1margd
I can't imagine these folks, politically diverse as they are, won't seize opportunity to advise!
President Biden to Sign Executive Order Creating the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States
April 09, 2021 • WH Statements and Releases
President Biden will today issue an executive order forming the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States, comprised of a bipartisan group of experts on the Court and the Court reform debate. In addition to legal and other scholars, the Commissioners includes former federal judges and practitioners who have appeared before the Court, as well as advocates for the reform of democratic institutions and of the administration of justice. The expertise represented on the Commission includes constitutional law, history and political science.
The Commission’s purpose is to provide an analysis of the principal arguments in the contemporary public debate for and against Supreme Court reform, including an appraisal of the merits and legality of particular reform proposals. The topics it will examine include the genesis of the reform debate; the Court’s role in the Constitutional system; the length of service and turnover of justices on the Court; the membership and size of the Court; and the Court’s case selection, rules, and practices.
To ensure that the Commission’s report is comprehensive and informed by a diverse spectrum of views, it will hold public meetings to hear the views of other experts, and groups and interested individuals with varied perspectives on the issues it will be examining. The Executive Order directs that the Commission complete its report within 180 days of its first public meeting. This action is part of the Administration’s commitment to closely study measures to improve the federal judiciary, including those that would expand access the court system.
The two co-chairs of this Commission are Bob Bauer, Professor of Practice and Distinguished Scholar in Residence at New York University School of Law and a former White House Counsel, as well as Yale Law School Professor Cristina Rodriguez, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice.
COMMISSIONERS
Michelle Adams, Professor of Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law...
Kate Andrias (Rapporteur), Professor of Law at the University of Michigan...
Jack M. Balkin, Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment at Yale Law School...
Bob Bauer (Co-Chair), Professor of Practice and Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the New York University School of Law and Co-Director of NYU Law’s Legislative and Regulatory Process Clinic...
William Baude, Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Constitutional Law Institute at the University of Chicago Law School...
Elise Boddie, Professor of Law and Judge Robert L. Carter Scholar at Rutgers University...
Guy-Uriel E. Charles, the Edward and Ellen Schwarzman Professor of Law at Duke Law School...
Andrew Manuel Crespo, Professor of Law at Harvard University...
Walter Dellinger, Douglas Maggs Emeritus Professor of Law at Duke University and a Partner in the firm of O’Melveny & Myers...
Justin Driver, Robert R. Slaughter Professor of Law at Yale Law School...
Richard H. Fallon, Jr. joined the Harvard Law School faculty as an assistant professor in 1982 and is currently Story Professor of Law. Affiliate Professor in the Harvard University Government Department...
Caroline Fredrickson, Distinguished Visiting Professor from Practice at Georgetown Law and a Senior Fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice...
Heather Gerken, Dean and Sol & Lillian Goldman Professor of Law at Yale Law School
Nancy Gertner, United States District Court Judge (D. Mass.) from 1994-2011. She retired to join the faculty at Harvard Law School and has been a Visiting Lecturer at Yale Law School...
Jack Goldsmith, Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and co-founder of Lawfare...
Thomas B. Griffith served on the U. S. Court of Appeals for the D. C. Circuit from 2005 – 2020. He is now Special Counsel at Hunton Andrews Kurth, a Senior Advisor to the National Institute for Civil Discourse, and a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School...
Tara Leigh Grove, Charles E. Tweedy, Jr., Endowed Chairholder of Law and Director of the Program in Constitutional Studies at the University of Alabama School of Law...
Bert I. Huang, Michael I. Sovern Professor of Law at Columbia University...
Sherrilyn Ifill, President & Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF)...
Michael S. Kang, William G. and Virginia K. Karnes Research Professor at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law...
Olatunde Johnson, Jerome B. Sherman Professor of Law at Columbia Law School...
Alison L. LaCroix, Robert Newton Reid Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. Associate Member of the University of Chicago Department of History...
Margaret H. Lemos, Robert G. Seaks LL.B. ’34 Professor of Law, Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research, and faculty co-advisor for the Bolch Judicial Institute at Duke Law School...
David F. Levi, Levi Family Professor of Law and Judicial Studies and Director of the Bolch Judicial Institute at Duke Law School...
Trevor W. Morrison, Dean of NYU School of Law...
Caleb Nelson, Emerson G. Spies Distinguished Professor of Law and the Caddell and Chapman Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law...
Richard H. Pildes, Sudler Family Professor of Constitutional Law at New York University School of Law...
Michael D. Ramsey, Hugh and Hazel Darling Foundation Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law...
Cristina M. Rodríguez (Co-Chair), Leighton Homer Surbeck Professor of Law at Yale Law School...
Kermit Roosevelt, professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School...
Bertrall Ross, Chancellor’s Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law...
Judge Myron Thompson of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama...
