Naturally a special banner was in order for the World Series champion Washington Nationals. The last time Washington won the Series was 1924 when the Senators beat the New York Giants.
The Court’s November sitting started on Monday with and immigration case, Barton v. Barr, followed by Fourth Amendment case, Kansas v. Glover, about a traffic stop. I didn’t get to sketch Tuesday and Wednesday’s argument as I was in District Court for the Roger Stone trial.
I’ve been neglecting the blog lately. My excuse is that it was being updated, but really I’m just lazy and reluctant to tackle the minor changes that have been made. With that said, I’ll just post the sketches from the second week of October arguments, without comment, before it’s too late. The November sitting begins tomorrow.
Justice Thomas was absent from the bench – “indisposed due to illness” said the Chief Justice after formally announcing the beginning of the new term.
The Justices then heard argument in the first case, Kahler v. Kansas, on whether states can abolish the insanity defense. Under a recent change to the “Guide for Counsel Arguing Cases” lawyers are now allowed two minutes, uninterrupted, to make their case before the justices jump in with questions. A light on the lectern briefly flashed before Justice Ginsburg jumped in with the first question of the term.
In addition to another morning argument, which I did not attend, the Court heard a rare afternoon argument in Ramos v. Louisiana on the requirement for state juries to reach unanimous verdicts.
In the new term’s first blockbuster the Supreme Court yesterday heard arguments in three cases of LGBTQ employment rights under Title VII.
Other than to observe that Justice Gorsuch seemed to be on the fence, “. . . It’s close, okay? We’re not talking about extra-textual stuff.”. . .
. . . and that Justice Ginsburg sported a bright red collar with matching earrings and scrunchie . . .
. . . I’ll let the sketches speak for themselves. ( Truth is, like walking and chewing gum, I find it difficult to listen and draw at the same time. )
A generally quiet term concluded this week with opinions on two major issues before the Court, election district gerrymandering and the citizenship question on the 2020 census. There’s no question that it is now the Roberts Court with the Chief Justice replacing now retired Justice Kennedy as the deciding swing vote. Roberts wrote the opinions in both of the term’s blockbusters, siding with the conservatives on gerrymandering, but joining, at least in part, the liberal justices on the census question.
Here are some sketches from this last week. More sketches from the term are posted in my archive. I’m off to Ireland for a two week vacation so any print orders will have to wait until the end of July. Have a great summer!
April is the last argument siting of the Supreme Court. From now until the end of June the Justices will only sit to announces opinions, and no maybe a few dissents. After a fairly quiet term with no real blockbusters things picked up in this month. Last week the Court heard arguments in CENSUS, about the citizenship question on the 2020 census, and the week before there were arguments in Brunetti, about registering an “immoral” or “scandalous” trademark.
Courtartist is me, Arthur Lien. I've been sketching the courts since 1976, and for most of that time the U.S. Supreme Court has been my regular beat. I've been working almost exclusively for NBC News since 1980.
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