced with the choice to either deny her, or reschedule. He might be worried that if he refuse to reschedule, Barrett would directly vote to grant cert. So he agreed, hoping she might decided to vote to deny in the end. But Barrett became the 4th vote to grant cert. She may indeed want to overturn Roe, which is plausible and likely. It is also possible that she want to send a clear message that she cares stare decisis and she is not a radical crazy Trump justice that the media depicted.
|
