Slip opinion:
“Slip” opinions are the first version of the Court’s opinions posted on this website. A “slip” opinion consists of the majority or principal opinion, any concurring or dissenting opinions written by the Justices, and a prefatory syllabus prepared by the Reporter’s Office that summarizes the decision. … These opinions are posted on the website within minutes after the opinions are issued and will remain posted until the opinions for the entire Term are published in the bound volumes of the United States Reports. For further information, see Column Header Definitions and Information About Opinions. [SCOTUS]
Noted in “Sotomayor says Gorsuch flubbed prayer case facts (and she’s right),” Steve Benen, Maddowblog:
For those who’ve never read a slip opinion from the Supreme Court, it’s worth emphasizing that they almost never include images: Justices write their opinions, concurrences, and dissents — and that’s it. There’s nothing but text.
But in her dissent yesterday, Sotomayor took the highly unusual step of including several photographs to prove her point: The images showed the high school coach engaged in public worship with public school student athletes — minors who were seeking their coach’s approval, and who needed to stay on his good side if they intended to play — at public school events.
I actually did read small parts of that opinion, which is not a hobby of mine, and I recall shaking my head over Gorsuch’s description of the dispute. It didn’t accord with news reports, but, hey, I’m not a lawyer.
It appears, though, that Sotomayor has caught Gorsuch with his pants down. Perhaps that’s an unfortunate metaphor.
But, with all due respect to SCOTUS‘ conservative wing, it does appear that they are in the process of crashing and burning. There’s been a string of really doubtful opinions of late when it comes to religious issues, such as the egregious blunder in Carson v. Makin, Dobbs (aka the overturning of Roe v Wade), and now this decision, Kennedy v. Bremerton School District.
In addition, neither Alito, with a petulant side-note in Dobbs, nor Thomas, who in a concurring opinion to Dobbs scoots much further out on the right-wing tree limb than Alito or the other three who voted Yes on Dobbs, comes out of Dobbs with a shining halo. They had an agenda on their minds, used Dobbs as their horse to fulfill it, and didn’t apologize for blowing up stare decisis with bad history or bad reasoning.
And now Justice Gorsuch, IJ, is shown to be a religious hack as well, falsifying facts when they don’t fit his narrative.
This probably isn’t severe enough to warrant an impeachment, and the Republican Senators would never stand for it, but it’s worth noting that misrepresentation is not a mild offense at the SCOTUS level. Maybe Gorsuch doesn’t understand that. Or maybe he’s in such thrall to religious doctrine that he can’t help himself.
