SCOTUS Made Some Questionable Decisions This Past Week
Though the public’s focus since Jan. 20 has rightly been on President Trump’s executive actions, there have been a few decisions made by the justices in the last few days due to the change in administration that we see as worth highlighting (in order of seniority):
1. We don’t love that Chief Justice Roberts forgot to remind President Trump to put his hand on the Bible during his swearing-in.
It didn’t make the oath invalid, but it also didn’t stop conspiracy theories from swirling.
2. We don’t love that Justice Thomas swore in DHS Sec. Noem on Saturday (at right).
We are weeks, if not days, away from a barrage of lawsuits hitting SCOTUS with Noem as a named party — and though we realize it’s Noem as DHS secretary and not Noem as a private citizen who’ll be sued, the swearing-in at a justices’ home does raise “appearance of impropriety” concerns, much as last year’s Justice Jackson dinner with the head of the USPTO did.
3. We don’t love that Justices Alito (same table as Tim Cook) and Kavanaugh (next to Mark Zuckerberg) didn’t review the seating chart before attending the inaugural lunch.
There were plenty of attendees who aren’t planning on petitioning SCOTUS this year, as Cook’s Apple and Zuckerberg’s Meta are liable to be doing.
4. Finally, we don’t love that Justice Jackson wore a dissent collar of cowrie beads, often described as a symbol for warding off evil, to the inauguration.
There’s subtlety and then there’s that necklace, which was anything but.