Ketanji Brown Jackson Confirmed - SCOTUS Overturns Roe v. Wade - Clarence Thomas's Refusal to Recuse Himself Creates Ethical Questions - Board Diversity Spurned by California Judge

• Pages: 9-9
• Date: 01 July 2022
• Author: Hon. Oran F. Whiting (Ret.)
• Subject Matter: Civil Law

Ketanji Brown Jackson Conf‌irmed

SCOTUS Overturns Roe v. Wade

Clarence Thomas’s Refusal to Recuse Himself Creates

Ethical Questions

Board Diversity Spurned by California Judge

U.S. SUP REME COUR T

Ketanji Brown Jackson has been

conf‌irmed by a 53-to-47 vote in the

U.S. Senate, making her the f‌irst

Black woman to take the bench in

the Court’s 233-year history. Judge

Jackson will f‌ill the vacancy left by

retiring Associate JusticeStephen

Breyer, who will step down at the end

of the Court’s current term.

Abortion

Following the unprecedented leak of

a draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson

Women’s Health Organization, which

challenged Mississippi’s ban on abor-

tion after 15 weeks, the Court has

overturned the 1973 case Roe v. Wade,

which legalized abortion nationwide.

The majority opinion, authored by

Justice Samuel Alito and joined by

Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh,

and Barrett, states that “Roe was egre-

giously wrong from the start” and that

both it and Planned Parenthood v.

Casey, the 1992 case arming Roe’s

f‌inding of a constitutional right to

abortion services, must be overruled.

According to the majority, there is

no constitutional right to abortion ser-

vices, and the issue should be returned

to “the people’s elected representa-

tives,” allowing individual states to

determine their own positions.

Justice Roberts concurred that

Mississippi’s law should be upheld but

disagreed that Roe should be over-

turned. Justices Breyer, Sotomayor,

and Kagan dissented, arguing that

overturning Roe and Casey would

result in “the curtailment of women’s

rights” and threaten other constitu-

tional rights “involving bodily integrity,

familial relationships, and procreation,”

such as the right to use contraception

and enter into same-sex marriage.

Equal Protection

According to an 8–1 decision, residents

of Puerto Rico can be excluded from

certain federal disability benef‌its avail-

able to those who live in the 50 states.

Justice Sotomayor dissented from

Justice Kavanaugh’s majority opinion.

Supplemental Security Income

is available to those living in the 50

states who are older than 65, blind,

or disabled. Residents of Puerto Rico

and other U.S. territories are excluded

from receiving those funds. Justice

Kavanaugh opined that Congress is

not required to compare how tax and

benef‌its programs apply in the states

versus the territories. Additionally, he

noted, “just as not every federal tax

extends to residents of Puerto Rico, so

too not every federal benef‌its program

extends to residents of Puerto Rico.”

Justice Sotomayor’s dissenting

opinion argued equal treatment of

citizens should not be subject to the

“vagaries of the political process” and

emphasized Puerto Ricans’ lack of

voting representation in Congress to

challenge “unequal treatment.” United

States v. Vaello Madero, No. 20-303.

FIRST AMENDMENT

Freedom of Religion

In a 9–0 decision, the Court deter-

mined that the City of Boston’s refusal

to f‌ly a f‌lag embraced by Protestant

churches constituted discrimination

based on religious viewpoint in viola-

tion of the First Amendment. The city

had rejected a request to f‌ly the f‌lag

to celebrate Boston’s Judeo-Christian

heritage as well as Constitution Day,

despite not having a set policy on

which f‌lags to allow. Justice Breyer,

writing for the majority, observed that

in practice, the policy was unrestricted,

and the city employee handling appli-

AND MORE . . . BY HO N. ORAN F. WHITI NG (RET.), LITIGATION NEWS ASSOCIATE EDITOR

cations typically never reviewed the

f‌lags. Justice Breyer considered the

f‌lagpole a public forum, and Boston

therefore unconstitutionally “dis-

criminated based on religious view-

point.” Shurtle v. City of Boston, No.

20-1800.

U.S. HOU SE OF

REPRESENTATIVES

Ethics

Justice Clarence Thomas is under scru-

tiny by the House of Representatives

for his refusal to recuse himself from

cases surrounding the January 6 riot,

despite his wife’s involvement. Text

messages from his wife, Ginni Thomas,

to then White House Chief of Sta

Mark Meadows about the 2020 presi-

dential election and the Capitol riot

have led some lawmakers to demand

Justice Thomas recuse himself from

decisions related to the election and

to former President Trump. Some have

called for Justice Thomas’s impeach-

ment and for the implementation of a

Supreme Court code of ethics.

STATE S

California: Equal Protection

A Los Angeles County, California,

Superior Court judge granted sum-

mary judgment in favor of plaintis

challenging the constitutionality

of Assembly Bill 979, codif‌ied at

California Corporations Code § 301.4.

The judge opined that the law, which

mandated that publicly traded com-

panies include a specif‌ic number of

people from underrepresented com-

munities on their boards, violates

the California Constitution’s Equal

Protection Clause. Robin Crest et al. v

Alex Padilla.

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