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Mike Sacks

@mikesacks.bsky.social
26K followers 1.3K following 4.9K posts

Senior Advisor @courtacctability.bsky.social. Democracy advocate. Former political-legal journalist. Retired competitive air guitarist. Former Congressional Candidate. Second-Best dad ever.

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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 34m
And then just usual political penduluming would be at play. Anyway, enjoy this 2008 flashback:
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 48m
Now whether a 2004 McCain presidency would have yielded Roberts and Alito is a different story altogether, but I'm fairly certain any Republican President would have followed conservative legal movement's "no more Souters" command by that point.
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 48m
Caveat: Roberts & Alito were 2nd-term GWB appointees. Gore's reelection potential in 2004 would have been slim bc one party holding the WH for more than 8 years is very rare, and if 9/11 happened on his watch Republicans woulda run (and won) on his not keeping us safe and our need to invade Iraq.
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 2h
I used to say “trust judges to judge” but yeah no
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 3h
And Stevens from his swan song: “It all depends on judges' exercising careful, reasoned judgment. As it always has, and as it always will.”
McDonald v. City of Chicago, II., 561 US 742 - Supre...
As for "the democratic process," ante, at 3057-3058, a method that looks exclusively to history can easily do more harm than good. Just consider this case. The net result of Justice SCALIA's supposedly objective analysis is to vest federal judges— ultimately a majority of the judges on this Court-with unprecedented lawmaking powers in an area in which they have no special qualifications, and in which the give-and-take of the political process has functioned effectively for decades. Why this "intrudes much less upon the democratic process, ante, at 3058, than an approach that would defer to the democratic process on the regulation of firearms is, to say the least, not self-evident. I cannot even tell what, under Justice SCALIA's view, constitutes an "intrusion."
It is worth pondering, furthermore, the vision of democracy that underlies Justice SCALIA's critique.
Very few of us would welcome a system in which majorities or powerful interest groups always get their way. Under our constitutional scheme, I would have thought that a judicial approach to liberty claims such as the one I have outlined-an approach that investigates both the intrinsic nature of the claimed interest and the practical significance of its judicial enforcement, that is transparent in its reasoning and sincere in its effort to incorporate constraints, that is guided by history but not beholden to it, and that is willing to protect some rights even if they have not already received uniform protection from the elected branches-has the capacity to improve, rather than " [im]periliỊante, at 3058, our democracy. It all depends on judges' exercising careful, reasoned judgment. As it always has, and as it always will.
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 3h
And
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 3h
I mean
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 3h
Dude’s pretty much fessing up to being a common law constitutionalist like Stevens and Souter, but with none of the small-c conservative restraint either showed even as they turned left
Alito usefully highlights important theoretical conundrums for originalism. A central one is how to tell whether the invariably fuzzy meaning of an old term (equal protection, for example) should be applied in specific contexts that the Framers never imagined.
Scholars offer an array of complex and clashing solutions to this and related difficulties. Alito invokes judicial "judgment" as the global solution. "Broadly worded constitutional provisions can be regarded as delegating a degree of authority to apply those provisions to new situations that could not be anticipated at the time of adoption," he maintains. "Identifying just how far this delegation of authority extends calls for the exercise of judgment."
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 22h
Gorsuch understands the assignment on Mass v. EPA
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 22h
(As in, decades in pursuit of trying and failing to overrule Roe turned a movement that was once ostensibly about restoring our Republic to its proper moorings into one that has become outright against democracy altogether because only the right wing is ever allowed to hold power)
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Reposted by Mike Sacks
Ari Berman @ariberman.bsky.social · 22h
Thank you @mikesacks.bsky.social @legalafmtn.bsky.social for having me & @pemalevy.bsky.social on for important discussion on how Roberts Court is bringing back Jim Crow & ending Second Reconstruction youtu.be/U8o1g_EA5gU?...
youtu.be
Roberts Court BETRAYS History with LATEST RULING...
YouTube video by Legal AF
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 22h
Originalism has always been inherently anti-precedent! Originalists adopted the One True Way™ to overturn the other side's constitutionalizing its political preferences as though they were constitutional heresies to be purified. But the movement became Gollum in pursuit of the ring. More at 21:00:
liberalcurrents.com
Don't Let John Roberts Fool You (Neon Liberalism #93, with Mike Sacks)
How we need to think about court reform in the future.
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 22h
(Tom Morello is allowed to like KISS. Paul Ryan isn't allowed to like RATM. Yes, I make the rules, but they're not without reason.)
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 22h
I write this as someone who loves Rage and TM, and find quite healthy for our democracy by the latter's self-professed communism coexisting alongside his membership in the ubercapitalist KISS Army: he inducted KISS into the Rock Hall and covered RnR All Nite at the Power to the People festival!
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 23h
Not gonna repost the entire thread here, so you hazard a look at the other place if you want more x.com/mikesacksesq...
x.com
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 23h
So, uh, this goes deeper than 2024
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 23h
"I choose to remain hopeful that one day we will remember that nobody elected these nine petty kings and queens. Power in a democracy flows from the people, and if the people ever remember that, this Supreme Court can be stopped." - @elienyc.bsky.social
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
"Hello, Denny. Remember me, from Yorkville?"
c-span.org
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Not sure how they get a majority out of any of this, which is why I was wondering if Alito's recusal meant they'd just broadly junk the thing on jurisdiction. There could still be a coalition for that, but none of the Republican justices (save Thomas) showed any interest in it during the args.
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
My read on this mess: The 3 Dem justices just want the case to go away, would do so by saying SCOCO's ruling isn't final or remanding to determine choice of law. Roberts and Gorsuch don't buy Suncor's const'l arg. Kav and Barrett are votes for Suncor. Thomas...no jurisdiction? Suncor on merits?
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Kagan goes back in on suggesting that she may think Boulder's case could be preempted by the Clean Air Act
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Barrett's exploring the difference between a state statute purporting to cap emissions in the other 49 states, and a state law suit to recover damages from pollution harms. She thinks they're the same thing, which suggests she believes the state law suit should be preempted.
