USA Today reports The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ordered lower courts to get in line with SCOTUS rulings, despite justices on the High Court increasingly refusing to back up their rulings with argument.
“Lower court judges may sometimes disagree with this Court’s decisions, but they are never free to defy them,” Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch admonished in a scathing order joined by fellow conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
The comments came as part of a fractured Aug. 21 court decision allowing President Donald Trump to cancel health research grants that it claims promote diversity, equity and inclusion hiring practices. That splintered decision delivered five separate opinions from the justices — with only Gorsuch’s finger-wagging at lower courts being joined by fellow Justice Kavanaugh, according USA Today.
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Steve Vladeck, a law professor at Georgetown University and a critic of the high court’s snowballing reliance upon its secretive “emergency docket,” or “shadow docket,” called Gorsuch’s criticism “galling.”
There is “an easy way for Gorsuch and the rest of the justices in the majority to ensure that they’re providing guidance so clear that lower courts would be in obvious defiance for not following it: They could PROVIDE CLEAR GUIDANCE,” wrote Vladeck. “…for the justices to complain about lower courts’ failure to read their minds is especially galling. No, the Court doesn’t have to provide full-throated explanations in these cases. … But writing little to nothing and then complaining about lower courts not correctly divining the justices’ intent strikes me as little more than hubris.”
“Gorsuch’s argument is not just specious; it is affirmatively dangerous,” Vladeck added. “… It would be one thing if Gorsuch had incontrovertible evidence of lower-court defiance. … Instead, the real culprit here is the Supreme Court’s own majority, which continues to hand down thinly (or entirely un-) explained rulings … and expect lower-court judges to read their minds in the face of entirely reasonable arguments.”
Trump and his supporters already attack district judges when they dare to disagree with the president, said Vladeck. A recent ruling by Chief Judge Matthew Brann that Trump’s former personal attorney Alina Habba was unlawfully serving as the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey drew personal attacks from Habba herself. And Attorney General Bondi has filed a misconduct complaint against D.C. district court Chief Judge Boasberg.
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“These attacks on lower-court judges are troubling enough … but it’s even worse for two of the Supreme Court’s justices to give them credence,” said Vladeck, warning that Trump’s complaints that “unelected judges shouldn’t have the power to thwart President Trump” will not stop as district or circuit judges.
“Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh either don’t understand that, or they do. I’m not sure which one is more disconcerting,” Vladeck said.
Read the full USA Today report at this link. See Vladeck’s substack report at this link.