Biden says it would be a 'mistake' to try to expand the Supreme Court

Source: NBC News

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden continued criticism of the Supreme Court's decision to strike down colleges' affirmative action programs in an interview on MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House” but said trying to expand the court would be a "mistake."

Asked by host Nicolle Wallace about expanding the court, Biden said that if it were expanded, it would become too politicized.

"I think if we start the process of trying to expand the court, we're going to politicize it maybe forever in a way that is not healthy," Biden said.

Wallace also asked Biden about his answer to a reporter's question earlier Thursday about whether this Supreme Court is a "rogue court." Biden replied to the reporter: "This is not a normal court."

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/joe-biden/joe-biden-interviewed-msnbc-scotus-decision-rcna91871

NASA rover finds a rock with a hole on it on Mars

D'oh: NASA's Perseverance Rover Finds an Other Worldly Treat on Mars

Source: Yahoo! News

While roaming the Martian terrain, NASA’s Perseverance rover spotted an odd-shaped rock that may have traveled its way from space to land on the Red Planet.

Using its SuperCam Remote Micro-Imager, the Perseverance rover snapped a series of images on Friday that revealed a donut-shaped rock laying on the surface of Mars. The large rock has a hole in the middle and is surrounded by smaller fragments that may have broken off from it, sort of like a donut and its donut holes.

The donut rock may be a meteorite that landed on Mars, according to a tweet by the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute. It “could be a large meteorite alongside smaller pieces,” SETI researchers wrote.

Mars is often littered with space rocks as the planet is located next to the main asteroid belt of the Solar System, which contains millions of rocky objects. The atmosphere on Mars is only 1% as thick as Earth’s atmosphere, which means that space rocks can easily travel through the Martian atmosphere largely unscathed, landing in bigger pieces as opposed to disintegrating through Earth’s atmosphere.

Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/doh-nasas-perseverance-rover-finds-152500432.html

Welp, the Supreme Court was quiet today

Only two more days or less till we find out about affirmative action, student loans, and the web site designer who refused to make a gay-themed website.

Supreme Court drops case concerning Trump hotel records

Source: CNN

The Supreme Court on Monday dropped a case concerning a lower court opinion that allowed for a handful of members of Congress to sue a government agency for records related to the Washington, DC, hotel once owned by former President Donald Trump.

The court’s move is likely because the lawmakers were no longer pursuing the case.

It means the justices will save for another day the issue of whether it is ever appropriate for a minority of members of congressional committee to be able to demand executive branch documents.

The case raised questions about when members of Congress – and not a full committee – had the legal right to sue an executive agency for documents under a specific federal law, Section 2954.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/26/politics/trump-hotel-records-congress-supreme-court/index.html

Klobuchar says she supports allowing abortion restrictions in late pregnancy

Source: CNN

Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Sunday she supports allowing limitations on abortion in the third trimester of pregnancy wading into the thorny political debate of abortion procedure time frames.

“I support allowing for limitations in the third trimester that do not interfere with the life or health of the women,” Klobuchar told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union,” while also reaffirming her support for codifying Roe v. Wade.

The third trimester in a pregnancy begins at 27 weeks. Less than 1% of abortions are performed at 21 weeks or later, according to a 2020 report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Abortion has become an especially potent political topic in the year since the monumental US Supreme Court decision one year ago to overturn Roe v. Wade and eliminate the federal constitutional right to abortion nationwide. More than a dozen US states have banned or severely restricted access to the procedure since the ruling.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/25/politics/klobuchar-cnntv/index.html

Three big decisions are coming from the Supreme Court this week

Looks like the Supreme Court has once again saved the big ones for last. Three big ones that I can think of are Student Loans, Affirmative Action, and the case of Lorie Smith, who refused to design wedding websites for same-sex couples. Any other big ones left?

Supreme Court upholds conviction of a man for his role on an international hit team

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the conviction of a man serving a life sentence for his role on an international “kill team” in a case about what happens when one person’s confession might also implicate someone else on trial.

Adam Samia’s lawyers had asked the court for a new trial in the killing of a real estate broker in the Philippines because they said he was convicted on the basis of a confession from another man with whom he was on trial.

The confession unfairly implicated Samia as the trigger man, in violation of his constitutional rights, Samia’s lawyers said. The co-defendant did not testify in his own defense so there was no opportunity for Samia’s trial lawyers to question the man.

But the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, said prosecutors had done enough to protect Samia’s rights. The confession was altered to substitute “someone” or “the other person” every time Samia’s name was mentioned. The jury also was told not to consider the confession in assessing Samia’s guilt.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-confession-international-crime-ring-aa24f99d1c76a117a567078e3aa42ae1

Supreme Court rules in favor of Coinbase in arbitration dispute

Source: CNBC

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday backed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc's bid to halt customer lawsuits while it pursues appeals aimed at moving the disputes out of courts and into private arbitration, which businesses often prefer over litigation.

The justices, in a 5-4 decision, overturned a lower court's ruling involving a user who sued after a scammer stole money from his account. The lower court had let a proposed class action lawsuit proceed while Coinbase pressed its appeal contending that the claims belong in arbitration. The justices dismissed a second case that Coinbase had asked it to review.

Companies generally prefer to arbitrate claims because the process is cheaper and faster than litigation in court, which can be harder to fight and carries a greater risk of hefty damages awards.

Coinbase's exchange allows users to transact in digital currencies such as bitcoin and ether. The company asserts that its user agreement requires disputes to be resolved through arbitration and that under a law called the Federal Arbitration Act, which governs dispute resolution proceedings through arbitration, action in trial courts must come to a halt when a denial of a request to compel arbitration is appealed.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/23/supreme-court-rules-in-favor-of-coinbase-in-arbitration-dispute.html

Supreme Court broadens grounds of deportation for immigrants who obstruct justice

Source: Washington Times

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that someone can obstruct justice even if an official investigation has not yet been opened — a decision that makes it easier to deport some immigrants with criminal records.

The court was reviewing two cases involving legal immigrants convicted of witness tampering and accessory after the fact, and whom the government wanted to deport under a law that makes even legal immigrants removable if they obstructed justice.

Lawyers had argued that obstruction required an open investigation, but Justice Brett Mr. Kavanaugh, writing the chief opinion in the 6-3 ruling, said that’s not so.

“Individuals can obstruct the process of justice even when an investigation or proceeding is not pending,” he wrote. “For example, a murderer may threaten to kill a witness if the witness reports information to the police. Such an act is no less obstructive merely because the government has yet to catch on and begin an investigation.”

Read more: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/jun/22/supreme-court-broadens-grounds-deportation-immigra/