Transgender Rights Advocates Rally Against The Supreme Court’s Ban On Gender-Affirming Youth Care

The Trans Agenda Was Just Dealt A Fatal Blow

Clarence Thomas

Gender

Matt Walsh

Opinion

SCOTUS

Sonia Sotomayor

Supreme Court

Tennessee

Transgender

transgender surgery

WPATH

This week’s Supreme Court decision in United States v. Skrmetti revealed a stark contrast between rigorous constitutional analysis and sloppy judicial reasoning.
While the six-judge majority correctly applied Equal Protection doctrine to uphold Tennessee&#8217;s commonsense restrictions on experimental medical treatments for minors, Justice Sonia Sotomayor&#8217;s dissent — to which her fellow liberal justices, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, signed on — is a masterclass in how not to interpret the Constitution.
Rather than actual Constitutional analysis, Sotomayor’s dissent relies on emotional manipulation and strained legal analogies.
The centerpiece of Justice Sotomayor&#8217;s dissent rests on a fundamental category error: borrowing reasoning from a case interpreting a civil rights statute and trying to apply it to a very different constitutional text.
Bostock v. Clayton County was the infamous 2020 case in which Justice Neil Gorsuch joined the Court’s liberals and Chief Justice John Roberts to conclude that civil rights law barring employment discrimination “because of sex” also barred discrimination based on sexual orientation and transgender status.
Gorsuch’s error in that case grew out of his cramped application of textualism and turned on the precise meaning of the words “because of sex.” As flawed as Bostock’s reasoning was, that reasoning doesn’t apply to Skrmetti, because the words being interpreted in Bostock are found nowhere in the Equal Protection Clause. Instead, it simply prohibits states from denying &#8220;equal protection of the laws.&#8221;
This distinction matters enormously. In a democratic republic like ours, the people make law or adopt constitutional amendments through their elected representatives, and a great deal of negotiation and debate go into the exact words chosen. A court can’t simply decide that the meanings of two phrases in very different legal contexts are close enough for government work. Just because the Civil Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause both deal with discrimination doesn’t mean their reasoning is fungible.
Justice Clarence Thomas, who dissented in Bostock, pointed out this analytical flaw in his Skrmetti concurrence, noting that “[a]n abstract similarity between the purposes of the Constitution and a statute is not a license to import the statute’s interpretation into the Constitution, much less to ignore the Constitution’s text.”
It is telling that the dissent put so much weight on Bostock rather than analyzing the language of the Constitution itself, let alone the original understanding of the Fourteenth Amendment.
<blockquote>
<h2>Just because the Civil Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause both deal with discrimination doesn’t mean their reasoning is fungible.</h2>
</blockquote>
Perhaps more troubling than the dissent&#8217;s misuse of precedent is its shameless deployment of emotional manipulation where legal reasoning should prevail. Sotomayor devotes substantial space to the personal stories of the plaintiff families, describing children who felt &#8220;trapped in the wrong body&#8221; and parents who worried about their children&#8217;s &#8220;ability to survive.&#8221;
These stories may be heart-wrenching, but there are emotional stories on both sides in this case. Detransitioners speak of the deep regret and lifelong health challenges created by childhood treatments that permanently altered their bodies, sexual function, and fertility.
Constitutional law cannot be decided based on which side tells the most compelling sob stories. The Equal Protection Clause protects important rights, but those rights must be grounded in constitutional text, history, and precedent — not in judicial sympathy for particular litigants.
The dissent&#8217;s emotional appeals serve a strategic purpose: they distract from the weakness of the underlying legal arguments. When Justice Sotomayor cannot convincingly explain why Tennessee&#8217;s age-based and purpose-based medical regulations constitute sex discrimination, she pivots to describing tragic individual circumstances. This is advocacy, not constitutional interpretation.
We’ve seen this type of reasoning before. Instead of discussing the Second Amendment, we are treated to heartbreaking stories of shooting victims. When considering the constitutionality of Obamacare, one side discusses the meaning of the Commerce Clause while the other shows posters of children with cancer. The dissent&#8217;s methodology would transform constitutional law into a contest of competing narratives rather than a discipline grounded in legal principle.
<blockquote>
<h2>Constitutional law cannot be decided based on which side tells the most compelling sob stories.</h2>
</blockquote>
It’s not just judges who too often override their professional standards to advance political objectives. Most of the nation’s medical organizations have themselves become politically compromised and provide cover for results-oriented judges. Justice Sotomayor repeatedly cites the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, and similar groups as if they were neutral and unassailable scientific enterprises rather than advocacy groups wholly captured by progressive ideology.
This appeal to authority crumbles under scrutiny. Justice Thomas&#8217;s concurrence exposes the utter corruption of these supposedly neutral medical authorities. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), which provides the &#8220;scientific&#8221; foundation for these groups&#8217; positions, has admitted in internal communications that &#8220;evidence-based review reveals little or no evidence&#8221; supporting their recommendations. Yet they continue pushing these experimental treatments on children.
One WPATH contributor explicitly stated that medical guidelines should be tailored to &#8220;have serious effect in…law and policy settings.&#8221; Most damning, WPATH ultimately removed age limits for adolescent transgender surgeries after pressure from the Biden administration and specifically to avoid &#8220;devastating legislation.&#8221;
It’s telling that countries like England, Sweden, Finland, and Norway — hardly bastions of conservatism — have moved away from experimental transgender treatments on minors after honest scientific review. So much for the dissent’s alleged scientific consensus.
<blockquote>
<h2>Justice Sotomayor&#8217;s dissent in Skrmetti is a microcosm of the problems with results-oriented judging.</h2>
</blockquote>
When supposed medical authorities admit they&#8217;re pursuing political rather than scientific goals, citing their positions as neutral expertise becomes intellectually dishonest. The dissent never grapples with this evidence of institutional capture, instead treating politically motivated medical organizations as oracles of scientific truth.
Justice Sotomayor&#8217;s dissent in Skrmetti is a microcosm of the problems with results-oriented judging. Rather than honestly grapple with constitutional text and precedent, it deploys weak analogies, emotional manipulation, and appeals to compromised authority to reach a predetermined conclusion.
The good news is that this type of analysis, once commonplace in our constitutional law, is now relegated to a three-justice dissent.
Carrie Severino is the president of JCN and co-author of the bestselling book Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Court.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