David A. Strauss, Gerald Ratner Distinguished Service Professor of Law and the Faculty Director of the Supreme Court and Appellate Clinic at the University of Chicago...
Laurence H. Tribe, Carl M. Loeb University Professor and Professor of Constitutional Law Emeritus at Harvard University...
Adam White, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and an assistant professor of law at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, where he directs the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State...
Keith E. Whittington, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Politics at Princeton University and is currently the chair of Academic Freedom Alliance...
Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law...
President Biden to Sign Executive Order Creating the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States
April 09, 2021 • WH Statements and Releases
President Biden will today issue an executive order forming the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States, comprised of a bipartisan group of experts on the Court and the Court reform debate. In addition to legal and other scholars, the Commissioners includes former federal judges and practitioners who have appeared before the Court, as well as advocates for the reform of democratic institutions and of the administration of justice. The expertise represented on the Commission includes constitutional law, history and political science.
The Commission’s purpose is to provide an analysis of the principal arguments in the contemporary public debate for and against Supreme Court reform, including an appraisal of the merits and legality of particular reform proposals. The topics it will examine include the genesis of the reform debate; the Court’s role in the Constitutional system; the length of service and turnover of justices on the Court; the membership and size of the Court; and the Court’s case selection, rules, and practices.
To ensure that the Commission’s report is comprehensive and informed by a diverse spectrum of views, it will hold public meetings to hear the views of other experts, and groups and interested individuals with varied perspectives on the issues it will be examining. The Executive Order directs that the Commission complete its report within 180 days of its first public meeting. This action is part of the Administration’s commitment to closely study measures to improve the federal judiciary, including those that would expand access the court system.
The two co-chairs of this Commission are Bob Bauer, Professor of Practice and Distinguished Scholar in Residence at New York University School of Law and a former White House Counsel, as well as Yale Law School Professor Cristina Rodriguez, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice.
COMMISSIONERS
Michelle Adams, Professor of Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law...
Kate Andrias (Rapporteur), Professor of Law at the University of Michigan...
Jack M. Balkin, Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment at Yale Law School...
Bob Bauer (Co-Chair), Professor of Practice and Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the New York University School of Law and Co-Director of NYU Law’s Legislative and Regulatory Process Clinic...
William Baude, Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Constitutional Law Institute at the University of Chicago Law School...
Elise Boddie, Professor of Law and Judge Robert L. Carter Scholar at Rutgers University...
Guy-Uriel E. Charles, the Edward and Ellen Schwarzman Professor of Law at Duke Law School...
Andrew Manuel Crespo, Professor of Law at Harvard University...
Walter Dellinger, Douglas Maggs Emeritus Professor of Law at Duke University and a Partner in the firm of O’Melveny & Myers...
Justin Driver, Robert R. Slaughter Professor of Law at Yale Law School...
Richard H. Fallon, Jr. joined the Harvard Law School faculty as an assistant professor in 1982 and is currently Story Professor of Law. Affiliate Professor in the Harvard University Government Department...
Caroline Fredrickson, Distinguished Visiting Professor from Practice at Georgetown Law and a Senior Fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice...
Heather Gerken, Dean and Sol & Lillian Goldman Professor of Law at Yale Law School
Nancy Gertner, United States District Court Judge (D. Mass.) from 1994-2011. She retired to join the faculty at Harvard Law School and has been a Visiting Lecturer at Yale Law School...
Jack Goldsmith, Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and co-founder of Lawfare...
Thomas B. Griffith served on the U. S. Court of Appeals for the D. C. Circuit from 2005 – 2020. He is now Special Counsel at Hunton Andrews Kurth, a Senior Advisor to the National Institute for Civil Discourse, and a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School...
Tara Leigh Grove, Charles E. Tweedy, Jr., Endowed Chairholder of Law and Director of the Program in Constitutional Studies at the University of Alabama School of Law...
Bert I. Huang, Michael I. Sovern Professor of Law at Columbia University...
Sherrilyn Ifill, President & Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF)...
Michael S. Kang, William G. and Virginia K. Karnes Research Professor at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law...
Olatunde Johnson, Jerome B. Sherman Professor of Law at Columbia Law School...
Alison L. LaCroix, Robert Newton Reid Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. Associate Member of the University of Chicago Department of History...
Margaret H. Lemos, Robert G. Seaks LL.B. ’34 Professor of Law, Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research, and faculty co-advisor for the Bolch Judicial Institute at Duke Law School...
David F. Levi, Levi Family Professor of Law and Judicial Studies and Director of the Bolch Judicial Institute at Duke Law School...
Trevor W. Morrison, Dean of NYU School of Law...
Caleb Nelson, Emerson G. Spies Distinguished Professor of Law and the Caddell and Chapman Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law...
Richard H. Pildes, Sudler Family Professor of Constitutional Law at New York University School of Law...
