Stephen Spaulding

@stevespaulding.bsky.social

Brennan Center at NYU Law | Used-to-be: Policy Director for Senator Amy Klobuchar + the Senate Rules Committee | VP @ Common Cause | Sr. Counsel to Representative Zoe Lofgren + House Admin Committee Dems | Special Counsel at the FEC | opinions are my own 🏳️‍🌈

Re-upping this Gallup poll from yesterday and the public's record disapproval of the Supreme Court. Note how 25 years ago -- when the Court handed the presidency to George W. Bush -- approval barely took a dip. Approval took a dive after Dobbs and it's only getting worse.

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Later this afternoon the Senate is going to take a cloture vote on a resolution providing for the “en bloc” consideration of 74 nominees. This is the result of Senate Republicans invoking the nuclear option last year to jam Trump’s exec noms through in one up-or-down vote.

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A great @acslaw event in FL w/ Judge Barkett on Congress, the Constitution and SCOTUS. Many thanks to Elliot Williams for moderating the discussion. Judge Barkett made plain that there’s no principled reason the highest court in the land shouldn’t have a binding ethics code. 1/

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The photo below was taken 20 years ago today -- July 27, 2006. It's President George W. Bush signing the Voting Rights Act reauthorization and amendments into law. It passed a GOP-controlled House by a huge bipartisan vote of 390-33 and the Senate unanimously (98-0).

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Can Supreme Court term limits be implemented by statute? I authored a detailed legal analysis with Eliazar Chacha & @stevespaulding.bsky.social, concluding that the leading proposals, in which justices retain their offices w/ reduced duties, are constitutional. www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...

Supreme Court Term Limits Are Constitutional

This legal analysis of leading proposals for term limits demonstrates that they can be implemented by statute.

brennancenter.org

New from @propublica.org: "In its term that ended last October, the Supreme Court passed an important milestone that went unnoticed: For the first time, it decided more cases by secret ballot, and with few signed opinions, than it did for cases argued in open court."

A Troubling Milestone: Most Supreme Court Rulings Are Secretive Votes With Little Justification

ProPublica conducted a new analysis that shows the court is deciding more consequential rulings than ever before in largely unsigned orders with little to no explanation.

propublica.org

BREAKING: Today's 6-3 campaign finance ruling is part of the Roberts Court's 16-year drive to destroy anti-corruption law. From Citizens United forward, these justices have ushered in an era of massive money in politics. If you don't like how the political system works, blame the Supreme Court. 1/5

BREAKING: In NRSC v. FEC, the Roberts Court again strikes down campaign finance limits, continuing its 16-year drive to dismantle anticorruption guardrails under a radically wrong interpretation of the First Amendment.

BREAKING: In a mail voting case, the Supreme Court chose not to do the wrong thing. The laws in many states stand: voters can vote by mail, and if they do so by Election Day, states will count their ballots. Voters should make a plan to vote and their vote will count.

The Supreme Court is likely to end its term next week, and the scuttle about whether Justice Alito—or another Justice—will retire is ramping up. Here's why strategic retirements are damaging and what Congress can do about it. Term limit the Justices. www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ana...

Strategic Retirements Hurt the Supreme Court. Term Limits Would End Them.

Justices timing their exits to happen under a particular president undermines trust in judicial impartiality.

brennancenter.org