The U.S. Supreme Court Poses For Official Group Photo

Justice Sotomayor’s Sloppy Reasoning in Skrmetti: Weak Analogies And Emotional Appeals

Skrmetti

The Supreme Court has now ruled in favor of the idea that you don&#8217;t have to be a member of a minority group in order to be discriminated against.
That is obviously true. The fact of the matter is that you can certainly be a white, straight male and be discriminated against, or, in the case reviewed by the Supreme Court, a white, straight female.
According to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/05/us/politics/supreme-court-straight-woman-workplace-discrimination.html">The New York Times</a>:
<blockquote>The Supreme Court on Thursday <a href="https://archive.is/o/WjYeY/https:/www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/23-1039_c0n2.pdf">unanimously ruled</a> in favor of a straight woman who twice lost positions to gay workers, saying an appeals court had been wrong to require her to meet a heightened burden in seeking to prove workplace discrimination because she was a member of a majority group.
The decision came two years after the Supreme Court <a href="https://archive.is/o/WjYeY/https:/www.nytimes.com/2023/06/29/us/politics/supreme-court-admissions-affirmative-action-harvard-unc.html">struck down race-conscious admissions programs</a> in higher education and amid the Trump administration’s fierce efforts to root out programs that promote diversity. The ruling will place further pressure on employers and others to eliminate affirmative action and other initiatives that seek to provide opportunities to members of historically disadvantaged groups.</blockquote>
Leftist Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote the opinion for the court. Again, remember this was a unanimous decision, so the three leftists on the Court, Jackson, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor, concurred. Despite the best attempts of The New York Times to turn the decision into a right-wing decision, it was not. It was unanimous.
The Times continued:
<blockquote>The standard for proving workplace discrimination under the law, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote for the court, “does not vary based on whether or not the plaintiff is a member of a majority group.” The case was brought by Marlean A. Ames, who had worked for the Ohio Department of Youth Services, which oversees parts of the state’s juvenile corrections system. After a decade there, in 2014 she became the administrator of a program addressing prison rape. Five years later, she applied for a promotion. Her supervisors turned her down, saying she lacked vision and leadership skills. They eventually gave the position to a gay woman who had been at the department for a shorter time and, unlike Ms. Ames, lacked a college degree.
Not long after denying her the new position, her supervisors removed her from her existing job, telling her that they had concerns about her leadership and offering her a demotion that came with a substantial pay cut. She was replaced by a gay man with less seniority.</blockquote>
Ames claimed that she was discriminated against because she was straight.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2212-member-exclusive?elementPosition=2&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
Put aside the underlying facts of the case. The question here for the Supreme Court was whether she had to — as the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals suggested —prove that she was a member of a minority or face a heightened standard because she wasn’t a member of a minority group.
<blockquote>The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati, said she could have satisfied the “background circumstances” requirement by showing that decisions about her employment were made by “a member of the relevant minority group (here, gay people)” or with statistical evidence. But the appeals court said Ms. Ames had provided neither kind of proof.</blockquote>
The underlying facts of the case are less relevant than the actual ruling, which says that yes, of course, you can be discriminated against if you&#8217;re a white, straight person. If you&#8217;re a member of a majority group, you can indeed be discriminated against.
That should not be a shock in any way, shape, or form.
Good for the Supreme Court for ruling correctly.
* * *
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US Supreme Court Slated To Issue Opinions As Term Nears End

Supreme Court Affirms: Discrimination Can Affect Majority Groups Too

Ben Shapiro

Discrimination

Ketanji Brown Jackson

Whites

Women

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of a Catholic charity that sued Wisconsin after it was mandated to pay certain unemployment taxes while other religious organizations were exempted.
In its <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24-154_2b82.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ruling</a>, the court struck down a decision from the Wisconsin Supreme Court that said the Catholic Charities Bureau had to pay taxes on unemployment compensation. The court said that the interpretation of state tax law by Wisconsin&#8217;s Supreme Court violated the First Amendment.
&#8220;The First Amendment mandates government neutrality between religions and subjects any state-sponsored denominational preference to strict scrutiny,&#8221; Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the majority decision. &#8220;The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s application of [Wisconsin law] imposed a denominational preference by differentiating between religions based on theological lines.&#8221;
Catholic Charities Bureau is an organization that provides services to poor people, the disabled, the elderly, and children with special needs as a ministry of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Superior. According to its <a href="https://ccbsuperior.org/about-us/">website</a>, it provides around 50 programs to over 10,500 people.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a concurring opinion, saying that in addition to violating the First Amendment, the Wisconsin Supreme Court violated the church autonomy doctrine, which means that a religious institution is not defined by any corporate entity it may form.
&#8220;I would reverse for an additional reason — that the Wisconsin Supreme Court violated the church autonomy doctrine,&#8221; Thomas wrote. &#8220;However incorporated, Catholic Charities and its subentities are, from a religious perspective, a mere arm of the Diocese of Superior. The Wisconsin Supreme Court should have deferred to that understanding, and its failure to do so amounted to an unlawful attempt by the State to redefine the Diocese’s internal governance.&#8221;
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Thomas noted that the government could not use entities created by religious institutions as a backdoor means to regulate their internal governance.
&#8220;In short, the corporation is made for the church, not the church for the corporation. Both the basic principles of church autonomy and the history of religious corporations establish that religious institutions are more than the corporate entities that they form,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;It follows that the government may not use such entities as a means of regulating the internal governance of religious institutions.&#8221;
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson also issued a separate concurring opinion.

