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SCOTUS For The Average Joe

Average Joe SCOTUS: Edwards v. Vannoy

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Alleged all around scumbag Thedrick Edwards was convicted of several robberies and rape in 2006. Here’s the rub with that shit. At Edwards trial, the prosecutor excluded every black juror they could, and the one remaining voted to acquit. But in Louisiana, at the time, only a 10-2 vote was needed for a conviction, so off to prison he went.

Since then, last year, SCOTUS decided Ramos v. Louisiana, where they basically made it law of the land that a jury must be unanimous for convictions in all state and federal courts. So now this case is to decide if that ruling is retroactive, and thus Edwards should get a hung jury, and potentially be forced to either be retried, or have his case dropped.

Andre Belanger, counsel for Edwards,  swung for the fences when he closed by saying:

Jury unanimity predates the founding and ranks amongst our most indispensable rights. It significantly improves the accuracy and fairness because a verdict taken from 11 is no verdict at all. The state has no legitimate interests in avoiding retroactivity.

Louisiana’s nonunanimous jury scheme was thoroughly racist and discriminatory in its origin.

As members of this Court said in Ramos, we should not perpetuate something we all know to be wrong only because we fear the consequences of being right. Thank you, Mr. Chief Justice.

Counsel for Vannos is basically arguing the merits of having convictions for crimes when she opened up by saying:

There can be no doubt that declaring the Ramos rule retroactive unsettles thousands of cases that involve terrible crimes in all three jurisdictions.

Requiring new trials in long-final criminal cases would be impossible in sum and particularly unfair to the victims of these crimes. Ramos is unquestionably a new rule. This Court has held on numerous occasions that a discarded precedent is the clearest sign of a new rule.

She’s basically arguing that she doesn’t give a fuck if some of these people are wrongly convicted according to the new Ramos rule, it’ll be a bunch of work for the state of Louisiana to deal with all these people wrongly convicted. This position is depraved AF.

In closing arguments, counsel for Edwards again, dropped a pretty heavy hammer, stating:

As this Court said in Ballew, the risk of sending 10 innocent people to jail is greater than the risk of sending one guilty person free.

In the end, the state has no legitimate interest in avoiding retroactivity but for its desire to let Mr. Edwards languish in Angola for the rest of his life. On what grounds can we let this happen when we know his conviction is unconstitutional? The answer to that question is none. Thank you, Mr. Chief Justice.

In a 6:3 partisan decision, SCOTUS ruled in favor of Vannoy. The unanimity rule is not retroactive. In order for this to be retroactive, it would have to be what they call a “watershed” exception. They defined this as “alters our understanding of the bedrock procedural elements essential to the fairness of a proceeding.”

Since this is simply a new rule, a new opinion, a new precedent, or whatever the fuck you want to call it, it isn’t a “watershed” thing, and thus isn’t retroactive.

Hear oral arguments and read about the case here.

https://www.oyez.org/cases/2020/19-5807

SCOTUS For The Average Joe

Average Joe SCOTUS: Texas v. New Mexico

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In a case which seems like a total waste of time and some petty bullshit between two states, at issue here is some water rights thing. This is a unique case that, because it’s an interstate issue, just falls under SCOTUS jurisdiction, as opposed to something they agree to hear.

The Pecos River travels through both Texas and New Mexico. Apparently, they signed a deal that New Mexico would make sure it didn’t take too much water from the river, which would them harm Texas if they didn’t get enough, since the river travels through New Mexico first, and into Texas.

In order to enforce this deal, they hired a River Master to manage this shit.

Anyway, in 2015, there was a big storm, and New Mexico had a reservoir in the Pecos Basin that feeds the Pecos River, and that shit filled up. So they were gonna let that water run down the river to Texas. But Texas was like, “hey buddy, pal, friend, chap…can you hold that water for us. Our reservoir is all kinds of fucked up, and it won’t hold shit.”

So New Mexico was like, “Sure, dawg. We’ll hold it.”

Well, they held that shit for nine months. During such time, a lot of it evaporated. So New Mexico was finally like, “We gotta dump this shit, bro” and so they did.

So the water headed to Texas, but was light, since a lot of it evaporated off. But New Mexico wanted credited for all the water that was evaporated and sent to Texas, since it evaporated while being held for Texas.

Since the contract didn’t account for this shit, they asked the River Master dude to settle this shit, and he was basically like, “Fuck it, I’m calling these losses as Texas’, since they asked NM to hold that shit.”

The U.S. Attorney General sided with New Mexico saying in an amicus brief, “Saying listen you longhorn fucks, if you had taken the water when it was ready for you, all those evaporative losses would have been yours. And it’s not like New Mexico has some way of preventing water from evaporating in a reservoir. So fuck you, this is on you.”

But Texas was like, “Dude, you can’t just make up rules willy-nilly. So let’s have SCOTUS sort it out, since they have nothing better to do.

In a unanimous decision where Justice Barrett abstained, SCOTUS sided with New Mexico, Texas has no standing to review the Pecos River Master’s determination.

