The FTC was designed by Congress to be an independent agency and SCOTUS must fall

slate.com/news-and-politics/20… #SCOTUS

#SCOTUS

“You’re asking us to destroy the structure of government and to take away from Congress its ability to protect its idea that the government is better structured with some agencies that are independent,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor told Solicitor General D. John Sauer during arguments in a case challenging the firing earlier this year of Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, a member of the Federal Trade Commission.

“Where else have we so fundamentally altered the structure of government?”

Three states have passed laws requiring the Ten Commandments be posted in public school classrooms.

Federal courts have blocked the laws, but appeals could bring the issue back to the Supreme Court, where a new "history and tradition test" the court adopted for religion freedom cases in 2022 puts established precedents into question.

Quick overview to catch you up:
theconversation.com/3-states-a…
#SCOTUS #USPolitics

3 states are challenging precedent against posting the Ten Commandments in public schools – cases that could land back at the Supreme Court

New laws mandating the Ten Commandments’ display in schools have faced lawsuits in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas.

^{The Conversation}

You're missing the real issue, though. Gerrymandering is absolutely allowed and even encouraged in the US system. That the map is gerrymandered is not relevant to this question.

The question in the case is whether the METHOD of gerrymandering was legal. And the specific question before the Supreme Court here is whether the lower court followed proper procedure.

SCOTUS found that the lower court didn't follow legal procedure, so it stayed the lower court decision.

#USPolitics #SCOTUS #gerrymandering

"The Trump administration is backing Monsanto in its effort to get the Supreme Court to shield it from liability over cancer claims related to its Roundup weedkiller, a move that could anger the Trump administration’s allies in the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement."

thehill.com/policy/energy-envi…

#PublicHealth #environment #toxins #chemicals #cancer #monsanto #EPA #courts #SCOTUS #MAHA #USpol

Costco is the latest business to file suit against the Trump administration for levying illegal tariffs and is seeking a refund of collected tariffs. Revlon, EssilorLuxottica, Kawasaki, Bumble Bee, and Yokohama Tire have already filed their suits.

Now *this* would be a class action lawsuit I'd really love to see. It would also be amazing if all Americans who specifically bought Canadian products could know that their money didn't end up also assisting the very policy they were protesting.

Not a lawyer, but I'd expect that if this succeeds it might open up a Pandora's box as small businesses and individuals line up to press their case. Having to process claims for that many separate tariff payers would be complicated and add some more balls in the air for an incompetent administration to juggle.

Alas, probably for these kind of reasons, the weasels of #SCOTUS will find some way to permit the 47 syndicate to avoid having to process refunds no matter how they decide.

nbcnews.com/business/business-…

#costco #uspol

Costco sues the Trump administration, seeking a refund of tariffs

Costco Wholesale sued the Trump administration in the Court of International Trade, seeking a refund of tariffs imposed under an emergency powers law.

^{Steve Kopack (NBC News)}

'One of these conflicted justices is Amy Coney Barrett. Barrett’s father, Michael Coney, worked for nearly three decades as one of Shell’s top attorneys, during which time he was also a “major participant” in the American Petroleum Institute.'

newrepublic.com/article/203669…

#gop #scotus #bigoil #Corruption

The Supreme Court’s Ethics Code Is a Joke. Big Oil Knows That.

Oil companies want the Supreme Court to intervene to dismiss lawsuits about climate change. Amy Coney Barrett and Samuel Alito both have big conflicts of interest on that front.

^{The New Republic}

Unfortunately, this gets into the thorny question of whether something is a lie if the speaker really believes it.

The #Trump admin actually believes a lot of things that are factually wrong. Courts have trouble addressing such situations as they're supposed to be arbitrators of law, not of fact, so they're generally supposed to judge based on the record that's put before them.

It says a lot that these days have reenergized debates among legal scholars as to when factual errors are so egregious that a court has to call them out.

#USPolitics #SCOTUS

Is anyone surprised the Trump admin has lied in a #SCOTUS filing?

#ThisIsAmericaNow

NYTimes: Times Analysis Finds Errors in Trump’s Supreme Court Filing That Calls for National Guard in Chicago
Times Analysis Finds Errors in Trump’s Supreme Court Filing That Calls for National Guard in Chicago nytimes.com/2025/11/25/us/trum…

Ooooh, interesting! #elections #democracy #oligarchy #scotus

This grassroots rebellion can ...

This grassroots rebellion can decapitate Supreme Court's catastrophic mistake

Several of you have told me that the first step out of the mess we’re in is to get rid of the Supreme Court’s bonkers Citizens United v.

^{Robert Reich (Raw Story)}

A 2023 #SCOTUS decision set the stage for the action by limiting the agency’s power to police #wetlands. In the opinion in Sackett v. EPA, Justice #Alito wrote that the #CleanWaterAct allowed the #EPA to regulate only wetlands with a “continuous surface connection” to a “relatively permanent” body of #water.

But he did not explicitly define a “relatively permanent” body of water. Now, the #Trump admin is describing it as a body of water that flows year-round or during the “wet season.”

#law

The #Texas redistricting case points directly at the mess that VRA has caused, which landed the law in front of the #SCOTUS earlier this year.

In the district court's order blocking the new map you can see arguments echoing those against the VRA in the Supreme Court.

I think a lot of people are going to be upset about the VRA challenge but celebrate the Texas ruling without realizing their contradiction.

storage.courtlistener.com/reca…

#USPolitics #VRA

More to the point, a lower court killed the immigration policy, and an appeals court affirmed the lower court.

Trump wants #SCOTUS to rule on whether the lower courts misread the statute.

Trump is asking to red light the lower court's reading that a person has arrived in the US while they're still in a different country.

#USPolitics

#SCOTUS announced Monday that it will review a controversial #immigration policy adopted during the first #Trump administration of turning away potential #asylum seekers before they step foot on American soil, setting up the first major immigration policy case of the term.

#law
cnn.com/2025/11/17/politics/su…

RE
Federal law prohibits anyone—unless authorized under regulations prescribed by the president and published in the Federal Register—from manufacturing or selling likenesses of the #presidentialseal or “any substantial part thereof”...

Well, #trumpadministration just says, "prohibits anyone" but there is this #SCOTUS card* and we are using it, smile
(President can do anything, as President, etc) #Norms #magamerch

@steter
Thx 4 orig Zack boost