DOGE-FED-BUILDINGS

Supreme Court Sides With Christian Charity Targeted By Wisconsin

Catholic Church

First Amendment

Religious Liberty

Wisconsin

MixCollage-04-Dec-2024

This Could Be The Beginning Of The End For Gender Ideology

Brett Kavanaugh

Gender Identity

Samuel Alito

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, 70, who has type 1 diabetes, is allegedly resisting leaving the court, reportedly disappointing leftists who want her to step down because of her health so that lame-duck President Joe Biden can replace her before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
Sotomayor is the third-oldest member of the court; Justice Clarence Thomas is 76, and Justice Samuel Alito is 74.
“Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has made clear she has no plans to step down, according to people close to her,” <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/10/politics/sonia-sotomayor-supreme-court-remain/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNN</a> reported.
“She’s in great health, and the court needs her now more than ever,” one source reportedly close to Sotomayor told CNN.
Leftists are concerned because liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died in 2020, refused to leave the court while she had cancer and Barack Obama was president despite public pleas to step down. One critic <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/14/ruth-bader-ginsburg-retire-liberal-judge" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> in 2014, “She must retire. Right now. While we&#8217;re at it, Stephen Breyer should retire too. &#8230; If Ginsburg and Breyer wait to retire, it will only serve to maximize the possibility that a Republican president will choose their successor and in the process undo much of what they&#8217;ve worked for their entire careers.”
“Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg should retire from the Supreme Court after the completion of the current term in June,” another critic <a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-chemerinsky-ginsburg-should-resign-20140316-story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>, “She turned 81 on Saturday and by all accounts she is healthy and physically and mentally able to continue. But only by resigning this summer can she ensure that a Democratic president will be able to choose a successor who shares her views and values.”
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/?_gl=1*jtghwp*_gcl_au*ODQ1NjYzNTg2LjE3Mjg5MDk3OTE.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczMDEyMDgwOS40OS4xLjE3MzAxMjA4MzkuMzAuMC4w">MATT WALSH’S ‘AM I RACIST?’ NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+</a>
Obama met with Ginsburg in 2013 and reportedly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/25/us/politics/rbg-retirement-obama.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hinted</a> that she should leave the court. She did not. After her death from pancreatic cancer in late 2020, President Trump replaced her with Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
In January 2020, the Supreme Court ruled for the Trump administration, which had asked for permission on the “public charge” rule, banning non-citizens from receiving a green card if the government thought those non-citizens would rely on public assistance. Amy Howe of SCOTUSblog <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/02/justices-grant-governments-stay-request-on-public-charge-rule-for-illinois/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>, “That ruling put on hold a pair of orders by a federal district court in New York, which had blocked the government from enforcing the rule anywhere in the nation.”
The Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration could enforce that rule in Illinois while the federal government went ahead and appealed a judge’s ruling barring the federal government from enforcing it. That ruling prompted Sotomayor, who was nominated for her seat on the court by former President Barack Obama, to attack the five so-called “conservative” judges on the court who gave the Trump administration a 5-4 victory in the case as being biased in favor of President Trump, writing, “the Court’s recent behavior on stay applications has benefited one litigant over all others.&#8221;

King Felipe Receives Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Of The Supreme Court Of The United States