Michael D. Ramsey, Hugh and Hazel Darling Foundation Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law...
Cristina M. Rodríguez (Co-Chair), Leighton Homer Surbeck Professor of Law at Yale Law School...
Kermit Roosevelt, professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School...
Bertrall Ross, Chancellor’s Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law...
Judge Myron Thompson of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama...
David A. Strauss, Gerald Ratner Distinguished Service Professor of Law and the Faculty Director of the Supreme Court and Appellate Clinic at the University of Chicago...
Laurence H. Tribe, Carl M. Loeb University Professor and Professor of Constitutional Law Emeritus at Harvard University...
Adam White, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and an assistant professor of law at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, where he directs the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State...
Keith E. Whittington, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Politics at Princeton University and is currently the chair of Academic Freedom Alliance...
Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law...
2margd
New bill may be premature and unlikely to pass in Senate, but it does focus on the problem of hyper-partisan influence on makeup of a court driven in large part by actuarial bingo.
A new bill would add 4 seats to the Supreme Court
It’s on!
Ian Millhiser | Apr 14, 2021
Four Democratic members of Congress plan to introduce legislation that would add four seats to the Supreme Court, which would, if passed, allow President Biden to immediately name four individuals to fill those seats and give Democrats a 7-6 majority.
The bill, which is being introduced by Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Hank Johnson (D-GA), and Mondaire Jones (D-NY) in the House and by Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) in the Senate, is called the Judiciary Act of 2021, and it is very brief. It amends a provision of federal law providing that the Supreme Court consist of a chief justice and eight associate justices to read that the Court shall consist of ‘‘a Chief Justice of the United States and twelve associate justices, any eight of whom shall constitute a quorum.”...
https://www.vox.com/22384461/supreme-court-court-expansion-packing-judiciary-act...
A new bill would add 4 seats to the Supreme Court
It’s on!
Ian Millhiser | Apr 14, 2021
Four Democratic members of Congress plan to introduce legislation that would add four seats to the Supreme Court, which would, if passed, allow President Biden to immediately name four individuals to fill those seats and give Democrats a 7-6 majority.
The bill, which is being introduced by Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Hank Johnson (D-GA), and Mondaire Jones (D-NY) in the House and by Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) in the Senate, is called the Judiciary Act of 2021, and it is very brief. It amends a provision of federal law providing that the Supreme Court consist of a chief justice and eight associate justices to read that the Court shall consist of ‘‘a Chief Justice of the United States and twelve associate justices, any eight of whom shall constitute a quorum.”...
https://www.vox.com/22384461/supreme-court-court-expansion-packing-judiciary-act...
3margd
Pelosi dismisses progressive ‘court packing’ legislation
“I have no intention to bring it to the floor,” Pelosi said of the legislative push.
SARAH FERRIS | 04/15/2021
Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday rejected a push from the left wing of the party to swiftly vote on legislation to expand the Supreme Court with Democrats in full control of Washington.
“I have no intention to bring it to the floor,” Pelosi said of the legislation, led by House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler and Sen. Ed Markey, which would expand the number of Supreme Court justices to 13 from nine.
nstead, Pelosi said she backed President Joe Biden’s recent move to create a commission to study possible expansion of the Supreme Court: “I don’t know that that’s a good idea or a bad idea. I think it’s an idea that should be considered.”
"It’s not out of the question," Pelosi said of the broader push.
The legislation would almost certainly lack the votes in the House — with Pelosi able to lose just two Democrats on any single bill — let alone the even more narrowly divided Senate...
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/15/pelosi-dismiss-progressive-court-packin...
“I have no intention to bring it to the floor,” Pelosi said of the legislative push.
SARAH FERRIS | 04/15/2021
Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday rejected a push from the left wing of the party to swiftly vote on legislation to expand the Supreme Court with Democrats in full control of Washington.
“I have no intention to bring it to the floor,” Pelosi said of the legislation, led by House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler and Sen. Ed Markey, which would expand the number of Supreme Court justices to 13 from nine.
nstead, Pelosi said she backed President Joe Biden’s recent move to create a commission to study possible expansion of the Supreme Court: “I don’t know that that’s a good idea or a bad idea. I think it’s an idea that should be considered.”
"It’s not out of the question," Pelosi said of the broader push.
The legislation would almost certainly lack the votes in the House — with Pelosi able to lose just two Democrats on any single bill — let alone the even more narrowly divided Senate...
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/15/pelosi-dismiss-progressive-court-packin...
4margd
Democrats Ask Justice Barrett To Recuse In Case Involving Nonprofit Donor Privacy
Nina Totenberg | April 22, 2021
Democratic members of the House and Senate Judiciary committees are asking U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett to recuse herself from participating in a case involving a conservative nonprofit with ties to a group that gave at least $1 million to fund a "national campaign" to win Senate confirmation of her Supreme Court nomination.
