Week in a Nutshell, 8/2/24

August 2, 2024

Week in a Nutshell, 8/2/24

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks to the media following the Supreme Court's ruling on charges against former President Donald Trump. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Here is some of the legal news making the headlines this week:

President Joe Biden unveiled his proposals for Supreme Court reform.

Biden proposed 18-year term limits for justices, a binding ethics code, and a Constitutional amendment declaring that former presidents do not have immunity from criminal prosecution for acts taken while president. Preet Bharara and Joyce Vance analyzed Biden’s plan in this week’s episode of the CAFE Insider podcast.
In a Washington Post op-ed, Biden criticized the Court for its “dangerous and extreme decisions that overturn settled legal precedents” and its “crisis of ethics.” He wrote that the Court’s conduct had left him no choice but to call for “bold reforms to restore trust and accountability to the court and our democracy.”
The likelihood that any of these measures will be adopted, whether by an act of Congress or a Constitutional amendment ratified by the states, is low since Congress and the states are politically divided. In a speech on the Senate floor, Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell denounced Biden’s term limit proposal as “unconstitutional” and said it would be “dead on arrival in Congress.” McConnell continued, “That shows you the depth to which [Democrats] have gone lately to attack the Supreme Court because they don’t like the current makeup of the court and decisions they disapprove of.”

The Supreme Court has started scheduling oral arguments for the forthcoming term, which will begin this October.

Headlining the first week of oral arguments, on October 8, the justices will review the case Garland v. VanDerStok. At issue is whether the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has statutory authority to regulate “ghost guns,” homemade firearms that can be made with a 3D printer or assembled from a kit. In 2022, ATF ordered manufacturers and sellers of ghost gun kits and parts to obtain licenses, conduct background searches of buyers, and label the parts with serial numbers. Last November, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the guidelines “flout[] clear statutory text and exceed[] the legislatively-imposed limits on agency authority in the name of public policy.” In the Biden administration’s petition to the Supreme Court, U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar urged the justices to leave the regulations in place. Without the guidelines, Prelogar wrote, there “would be a flood of untraceable ghost guns into our Nation’s communities, endangering the public and thwarting law-enforcement efforts to solve violent crimes.”
The justices will also hear oral arguments that week in Glossip v. Oklahoma. In that case, the Court will consider whether to overturn the guilty verdict against Richard Glossip, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to death for the 1997 killing of his employer. In his appeal, Glossip argues that the prosecution suppressed evidence about a key witness’s mental health in violation of the Supreme Court’s landmark 1963 ruling Brady v. Maryland, which held that prosecutors must provide the defendant with all exculpatory evidence.
Also in October, the justices will hear oral arguments in cases concerning federal racketeering laws, immigration, and the Clean Water Act.

Special counsel Jack Smith will appeal U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s order dismissing the charges against former President Donald Trump in the classified documents case.

Cannon recently dismissed the indictment against Trump, finding the special counsel’s appointment unconstitutional. She reasoned that Smith’s appointment violated the Constitution’s Appointments Clause because he was not confirmed by the Senate and that Smith’s work was improperly funded by the Justice Department in violation of the Constitution’s Appropriations Clause. Cannon wrote, “The Special Counsel’s position effectively usurps [Congress’s] important legislative authority, transferring it to a Head of Department, and in the process threatening the structural liberty inherent in the separation of powers.”
Smith quickly filed to appeal Cannon’s order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. The Circuit has since scheduled Smith’s first brief to be filed by the end of this month, with Trump’s filing to follow.
In an interview this week, Attorney General Merrick Garland spoke confidently about Smith’s chances of winning his appeal to reinstate the charges against Trump. Garland said, “Do I look like someone who would make that basic mistake about the law? I don’t think so.”