Sotomayor Won’t Step Down So Biden Can Replace Her: Report

Courts

Executive

Joe Biden

Politics

U.S. Marshals assigned to protect U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor reportedly shot an alleged carjacker who pulled a gun on them outside her home in Washington, D.C.
The incident happened around 1:15 a.m. on Friday when Kentrell Flowers, 18, pulled up next to the Marshal&#8217;s car, approached the driver&#8217;s side door, and pulled a firearm on two Marshals who were in the vehicle, The Hill <a href="https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4762036-sotomayor-home-us-marshal-shooting/">reported</a>.
One of the Marshals quickly drew his weapon and fired several shots at the suspect, hitting him in the mouth, the report said. The suspect was later transported to the hospital and arrested.
The vehicle that the suspect arrived in had been carjacked, police said.
It&#8217;s not clear whether Sotomayor, a leftist who was nominated by former President Barack Obama, was home during the incident.
&#8220;The Deputy U.S. Marshals involved in the shooting incident were part of the unit protecting the residences of U.S. Supreme Court justices,&#8221; Abigail Meyer, a spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals Service, said in a statement. &#8220;As a general practice, the U.S. Marshals don’t discuss specifics of protective details.&#8221;
Sotomayor has strong anti-Second Amendment views, including <a href="https://www.factcheck.org/2009/05/sotomayor-and-handguns/">believing</a> that the Second Amendment does not protect gun rights at a state level, <a href="https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4722209-sotomayor-rips-thomass-bump-stocks-ruling-in-scathing-dissent-read-from-bench/">attacking</a> conservative justices who overruled the federal government&#8217;s bump stock ban, and more.

The Constitutional Court Celebrates Women’s Day

Bodyguards For Leftist U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor Shoot Alleged Carjacker Outside Her Home: Reports

Crime

U.S.

Washington D.C.

Former U.S. Attorney General <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/william-barr" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bill Barr</a> slammed critics of former President Donald Trump this week after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that presidents have immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts that they take as president, but not for unofficial conduct.
Barr made the remarks during an interview after leftist Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a widely criticized dissent in which she claimed that “the President is now a king above the law.”
&#8220;There’s absolute immunity when he’s acting directly under the constitution, carrying out a function under the constitution,&#8221; Barr explained during the interview. &#8220;There’s presumptive immunity when he performs an official act, and the government has the burden of showing that it can prosecute him for that without impairing the executive function. And finally, there’s no immunity for unofficial or private acts. And I think the — and the practical effect of this is that the district court is gonna do what it really should have done at the beginning, which is the government really should have had it do, which is do the analysis so that the facts are going up to the Supreme Court.”
He said that Sotomayor intentionally falsely portrayed the majority&#8217;s ruling opinion in the case.
“He has the right to go and tell the Department of Justice to investigate something, but an example used by Justice Sotomayor was, ‘Oh, then he can fabricate evidence, give the evidence to the department, and use that evidence to indict them.’ He doesn’t have authority to fabricate evidence,” Barr said. “That’s not carrying out an executive function. And the worst example, I think — the one that makes no sense whatsoever is that he can use SEAL Team 6 to kill a political opponent. The president has the authority to defend the country against foreign enemies — armed conflict and so forth. He has the authority to direct the justice system against criminals at home. He doesn’t have the authority to go and assassinate people.”
“So whether he uses the SEAL Team or a private hitman, it doesn’t matter,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;It’s not a carrying out of his authority. So all these horror stories really are false.&#8221;
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WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
WATCH: Former Attorney General Bill Barr rips apart liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor&#8217;s dissent in Trump v. United States:
&#8220;The worst example I think, the one that makes no sense whatsoever, is the idea he can use SEAL Team Six to kill a political opponent. The president has the… <a href="https://t.co/gv2qY7LTiH">pic.twitter.com/gv2qY7LTiH</a>
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveGuest/status/1807879621649613199?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 1, 2024</a></blockquote>

Former United States Attorney General Bill Barr

Bill Barr Blasts Leftist Justice Sotomayor For Trump Fear Mongering: ‘All These Horror Stories Really Are False’

