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Assigning Alito is Thomas's revenge for his wife being exposed as an insurrectionist. nt (Original Post) Samrob May 2022 OP
Pretty funny, except gab13by13 May 2022 #1
Alito was a right wing asshole long before agingdem May 2022 #2
Alito's decision is the ultimate Mansplaining Walleye May 2022 #3
Thomas is not Chief Justice--not his decision at all. hlthe2b May 2022 #4
Decisions are assigned by the most senior justice in the majority. sl8 May 2022 #5
The Chief Justice makes assignments, not Thomas. Ocelot II May 2022 #6
Was CJ Roberts in the majority? sl8 May 2022 #7
I believe he was in the majority in favor of upholding the statute, Ocelot II May 2022 #8
I could see that. nt sl8 May 2022 #9
Correct. milestogo May 2022 #12
How? themaguffin May 2022 #10
It is likely that Roberts, not Thomas, assigned the opinion. onenote May 2022 #11
Roberts only assigns if he is voting with majority LetMyPeopleVote May 2022 #14
I would expect that he voted in the majority to uphold the Mississippi law. onenote May 2022 #16
Roberts is very concerned about the reputation of the court LetMyPeopleVote May 2022 #17
This message was self-deleted by its author sl8 May 2022 #15
This assignment was done in December LetMyPeopleVote May 2022 #13

agingdem

(7,759 posts)
2. Alito was a right wing asshole long before
Tue May 3, 2022, 07:44 AM
May 2022

the Ginni Thomas thing...anti-birth control, anti-abortion, anti-health care, anti-gun control, anti-gay marriage...he is pro-big business, does not believe in separation of church and state..he's stand-alone vile..

sl8

(13,584 posts)
5. Decisions are assigned by the most senior justice in the majority.
Tue May 3, 2022, 08:09 AM
May 2022

That would be the Chief Justice, if he's in the majority.

Ocelot II

(115,280 posts)
8. I believe he was in the majority in favor of upholding the statute,
Tue May 3, 2022, 09:45 AM
May 2022

but not for overturning Roe altogether.

onenote

(42,383 posts)
11. It is likely that Roberts, not Thomas, assigned the opinion.
Tue May 3, 2022, 11:10 AM
May 2022

When the Court meets in conference after oral argument, they take a vote on the outcome of the case, not the reasoning behind that outcome. In all likelihood, that resulted in a 6-3 vote to uphold the Mississippi law. Roberts would then assign the opinion. After that, a draft opinion is circulated and then concurring and dissenting opinions are circulated.

Roberts doesn't have to support the reasoning in Alito's opinion. He can concur in the outcome -- upholding the Mississippi law -- on narrower grounds in a concurring opinion. But he's still in the "majority".


June Medical Services v. Russo is an example. The Court struck down a Louisiana abortion statute 5-4 with Breyer writing the opinion. But only four justices agreed with Breyer's reasoning. Roberts provided the fifth vote to uphold the statute - but on completely different grounds. He didn't sign onto the Breyer opinion, but without his concurrence, there would only have been four votes to strike down the statute. So he was part of the majority and he was the one to assign the opinion.

LetMyPeopleVote

(144,005 posts)
14. Roberts only assigns if he is voting with majority
Tue May 3, 2022, 11:26 AM
May 2022

This opinion is so extreme that I doubt Roberts is voting with the majority

onenote

(42,383 posts)
16. I would expect that he voted in the majority to uphold the Mississippi law.
Tue May 3, 2022, 01:15 PM
May 2022

The fact that he may file a concurring opinion stating narrower grounds for that outcome doesn't mean that he's not part of the majority.

Indeed, when the Court meets following oral argument, they vote on the outcome of the case: affirm or reverse. They don't vote on the underlying reasoning of each Justice's position or on the merits of any of the particular arguments. That vote probably was was 6-3 with Roberts joining the majority. He then would be the one to assign the opinion to Alito
An example of how this works can be seen in June Medical Service v. Russo, a 2019 case in which the Court struck down, by a 5-4 vote, a Louisiana abortion law. The "opinion of the court" was written by Breyer, but only had four votes. The fifth vote for striking down the law came from Roberts, who didn't sign onto Breyer's opinion but instead wrote a concurring opinion concurring in the result but based on different reasoning. He was in the "majority" and thus he would have been the one to assign the opinion writing.

On edit: it's possible that he voted to strike down the law, in which case Thomas would've assigned the opinion. We won't really know until the opinions (and there will be more than one, that one can be certain of) are issued.

LetMyPeopleVote

(144,005 posts)
17. Roberts is very concerned about the reputation of the court
Tue May 3, 2022, 01:32 PM
May 2022

This opinion will hurt the reputation of the court a great deal. I suspect that Roberts will be dissenting but time will tell

Response to onenote (Reply #11)

LetMyPeopleVote

(144,005 posts)
13. This assignment was done in December
Tue May 3, 2022, 11:25 AM
May 2022

Oral arguments were on December 1 and the case was assigned sometime shortly after the conference by the justices

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