Judicial Branch

If you were interested in the views of protesters, the details of the Federalist papers, Judge Kavanaugh’s most difficult job (working construction at age 16), and a broad ranging discussion of executive power, day two of Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings weren’t disappointing.

But if you were interested in knowing Judge Kavanaugh’s views on issues of importance to state and local governments you may have been disappointed. Generally, Supreme Court nominees give little away about their actual views on the law. Judge Kavanaugh was no exception. But he also wasn’t asked many hard hitting questions on legal issues of importance to state and local governments--with the exceptions of the expected questions on abortion and gun rights.

The nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court has touched off a battle between Republicans eager to reshape the court by moving Justice Anthony Kennedy’s “swing seat” to the right and Democrats desperate to ensure that any change is minimal. Much of the national conversation on a “Justice” Kavanaugh centers around his potential views on the social issues for which Kennedy was the swing vote, particularly abortion and overturning Roe v. Wade. Kavanaugh is something of an enigma on the issue: He stated at his confirmation hearing for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that he was bound by Roe v. Wade as precedent. But he named Chief Justice Rehnquist (who dissented in Roe) as a judicial hero, and he voted to uphold restrictions on abortion in certain situations while on the lower court.

As of the end of July, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy is retired. For many state and local governments he will be forever remembered as the justice who championed allowing online sales tax collection.
In March 2015, Kennedy wrote that the “legal system should find an appropriate case for this Court to reexamine Quill,” which held that businesses without a physical presence in the state did not have to collect sales tax. In his last majority opinion on the bench, South Dakota v. Wayfair, the Supreme Court overturned Quill.

What happens to our emails when we die? If Yahoo has its way, the Supreme Court will soon tell us.

Yahoo, under the name of Oath Holdings, Inc., filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court in January. This came on the heels of an October 2017 decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in Ajemian v. Yahoo!,...