Blogger Says Certs Reveal High Court’s Rightward Tilt

Kenneth Jost, blogging on Jost on Justice, writes that the Supreme Court’s partisan tilt can be seen in several of this term’s early case-selecting decisions. “The justices have gone out of their way to tee up a conservative wish-list of cases on such topics as abortion rights, gun rights, and presidential power,” he says, and highlights three cases the Court has agreed to hear despite factors that ordinarily would leave them off the docket. The justices will consider arguments in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, Inc. v. City of New York even though the city argues the case is moot after it amended the narrow ordinance at issue. The case is an opportunity to expand Second Amendment rights and limit local and state gun safety laws. In respect to abortion rights, arguments will likely be heard early next year concerning Louisiana’s effort to reinstate an abortion-related law comparable to a Texas law struck down by a 5-3 vote four years ago. A politically-charged dispute over the single-director structure of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that has been upheld by two federal appeals courts will also be heard. The plaintiff in Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau argues that the new agency’s power vested in a single, tenure-protected director instead of a multi-member commission unconstitutionally intrudes on presidential power. Additionally, on Nov. 14 President Trump plans to ask the justices to reverse a federal appeals court decision to enforce a New York prosecutor’s subpoena for his tax returns and financial records for use in a state criminal investigation.