Donald Trump

William Barr

Liberal <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/supreme-court" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Supreme Court</a> Justice <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/sonia-sotomayor" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sonia Sotomayor</a> opened up on Friday at Harvard University about how she has cried after some court decisions.
The Harvard Crimson <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/5/26/sonia-sotomayor-scotus-radcliffe-medal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> on Sotomayor&#8217;s candid admission, which happened during an event at which she received <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/3/23/radcliffe-medal-sonia-sotomayor/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a medal</a> recognizing her impact on society.
&#8220;There are days that I’ve come to my office after an announcement of a case and closed my door and cried,&#8221; Sotomayor said.
She added, &#8220;There have been those days. And there are likely to be more.&#8221;
CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/24/politics/sotomayor-crying-supreme-court-decisions/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a> that Sotomayor did not mention any particular cases that have caused her to shed tears.
The justice did acknowledge how there are &#8220;moments when I&#8217;m deeply, deeply sad. And there are moments when, yes, even I feel desperation. We all do.&#8221;
Sotomayor went on, &#8220;But you have to own it. You have to accept it. You have to shed the tears, and then you have to wipe them and get up and fight some more.&#8221;
A justice since 2009, Sotomayor witnessed former President Donald Trump lead the charge in creating a 6-3 conservative-majority Supreme Court.
In recent years, the high court has levied significant rulings opposed by Sotomayor, including one in 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade.
Some <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/should-sotomayor-retire-biden_n_66032a7ae4b006c3905731dd" target="_blank" rel="noopener">legal scholars</a> have been pushing for Sotomayor, who is 69 and a lifelong diabetic, to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dem-senators-get-anxious-over-prospect-of-another-ginsburg-situation-on-scotus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">step down</a> and give President Joe Biden another nominee.
The pressure campaign picked up steam after Sotomayor said in January that she was <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/sotomayor-says-surprised-by-supreme-court-pace-tougher-workload" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;tired&#8221;</a> from her workload.
NBC News reported last month that Senate Democrats were concerned about a scenario echoing Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg&#8217;s sudden death.
Ginsburg&#8217;s passing in September 2020 allowed Trump to nominate one more eventual justice — Amy Coney Barrett — in the final months of his presidency.
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&#8220;I think she really has to weigh the competing factors,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told the news outlet. &#8220;We should learn a lesson.&#8221;
He added, &#8220;The old saying — graveyards are full of indispensable people, ourselves in this body included.&#8221;
Biden is running for a second term, paving the way to a 2020 general election rematch against Trump in this year&#8217;s contest.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates said Biden &#8220;believes that decisions to retire from the Supreme Court should be made by the justices themselves and no one else.&#8221;