Hear oral arguments and read about the case here

https://www.oyez.org/cases/2020/65-orig

SCOTUS For The Average Joe

Average Joe SCOTUS: Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru

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Old-ass teacher Agnes Deirdre Morrissey-Berru taught at Our Lady of Guadalupe school. Apparently, she was so old, the school got sick of seeing her, and summarily kicked her to the curb.

There’s laws against age discrimination though—specifically the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). Dear old sweet Agnes felt like Our Lady of Guadalupe had become Our Dirty Ass Bitch of Guadalupe, and filed suit, claiming she was discriminated against because she was so old, she knew Ivan the Terrible when he was just Ivan the Slightly Unpleasant.

However, those laws allow religious institutions exemptions for ministerial staff, and the school argued that good dear old sweet harmless Agnes was effectively a minister.

Agnes was like, “Goodness gracious! I took one class on religious studies. I never learned to be a minister. So please, go forth and multiply.” (Which is a polite way of saying “go fuck yourself.”)

A district court apparently found Guadalupe’s argument good enough, and sent Agnes’ old ass packing. But the ninth circuit was like, “Hold on a minute you lazy assholes. This old broad ain’t no minister.” And they sided with dear old sweet wonderful Agnes.

One of the issues at hand, is basically to define what the fuck a minister even is, and therefore who falls under that moniker.

But ultimately SCOTUS is being asked to decide if the first amendment’s religion clause allows the courts to get involved in all of this shit in the first place.

In a 7:2 decision, SCOTUS decided dear old sweet wonderful Agnes could fuck right the hell off, and take her chocolate chip cookies with her.

You see, the court has a long history of not sticking their nose in the church’s business. They’re not about to tell the church WTF a minister is. So they were like, “Sorry dear old sweet Agnes, you’re own your own you old biddy.”

Ginsburg and Sotomayor however were like, “Agnes isn’t even hardly teaching religion for fuck’s sake. Are you kidding us with this shit? She teaches secular shit. Hell, she doesn’t even have to be catholic here.

But the other seven were like, “fuck off, decision for Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Hear oral arguments or read about the case here.

SCOTUS For The Average Joe

Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants Inc.

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Back in 1991, the government passed the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. It was basically a law preventing spammers from calling you on your cell phone via a machine (robocalls), and racking up costs for the phone’s owner. Obviously, in 1991, people were often paying for minutes of usage, whereas now, most phone plans have unlimited calling. But still, I hate these assholes, so I like the law.

There were exemptions, though. It allowed for emergency calls. And it allowed for calls when you had previously agreed to get them from that party.

In 2015, those assholes in congress added a provision to allow debt collection calls “owed to or guaranteed by the United States” as well. Any calls from the federal government in general are also allowed.

Along come these butt plugs from The American Association of Political Consultants, Inc., who love spamming the hell out of people with their surveys and shit. They claim their 1st amendment right to free speech is being limited by not allowing them to annoy the fuck out of all of us with cell phones wanting to talk to us about politics and shit. They argued that because the law limits calls based on content, allowing the government to make them, while these assholes can’t, versus banning all calls—this makes such a ban a 1A violation of free speech.

At one point, this scumbag also argued:

The government-debt exception confirms that Congress did not view the privacy interests here as compelling. That exception exposes 60 million Americans to unlimited calls to collect more than 4.2 trillion dollars in debt.

Those are the kinds of calls consumers hate the most. If Congress really thought privacy was paramount, it would not have allowed those calls.

While it’s true those are the calls people hate the most, the fact is, those people agreed to incur a debt, and agreed to allow the people who lent them money or services to collect that debt, and then they didn’t fucking pay it. I’ve been there, it’s annoying. But it’s no one’s fault but my own.

Yet these shady fuckhats want to call you and just shoot the breeze about who you plan on voting for and shit. Ain’t nobody got time for that, and I didn’t agree to that shit in advance. They also argue these calls are non-commercial, meaning they’re not trying to sell you anything. So that’s why they think it should be OK.

Both an appeals court and the fourth circuit were highly unimpressed with this bullshit argument. So here were are to determine if it’s a 1A violation or not.

In a 6:3 majority, the right-leaning justices along with Sotomayor agreed that the government-debt exception violates the 1st amendment. That the government doesn’t get to say you can be called if the debt is guaranteed by them, but restrict a private debt collector.

The interesting part, is while the government lost and AAPC won, technically, AAPC still can’t call your ass. Instead, SCOTUS ruled that this “government-backed debt collection” exemption could be struck from the law itself, while leaving the rest of the law in tact. So now, you cannot robocall for any debt collection to your cell phone, whether it’s backed by the government, or a private debt. So AAPC still can’t call your mobile phone, but neither can any other debt collector.

This is basically like when you’re a kid, and you’re mad your older brother can go out, and you can’t. So instead of letting you go out, your parents say your brother can’t either. You didn’t make your own situation better, you just made it worse for others.

SCOTUS For The Average Joe

Average Joe SCOTUS: Chiafalo v. Washington

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Similar to Colorado Department of State v. Baca, but no longer enjoined with it, this involves faithless electors.

