this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2024
83 points (94.6% liked)

News

23304 readers
4769 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

A rift is emerging among the Supreme Court’s conservatives — and it could thwart the court’s recent march to expand gun rights.

On one side is the court’s oldest and most conservative justice, Clarence Thomas. On the other is its youngest member, Amy Coney Barrett.

The question at the center of the spat may seem abstract: How should the court use “history and tradition” to decide modern-day legal issues? But the answer may determine how the court resolves some of the biggest cases set to be released in the coming days, particularly its latest foray into the Second Amendment right to bear arms.

If the court adheres to a strict history-centric approach, as Thomas favors, it will likely strike down a federal law denying firearms to people under domestic violence restraining orders.

But Barrett recently foreshadowed that she is distancing herself from that approach. If she breaks with Thomas in the gun case, known as United States v. Rahimi, and if she can persuade at least one other conservative justice to join her, they could align with the court’s three liberals to uphold the gun control law.

top 18 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 62 points 4 months ago (2 children)

If the court adheres to a strict history-centric approach, as Thomas favors

I do not need to read this article. Clarence Thomas does not adhere to a strict anything centric approach unless the centric is money for him, and sexual harassment.

[–] meleecrits 8 points 4 months ago

A strict history centric approach would make him property.

[–] FuglyDuck 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Put it better than I could have.

I’d send you a box of cookies, but that’d be creepy,

[–] dogslayeggs 1 points 4 months ago

I think it depends on whether the cookies are homemade or store bought. Homemade might be creepy from someone you don't know. But if I got a pack of Oreos mailed to me from some random internet person, I'd be stoked.

[–] BertramDitore 28 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It’s these kinds of whitewashing bullshit articles that are why the court isn’t even more unpopular. There’s a concerted effort to make the court appear reasonable. It’s not. Barrett might ask a question here or there during oral argument that sounds reasonable or moderate, but she still almost always votes with the extreme right wing majority. She is not an impartial jurist, she’s a hateful Christian extremist with a normal-sounding voice. Don’t fall for it.

[–] WoahWoah 9 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

While that may very well all be true, her written concurring opinion pretty bluntly excoriated the originalist doctrine and was a pretty clear and unabashed criticism of Clarence Thomas.

The reason it's news is because she seemed to fully believe in originalist interpretative methodology during her tenure at SCOTUS, but she now seems to be changing her mind about it's viability as conservative judicial orthodoxy. It doesn't make her suddenly noble, but it indicates that she might become another swing vote along with Roberts on future cases.

You should actually read the article and read her opinion. It's a pretty aggressively critical shift. If you have been following SCOTUS decisions and positioning, it's newsworthy.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That's all well and good, but remember,

concurring opinion

...is what matters at the end of the day.

[–] WoahWoah 2 points 4 months ago

They were all concurring opinions. The decision was unanimous.

[–] BertramDitore 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Everything you said is true, but I still think her shift is being overblown. The opinion in which she criticized Thomas’s historical approach was a concurring opinion, she agreed with the result, but not the methodology. The result is what the vast majority of Americans will see, not that she happened to take a different road to get to the same place.

And in the same concurring opinion, she had the audacity to hold up stare decisis, despite her hair-trigger willingness to overturn precedent in critical cases like Dobbs.

I follow the court, and read the article. I guess I’m just way more cynical than you. I appreciate your moderating tone though, I hope I’m wrong about her.

[–] WoahWoah 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

You just caught me on a slightly less cynical day I guess. I share your concern and, generally, your cynicism, but I'm trying to find a little hope on this one. I would also note that every opinion was concurring on this case. It was unanimous.

Regardless, thanks for you kind tone.

[–] Pfeffy 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It is no different than Republicans in Congress making symbolic votes when they know that a bill will pass without their support. I could not care less about what stuff she says in a concurring opinion. It will be newsworthy when she actually rules separately from the rest of the heritage foundation appointees.

[–] WoahWoah -2 points 4 months ago
[–] dogslayeggs 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I read the article, and my take was more that I get a feeling she is gearing up to go against originalist doctrine FOR A REASON. Possibly she thinks something in the original Constitution is too liberal and anti-Jesus, so she wants to vote against things that follow that. It's hard to put in words my feeling, but it wasn't that this was a good thing.

[–] WoahWoah -1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Read the opinion and recognize the context. It was a direct criticism of another, more conservative justice. Take the W when it presents itself.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 months ago

That's a lot of "ifs"

[–] dugmeup 16 points 4 months ago

Nah, she will vote with the majority and provide an alternative justification if she even bothers.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

Maybe she found a pube on her can of coke.

[–] rayyy 4 points 4 months ago

Not going to happen. Republicans as a whole are scared shitless of the violent right wing nutters.