Liberal SCOTUS Justice Reveals She Cries After Some Decisions

Democrats in the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/u-s-senate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Senate</a> are expressing concerns about the possibility of a scenario that echoes <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/supreme-court" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Supreme Court</a> Justice <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/ruth-bader-ginsburg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ruth Bader Ginsburg</a> suddenly dying and giving way to a conservative majority during Donald Trump&#8217;s presidency.
A report from <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/top-democrats-wont-join-calls-justice-sotomayor-retire-still-fear-ruth-rcna145912" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NBC News</a> explored how this anxiety is centered on Justice <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/sonia-sotomayor" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sonia Sotomayor</a>, the oldest liberal member of the court at 69 and a lifelong diabetic, not stepping down while President Joe <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/joe-biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Biden</a> is in office and Democrats control the Senate.
&#8220;I’m very respectful of Justice Sotomayor. I have great admiration for her. But I think she really has to weigh the competing factors,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told the news outlet. &#8220;We should learn a lesson. And it’s not like there’s any mystery here about what the lesson should be. The old saying — graveyards are full of indispensable people, ourselves in this body included.&#8221;
Though Blumenthal said Sotomayor is &#8220;a highly accomplished and, obviously, fully functioning justice right now,&#8221; he noted that &#8220;justices have to make their personal decisions about their health, and their level of energy, but also to keep in mind the larger national and public interest in making sure that the court looks and thinks like America.&#8221;
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), the second-ranked Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said he is &#8220;not joining any calls&#8221; for Sotomayor to step down but warned of an &#8220;extremist wing&#8221; if the 6-3 conservative majority created during Trump&#8217;s presidency is allowed to expand further.
&#8220;Run it to 7-2 and you go from a captured court to a full MAGA court,&#8221; Whitehouse added. &#8220;Certainly I think if Justice Ginsburg had it to do over again, she might have rethought her confidence in her own health.&#8221;
Biden has been able to nominate just one person to the high court during his presidency. He selected <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ketanji-brown-jackson-sworn-in-as-supreme-court-justice" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ketanji Brown Jackson</a> to replace Stephen Breyer, who retired <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/justice-stephen-breyer-reveals-when-he-will-retire-from-scotus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">under pressure</a> from the Left.
Ginsburg long resisted a push by <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0G12UZ/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">liberals</a> who wanted her to retire as she reached her 80s and experienced <a href="https://people.com/politics/ruth-bader-ginsburg-health-ups-downs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">health scares</a>. She <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-supreme-court-justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-dies-from-cancer-complications" target="_blank" rel="noopener">died</a> of pancreatic cancer at the age of 87 in 2020, paving the way for Trump-nominated Amy Coney Barrett to take her place.
Some <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/should-sotomayor-retire-biden_n_66032a7ae4b006c3905731dd" target="_blank" rel="noopener">legal scholars</a> are now pushing for Sotomayor to step down, but the NBC News report claimed there are no signs that Sotomayor has plans to retire. However, <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/sotomayor-says-surprised-by-supreme-court-pace-tougher-workload" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to Bloomberg Law</a>, she said in January that she was &#8220;tired&#8221; by the workload. Sotomayor has served on the high court since 2009 during the Obama administration.
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Biden is running for a second term, paving the way to a 2020 general election rematch against Trump. White House spokesman Andrew Bates said Biden &#8220;believes that decisions to retire from the Supreme Court should be made by the justices themselves and no one else.&#8221;
