No New SCOTUS Cases

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The U.S. Supreme Court issued an orders list from last week’s conference. No new cases were taken up for full briefing and argument. There were no opinions of the Court issued and no opinions dissenting from denial of certiorari.

In other words, the orders/opinions aspect of today’s session was boring. All attention is on the oral argument in the school admission affirmative action cases being argued today.

Tomorrow, the Court will hear argument in Jones v. Hendrix, No. 21-857, asking whether Congress left a huge loophole when it cracked down on successive collateral petitions by federal prisoners. We think not. CJLF’s amicus brief is here. Unfortunately, the Solicitor General has gone over the hill and joined the defendant on the main point, although disagreeing on the details and the application to this case.

Also on tomorrow’s docket is Cruz v. Arizona, No. 21-846, regarding the way Arizona has treated past capital cases where the trial court refused to inform the jury that the defendant would not be eligible for parole if sentenced to life in prison.

Here is a practice tip for pro se litigants in the Supreme Court. If you want the high court to review your case, it is a thoroughly bad idea to name seven of the nine Justices as defendants in the action. They must recuse themselves, the Court lacks a quorum, and the judgment is automatically affirmed. See Weidrick v. Biden, No. 22-5162, on today’s orders list.

Not that they were likely to take this case anyway. This paragraph gives the flavor of the petition:

The primary purpose of this action is to allow Petitioner to immediately and safely confer with her attorney of 5 years, Mark J. Geragos, for purposes of stopping named and unnamed Respondents’ terrorism of Petitioner. Named and unnamed Respondents have engaged in terrorist activity against Petitioner 24/7 for 32 V2+ years and continue to do so. Named and unnamed Respondents daily forge pro-terrorism material making it appear it is Petitioner’s, then threaten to arrest Mr. Geragos; prosecutors Letitia A. James, New York Attorney General and Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., former Manhattan District Attorney et al if they speak to Petitioner for purposes of stopping this terrorism.

Uh-huh. I wonder why Mr. Geragos, Ms. James, and Mr. Vance aren’t joining this petition if they are being illegally threatened with arrest.