In Washington, as in other states, an elector is bound to vote for the winner of the popular vote in that state, and if they don’t, they can be fined $1,000.

Well, Chiafalo, despite Clinton winning their popular vote, cast a ballot for Colin Powell. Washington wasn’t amused, and levied the fine accordingly.

Chiafalo argued that it’s their first amendment right to choose whatever fucking candidate they want, regardless of what the people chose.

Lower courts sided with Washington, but Chiafalo kept insisting, so here we are at SCOTUS deciding how electors are to be managed, along with the Baca  case.

In a unanimous decision, SCOTUS decided that the states can set whatever fucking rules they want for electors. That the constitution delegated that power to the states, leaving it up to them to decide how their electors are to be managed.

SCOTUS For The Average Joe

Average Joe SCOTUS: Colorado Department of State v. Baca

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The Bacas are electors in the state of Colorado. During the 2016 election, despite the fact that in Colorado, they have a rule stating electors must cast their votes for the winner of the popular vote, the Mr. Baca inexplicably cast his vote for John Kasich.

Colorado was less than pleased, and told him to take a hike. So then Mrs. Baca went ahead and cast her vote for Clinton, along with a 3rd party, even though they still preferred to vote for Kasich.

After the election, the Bacas sued Colorado saying that the twelfth amendment should prohibit Colorado for passing such a law, and as electors, they should be able to vote for whomever the fuck they want.

So now SCOTUS is being asked to determine if the courts have the right to rule on this, and if so, is Colorado’s law, and many other state laws that are similar, unconstitutional.

Colorado argued that siding with the Bacas would effectively allow electors to vote based on a bribe, or other nefarious reasons.

Of course, the more credible argument they made, was that this basically negates individual ballots, because if the whole damn state voted for candidate A, and yet the elector picks candidate B, then the state was effectively not heard.

Justice Alito questioned the petitioner on the notion that if they win, doesn’t it give government the power to ignore the people’s votes by removing the elector, and replacing with an elector of their choosing, presumably one who favors them, such as a Republican state government who replaces an elector who votes Democrat after the Democrat wins the popular vote.

The petitioners for the Bacas argue that the state’s arguments prevents electors from making an intelligent and proper decision should something bad occur with the candidate in question. Like in this instance, imagine Hillary Clinton had been shown to have destroyed evidence in a criminal investigation, or if she had choked on a bag of dicks and was comatose in the hospital, the electors could make a credible argument to not submit their votes for her, despite the populace choosing her, which seems kinda unlikely if I’m honest.

This case was decided in two separate cases. SCOTUS in a unanimous decision decided that the states can set whatever fucking rules they want for electors. Those assholes can’t just go rogue and do whatever the hell they want.

SCOTUS For The Average Joe

Average Joe SCOTUS: Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

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So…this is kinda complicated. These scummy folks at Seila Law are in the business of debt relief law. Meaning, they try to help people who racked up a bunch of debt and can’t pay it. Having worked with a law firm who does this, I personally found it less than helpful. They pretty much charged me a couple thousand dollars to do what I could have done, by just calling the IRS (the people I owed). But maybe they’re more effective with credit card companies and shit, IDGAF.

Anyway, as part of the Dodd-Frank Act, a bunch of bullshit laws designed to protect an economic collapse that assholes in congress argue happened in 2008 because of deregulation and those scummy bankers, when the reality was, that collapse was caused just as much or more by fucking government’s interference in the market in the first place. But I digress.

Anyway… The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was created as part of this stupid law, and it’s leader, appointed by the president, can’t be fired other than for like if they commit a crime or some shit.  When the CFPB decided to investigate those douchebags at Seila Law, Seila was like, “How fucking dare you? Go the fuck away. As a matter of fact, we don’t even recognize your constitutional right to exist, you assholes.”

Seila’s argument being that the separation of powers rule in the constitution shouldn’t allow for a committee like this to be set up by congress, but then act like the president when they’re not in fact the actual president. It would basically make the asshole running this board unanswerable to the three branches of government, and effectively their own new branch.

In a 5:4 Republican-appointee decision SCOTUS sided with Seila Law, that such an appointment does in-fact violate the separation of powers. But, that provision is able to be removed from the law without ending the law entirely, so sadly Dodd-Frank still stands as law, just without this bullshit appointee. If the president gets to appoint them, they get to fire them too.

The Democrat-appointee’s dissented based on principle, but in my opinion it’s kinda bullshit.

They rightly claim that these restrictions on termination are good for the same reason SCOTUS being that way is good. It makes sure these people don’t make decisions based on political pressure. But there’s little doubt that it does indeed take the power away from the president. Richard Cordray for instance was the first person nominated to the post by Obama in 2010. Once Trump took office, this law basically said Trump couldn’t force Cordray to enforce the law as Trump dictates, which is his job as president.

So while I believe it’s a decent argument by the Dem-appointees, they’re still wrong to argue it. I’m glad they lost.