One Republican lawmaker quoted in the new report was Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who is 90 and has already <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3740578-grassley-has-already-filed-for-reelection-bid-in-2028/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">filed paperwork</a> to run for a ninth term in 2028. &#8220;Everybody’s got to make that personal decision,&#8221; Grassley said. &#8220;And I wouldn’t comment on it for somebody else, because that’s their decision. Just like it’s my decision to run for re-election.&#8221;

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor

Dem Senators Get Anxious Over Prospect Of Another Ginsburg Situation On SCOTUS

2024 Election

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Senate Democrats

U.S. Senate

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/supreme-court">Supreme Court</a> unveiled a formal ethics code this week amid <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/key-allegations-against-clarence-thomas-democrats-call-probe-1819296">scrutiny</a> from the media and Congress over concerns that the justices have failed to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/longtime-thomas-friend-hits-back-at-democratic-probe-into-financial-records" target="_blank" rel="noopener">properly disclose gifts</a> and did not recuse themselves in cases in which they might have a conflict of interest.
A <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/Code-of-Conduct-for-Justices_November_13_2023.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">15-page document</a>, featuring a statement at the top and a &#8220;Code of Conduct&#8221; below, was <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/publicinfo/press/pressreleases/pr_11-13-23" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> to the high court&#8217;s website on Monday. All nine members, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, signed off on adhering to the five &#8220;canon&#8221; rules.
The five canons, many of which included subsections, said a justice &#8220;should uphold the integrity and independence of the judiciary,&#8221; &#8220;should avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all activities,&#8221; &#8220;should perform the duties of office fairly, impartially, and diligently,&#8221; &#8220;may engage in extrajudicial activities that are consistent with the obligations of the judicial office,&#8221; and &#8220;should refrain from political activity.&#8221;
A &#8220;statement of the Court&#8221; offered a brief explanation for drawing out an ethics code without getting into specific media reports on ethical questions and a lack of transparency that have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/clarence-thomas-cites-safety-concerns-for-private-jet-travel-after-dobbs-leak" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dogged conservative</a> justices, including Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, as well as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/04/politics/sonia-sotomayor-neil-gorsuch-book-recusal-supreme-court-cases/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">liberal Justice</a> Sonia Sotomayor in recent months while fueling an <a href="https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/press/releases/durbin-announces-judiciary-committee-will-no-longer-vote-to-authorize-subpoena-for-robin-arkley-following-cooperation-in-supreme-court-ethics-investigation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">investigation led by the Democrat-led Senate Judiciary Committee</a>.
&#8220;The undersigned Justices are promulgating this Code of Conduct to set out succinctly and gather in one place the ethics rules and principles that guide the conduct of the Members of the Court,&#8221; the statement said.
&#8220;For the most part these rules and principles are not new: The Court has long had the equivalent of common law ethics rules, that is, a body of rules derived from a variety of sources, including statutory provisions, the code that applies to other members of the federal judiciary, ethics advisory opinions issued by the Judicial Conference Committee on Codes of Conduct, and historic practice,&#8221; the statement added.
&#8220;The absence of a Code, however, has led in recent years to the misunderstanding that the Justices of this Court, unlike all other jurists in this country, regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules,&#8221; the statement said. &#8220;To dispel this misunderstanding, we are issuing this Code, which largely represents a codification of principles that we have long regarded as governing our conduct.&#8221;

