Afternoon Briefs: Trump bashes Sotomayor and Ginsburg; PDs reach deal in masturbating-inmate suit
President Donald Trump. Photo from Shutterstock.com.
Trump says Justices Sotomayor and Ginsburg should recuse in his cases
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that U.S. Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg should recuse themselves in all Trump-related matters before the high court. Trump called for recusal on Twitter and in a news conference. Trump said Ginsburg “went wild during the campaign” when she called him a faker, although she “sort of apologized” later. He also targeted Sotomayor apparently for a dissent she wrote Friday that questioned why a Supreme Court majority was so quick to lift injunctions against administration policies based on its requests for emergency relief. Trump’s tweet about Sotomayor said the justice was trying to shame colleagues into voting a certain way. The tweet referred to a Fox News segment titled “Justice Sotomayor accuses GOP-appointed justices of being biased in favor of Trump.” (The New York Times, the Washington Post, tweets here and here)
Settlement reached in PDs’ suit over masturbating inmates
Assistant public defenders and law clerks in Cook County, Illinois, have reached a $14 million settlement in their civil rights lawsuit over masturbating inmates. The lawyers had claimed that in their federal class action they were subjected to a toxic work environment. The proposed settlement includes reforms mandated in a 2017 injunction. (Law360, the Chicago Sun-Times)
Some new 9th Circuit judges offend colleagues
President Donald Trump has named 10 judges to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at San Francisco, and some of them are rubbing their colleagues the wrong way. Judges who remained anonymous criticized Judges Daniel Collins and Ryan Nelson in interviews with the Los Angeles Times. Some judges said Collins appeared oblivious to court tradition when he sent memos in the middle of the night, a violation of a court rule, and when he objected to colleagues’ rulings in language that some thought was combative. “Collins has definitely bulldozed his way around here,” one judge told the Los Angeles Times. “Either he doesn’t care or doesn’t realize that he has offended half the court already.” Judges criticized Nelson for suggesting that a district judge appointed by President Barack Obama be removed from a case, an extreme measure rarely taken. One judge said Nelson’s suggestion was “beginner stuff.” When Nelson “is in a china shop, he doesn’t walk around with caution,” the judge said. (The Los Angeles Times via Reason and How Appealing)
