Posted on 02/15/2016 1:19:02 PM PST by Synthesist
The Supreme Court announced yesterday that it will have to rehear a free-speech case that was argued before the justices in October, the first sign of an alteration in its normal flow of business because of the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
In a one-sentence order, the court said that it will restore Garcetti v. Ceballos , No. 04-473, to its calendar for reargument. The court did not say why. Historically, however, one reason for such a relatively unusual move has been that the court's preliminary vote in a case was 5 to 4 and one of the justices left the court before a result could be announced, leaving a 4 to 4 tie.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
But... I heard something very interesting this morning that confirmed what I had suspected. The Chief Justice of the USSC has the authority to call a rehearing of a case. Because this case (and others during this session) may end in a tie (which would then let the lower court ruling stand), the Chief Justice can withhold releasing a tie decision and wait until the court vacancy is filled before requesting a rehearing in front of the full court.
The key points are:
If it is decided the decision from the appellate court remains unchanged but only effective in that jurisdiction.
If Roberts is calling for a redo, he is expecting the result to be 4-4 now and EXPECTS the vacancy to be filled. I hope he is wrong on the refilling.
Hmmmmmm
A redo? This is a post from 2006.
I posted this 2006 article as an example that the USSC can rehear cases to avoid tie decisions, something I thought was true, but I had not seen mentioned until today by the “news” media. I heard it on the CBS morning news show that had David Boise(sp?)(the AlGore lawyer of the endless hanging chad recount... recount... recount... USSC: STOP IT!). He was on as a guest to comment about Justice Scalia.
VERY interesting .... but ..... Roberts ?
Hmmmmmm
Yep... Sigh...
But I think that Roberts really could redeem himself by NOT allowing any tie decisions and having these cases reheard by the full court.
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