Supreme Court Reveals Ethics Code For Justices

Ethics

John Roberts

Judiciary

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/supreme-court">Supreme Court</a> Justice Sonia Sotomayor&#8217;s net worth has skyrocketed ever since she became a member of the nation&#8217;s highest court — which has led to criticism from experts.
Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/sotomayors-wealth-skyrocketed-since-joining-supreme-court-raising-ethics-concerns">reported</a> that, according to financial disclosures, Sotomayor&#8217;s wealth increased from being in the $15,001-$65,000 range in 2008 to being in the $1,600,000-$6,600,000 range in 2021.
Sotomayor was nominated by then-President Barack Obama to the Supreme Court in 2009. A recent data analysis of her actions on the court found that she is the <a href="https://www.axios.com/2019/06/01/supreme-court-justices-ideology">most partisan</a> justice on the court.
The 69-year-old reportedly makes more than $25,000 per year teaching law schools in addition to her $285,400 salary from the court.
The Associated Press reported that the main reason that her wealth has surged is because of the books that she has written.
Sotomayor used her taxpayer-funded court staff to enrich herself by using them to perform tasks &#8220;for the justice&#8217;s book ventures.&#8221;
&#8220;Sotomayor’s staff has often prodded public institutions that have hosted the justice to buy her memoir or children’s books, works that have earned her at least $3.7 million since she joined the court in 2009,&#8221; the report <a href="https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-sotomayor-book-sales-ethics-colleges-b2cb93493f927f995829762cb8338c02">said</a>.
The report said that she continues to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties from her book sales.
The publisher of her books, Penguin Random House, has been involved in &#8220;several matters&#8221; before the court in which Sotomayor did not recuse herself.
“Justice Sotomayor would have recused in cases in which Penguin Random House was a party, in light of her close and ongoing relationship with the publisher,” the Supreme Court said in a statement. “An inadvertent omission failed to bring Penguin’s participation in several cases to her attention; those cases ultimately were not selected for review by the Court. Chambers’ conflict check procedures have since been changed.”
Former White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter said that he was &#8220;very concerned&#8221; about Sotomayor&#8217;s book sales while on the court.
&#8220;It&#8217;s problematic to the core,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I think that&#8217;s wrong. There&#8217;s just too much money in it, millions of dollars. We&#8217;ve got to know the difference between judges and cable news hosts.&#8221;
Mike Davis, founder and president of the Article III Project, slammed recent partisan attacks by Senate Democrats on conservative justices, saying that their silence on the Sotomayor situation revealed that they don&#8217;t actually care about ethics.
&#8220;What is unmistakable is the deafening silence of so many Democrats and others on the left who have constantly attacked conservative Supreme Court justices — and for far less,&#8221; said Davis. &#8220;If Senate Democrats actually cared about ethics, they&#8217;d start by cleaning up the crack den called the Biden White House.&#8221;

Supreme Court Justice’s Net Worth Skyrockets Since Joining The Court: Report

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