The Supreme Court has granted a temporary pause to the Biden administration's efforts to regulate so-called ghost guns, which are firearm-making kits available online. The regulations require background checks and registration with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and are intended to protect public safety. Opponents of the regulations argue that they infringe on the Second Amendment right to bear arms, and the legal battle over the regulations is likely to continue in the lower courts.
Posts tagged as “Samuel Alito”
Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan has expressed her support for an ethics code for the court, while noting that the justices are divided on the issue. This follows a series of controversial rulings and ethical controversies, and Kagan has suggested that Congress could take action to address the issue. It remains to be seen what action Congress will take.
A coalition of Senate Democrats has urged Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to take action to ensure Associate Justice Samuel Alito recuses himself from cases involving regulation of the court. The request follows a report of an undisclosed luxury fishing trip with a Republican billionaire who later had cases before the court, as well as a column written by a former clerk of Alito's that raised further questions about the court's ethical standards. The Democrats are asking Roberts to ensure Alito recuses himself from any cases involving laws that regulate the High Court, and it remains to be seen how Roberts will respond.
The Supreme Court has temporarily intervened in a legal battle over the Biden administration's restrictions on so-called "ghost guns," reviving a regulation from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) that requires anyone who manufactures or assembles a firearm for personal use to obtain a serial number from the ATF and be subject to a background check before they can be sold or transferred. A group of gun owners, manufacturers and firearms advocacy organizations challenged the rule in court, but the Biden administration has sought emergency relief from the Supreme Court to put on hold the lower court's ruling while it appeals the decision. The court's decision is a temporary victory for the Biden administration, freezing the litigation until the justices decide whether to hear the case.
Democrats have pushed a Supreme Court ethics legislation through a Senate committee, which has been met with opposition from Justice Alito, who is the first member of the court to take a public stand against it. The legislation is in response to Justice Alito's interview with two Wall Street Journal writers, including one who is an attorney representing plaintiffs in a key case before the Supreme Court. Its prospects in the full Senate remain uncertain.
The Supreme Court has issued a unanimous decision in Groff v. DeJoy, setting aside the "de minimis" standard set more than 45 years ago and laying out a "clarified standard" for lower courts to apply when determining when an employee's proposed religious accommodation imposes an undue hardship on the employer's business. This decision is a major victory for workers seeking religious accommodations from their employers, and could have far-reaching implications for how employers handle such requests in the future.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is calling for an investigation into allegations of ethical improprieties against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and for reforms to prevent similar violations in the future. The letter, led by Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), calls for an independent investigative body and an ethics council to provide advice to justices on disclosure requirements, recusal and other ethics issues. The letter comes after reports of Justice Samuel Alito traveling at the expense of another top Republican donor, and is a sign of growing bipartisan concern over ethical issues in the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has been accused of ethical misconduct after taking a luxury fishing trip to Alaska in 2008 aboard a private jet chartered by a hedge fund billionaire. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island has called the situation a "real mess" and Alito preemptively wrote an article in The Wall Street Journal defending himself against the allegations. This has sparked a debate about the ethical standards of Supreme Court Justices and the potential for conflicts of interest.