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Gorsuch: "is there anything anomalous to applying state law principles to worldwide conduct?" Russell: No. Gorsuch does seem to think there's something distinct between this case and a basic products liability case.
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Kagan mocks Kavanaugh's pro-Suncor citations as the "wall of precedents idea"
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Roberts: "We're not talking about emissions at all, it's just production." Accuses Boulder of trying to evade the precedents that Kavanaugh keeps citing. Kagan: "Is there still...a constitutional limit on what states can do in the air and water field?" They're pushing Boulder's weak spots.
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Roberts to Boulder's lawyer: "presumably if you prevail the next day a minucipality in every state will file a lawsuit...and then there will be at least 50 causes of action filed. How would you think that would work out on the ground?" Sounds like Roberts is looking to assuage Thomas's concerns.
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Boulder's lawyer (Kevin Russell) now up. Thomas: "If you prevail, is there a limiting principle as to whom you can sue...So you could just as easily sue large retailers of these products?" Thomas doesn't like tort lawyers.
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
KBJ: "what's the source state in this case? Is that established?" "We don't really know yet because we don't have the whole set of facts to how this pollution is happening because we haven't gotten to that state of litigation." She wants this case gone.
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Kav, restating the Trump admin's arg (that it shares with Suncor) - "What is preserved by the Clean Air Act and what is permissible is a state tort suit under the source state's law, but not under the affected state's law, so not Colorado law."
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Gorsuch also previews his own desire to overrule Mass v EPA in the suits coming up now against Trump's rescission of the endangerment finding, though he gives usual disclaimer that his question expresses no view one way or the other
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Gorsuch back to probing the structural constitutional arg, too: "If Congress carved out GHG regulation from EPA's responsibility, does that mean there could never be a cause of action against it?" He's against Suncor.
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Kavanaugh sweeping back in to help Suncor, citing again the four SCOTUS precedents "since 1972" he says help their args. "What's the problem" with those precedents, "why are you leading" with other args?
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Roberts: "there are a lot of famiiar situations where conduct outside of a state has broad effects on other states and yet we allow state courts in a partcular state to bring litigation that affects that...I guess i'm not quite sure which makes this case different." Yeah, he's not with Suncor here.
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Trump admin lawyer now arguing and she seems very excited to side with BigOil.
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
As expected, Sotomayor, Kagan, and KBJ just want this case to go away.
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
KBJ: "why shouldn't we wait and to hear all these claims one the state courts are done" with all your defenses? Shanmugam: fossil fuel industry is facing more than three dozen cases by more than 60 states and municipalities, and they "need an answer...sooner rather than later...the time is now."
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
KBJ goes back to Kagan's point that this is "really early" in the case, and that the choice of law issue is undercooked.
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Barrett now brings up Trump EPA's rescission of the endangerment finding, and asks whether that means plaintiffs could still bring bring suits in state courts after all. Shanmugam then says nope, constitutional structure still controls. Barrett doesn't buy that.
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Unclear where Barrett is yet. Trying to get Suncor's lawyer to walk back broad sweep of their structural args, while probing whether Boulder's arg is within the scope of the CAA's savings clause.
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Barrett: "this is a field that is an enclave of federal common law because it is not suited to any one state" but "even under that pre-CAA system, there was this outer ring where states had authority..." and after the CAA, Congress preserved some state authority in a savings clause.
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Kav also saying the Court's precedents are backed up by the "equal sovereignty principle." You know, the thing they made up in Shelby County to gut the Voting Rights Act. So it's a weapon to be used against Acts of Congress that states don't like...and state law suits that industry doesn't like.
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Kav: "Clean Air Act is very significant in terms of the responsibilities it puts on states...explain as clearly as you can the conflicts or inconsistencies or the like if states could do tort suits and were no longer constrained by the [CAA's] good neighbor provision." He's with Suncor (I think).
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Kavanaugh: now the "wrinkle" - cites Roberts and Gorsuch's questions - another case did allow a Vermont party to sue a New York party in a similar case. He's trying to help shore up Suncor's arg, but unclear if he's on the other side of Roberts and Gorsuch.
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Kavanaugh tries to save Suncor by asking why its lawyer is avoiding what Kav says is the strongest answer: "We have four precedents on point...make crystal clear that interstate air andwater pollution are matters for federal law unless Congress explicitly preserves state law."
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Alito's prob sitting in his chambers pounding his desk screaming softball questions to save Suncor's lawyers.
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Kagan's just brutalizing Suncor. "What's the support for the default rule about air and water regulation" that the constitution forbids state law suits against polluters like this one?
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Kagan cites tobacco and opioid cases and asks why this isn't like that? "I'm waiting to see the distinction." "This is the same kind of lawsuit against the same kind of actors for the same kind of harm." She gives the A the lawyer failed to give: it's "about air and water." She doesn't buy it.
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Sotomayor goes back to the jurisdiction question Thomas started off with, says SCOCO's decision below wasn't final. "Shouldn't we be certifying this question to SCOCO rather we decide it?" She, like Kagan, wants this case to go away.
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Sotomayor "I have a starting problem because I don't see anywhere below where you argued the extraterritoriality principle at all...and yet you come here and start arguing it as your first argument....didn't you forfeit it?" "You're really staying away from the word...preemption." Cites Roberts.
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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
(BTW I was trying to set up a Twitch stream to MST3K this arg...but that'll have to wait till the next big arg)
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