...The case, which is to be argued next week, was brought by the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, created by the conservative Koch brothers. It challenges a California law, similar to those in other states, that requires tax-exempt nonprofits to attach to their state tax filing an IRS form that discloses the identity of their large donors. The foundation is seeking a broad constitutional ruling that would keep its donor identities secret.
The Democratic lawmakers' letter to Barrett notes that "just minutes after your nomination by former President Trump last September," the Americans for Prosperity Foundation's sister organization, Americans for Prosperity, announced in a press release it was mounting a "Full Scale Campaign to Confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court." The campaign was characterized as "a significant national ad campaign focusing on eleven states" and that the organization would spend "in the seven figures" — in other words, at least $1 million.
The letter goes on to cite both statutory provisions of federal law governing judicial ethics and constitutional law that the lawmakers contend require Barrett either to recuse herself or explain why she is not doing so.
...The rules of judicial conduct, codified under federal law, require that "any justice, judge, or magistrate judges of the United states shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality may be questioned." And, as (ew York University law professor Stephen Gillers) observes, significantly, the standard under that statute is not whether the judge thinks he or she is biased. It is whether a reasonable, objective person, when told that a group with ties to an important case before the court spent at minimum $1 million to win confirmation for Barrett, would have doubts about the justice's impartiality.
...In the last analysis, it is up to each individual justice to decide whether he or she should recuse...
https://www.npr.org/2021/04/22/989595589/democrats-ask-justice-barrett-to-recuse...
Nina Totenberg | April 22, 2021
Democratic members of the House and Senate Judiciary committees are asking U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett to recuse herself from participating in a case involving a conservative nonprofit with ties to a group that gave at least $1 million to fund a "national campaign" to win Senate confirmation of her Supreme Court nomination.
...The case, which is to be argued next week, was brought by the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, created by the conservative Koch brothers. It challenges a California law, similar to those in other states, that requires tax-exempt nonprofits to attach to their state tax filing an IRS form that discloses the identity of their large donors. The foundation is seeking a broad constitutional ruling that would keep its donor identities secret.
The Democratic lawmakers' letter to Barrett notes that "just minutes after your nomination by former President Trump last September," the Americans for Prosperity Foundation's sister organization, Americans for Prosperity, announced in a press release it was mounting a "Full Scale Campaign to Confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court." The campaign was characterized as "a significant national ad campaign focusing on eleven states" and that the organization would spend "in the seven figures" — in other words, at least $1 million.
The letter goes on to cite both statutory provisions of federal law governing judicial ethics and constitutional law that the lawmakers contend require Barrett either to recuse herself or explain why she is not doing so.
...The rules of judicial conduct, codified under federal law, require that "any justice, judge, or magistrate judges of the United states shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality may be questioned." And, as (ew York University law professor Stephen Gillers) observes, significantly, the standard under that statute is not whether the judge thinks he or she is biased. It is whether a reasonable, objective person, when told that a group with ties to an important case before the court spent at minimum $1 million to win confirmation for Barrett, would have doubts about the justice's impartiality.
...In the last analysis, it is up to each individual justice to decide whether he or she should recuse...
https://www.npr.org/2021/04/22/989595589/democrats-ask-justice-barrett-to-recuse...
5margd
Dan Epps @danepps | 11:09 AM · May 8, 2023:
Treiman Professor of Law, WUSTL {Washington U St Louis}. Con law 📜, crim law/pro 👮, SCOTUSology 🏛. Cohost 🎤@DividedArgument.
https://twitter.com/danepps/status/1655590748060889089
Our findings have a lot of relevance for policymakers interested in Court expansion. But one particularly salient one: without Court expansion, Democrats are unlikely to retain control of the Court until...2065.
Fig 5. Simulation Results without Court Packing
https://twitter.com/danepps/status/1655590748060889089/photo/1
Had RBG retired under a D president (or had Garland been confirmed) Democrats would likely have retaken control by 2029, and would control the Court for about half of the next century.
Text ( https://twitter.com/danepps/status/1655590750078357509/photo/1 )
Treiman Professor of Law, WUSTL {Washington U St Louis}. Con law 📜, crim law/pro 👮, SCOTUSology 🏛. Cohost 🎤@DividedArgument.
https://twitter.com/danepps/status/1655590748060889089
Our findings have a lot of relevance for policymakers interested in Court expansion. But one particularly salient one: without Court expansion, Democrats are unlikely to retain control of the Court until...2065.
Fig 5. Simulation Results without Court Packing
https://twitter.com/danepps/status/1655590748060889089/photo/1
Had RBG retired under a D president (or had Garland been confirmed) Democrats would likely have retaken control by 2029, and would control the Court for about half of the next century.
Text ( https://twitter.com/danepps/status/1655590750078357509/photo/1 )
