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Chuck Todd, NBC Political Director

Mark Murray, NBC Deputy Political Director

Domenico Montanaro, NBC News Political Reporter



Raising the SCOTUS confirmation stakes

Posted: Monday, June 29, 2009 11:53 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under: ,

From NBC's Pete Williams


While the Supreme Court did reverse the ruling that Sonia Sotomayor joined in the New Haven case, it also raised the stakes for getting her confirmed early.

The court today took the unusual step of holding one case back and asking for additional argument from the lawyers, which the court will hear on Sept. 9. Justice David Souter, as of today, is gone from the court. So the justices will hope Sotomayor gets confirmed before Sept 9, to avoid the possibility of a 4-4 tie.

The case held back is a challenge to a part of the campaign finance law restricting broadcast ads in the periods before primary and general elections.

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From NBC's Pete Williams
While the Supreme Court did reverse the ruling that Sonia Sotomayor joined in the New Haven case, it also raised the stakes for getting her confirmed early.
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I am so glad that I listen to the news for myself and don't settle for the spin reporting. This will have no baring on her confirmation. Another Republician tatic. I'll bet that the Justices (conservatives) received visits from their cronies...as if we are dumb to the facts..this is not a victory ruling there is more to come...
How bizarre if Sotomayor doesn't get confirmed.  What if Hillary is plan B?  She would get to decide her own case,...

Is that even a remote possibility?  Just wondering.
[Justice David Souter, as of today, is gone from the court. So the justices will hope Sotomayor gets confirmed before Sept 9, to avoid the possibility of a 4-4 tie.]
--Did Souter vote with the '5' or would it be 5-3 without him?  I thought Sotomayor essentially replaced his vote, not changed it substantially.  But by S.C. knowledge is weak.
I repeat...this ruling doesn't necessarily mean that this has actually been struck down. There was a new provision added that Judge Sotomayor wasn't privy to prior to her ruling. This issue isn't quite a victory for the firefighter. It will go back before the court.

One more thing...This isn't just an issue of black vs white in employment fairness...it is a matter of rairness in general, can anyone say Lilly Ledbetter...
The only real reason will be due to the Repukes who have become the ANTI to American!  They need more time is just plain nuts!  Here's an idea for more time for them---NO MORE BREAKS UNTIL THE VOTE!!!!!!!
And as Pete Williams told us, since her decision SCOTUS changed a rule of the game which was not open to judgment by Judge Sotomayor AT THE TIME and by which she was bound at the time.
Team Obama has already proven adept at getting bills signed quickly to avoid public and congressional scrutiny....so pressuring the Senate to vote prematurely on Sotomayor is consistent with their track record.  But remember, Mr Obama promised us "new politics".  He promised us "transparency".  He promised us 5-day public viewing of bills before signing them (which he's broken numerous times already).  He's good at promise-making and not very good at keeping them.  More integrity please!
The Republicans will whine, they need more time. But Sotomayor will be appointed. Forget the faux drama.  

I expect this week the Minn Supreme Court will have their final draft completed and Franken will be confirmed. Although the Sotomayor vote will not come until August or Sepember,  add one more yes vote in the Sotomayor column.

Eric:  Sometimes you increase your credibility by graciously conceding that you misspoke.
We can't be waiting past September to have a Supreme Court that is at full strength.  This reversal ruling by the bushwhacked SC should have no bearing on getting Sotomayor confirmed in a timely fashion.  The repugnant ones just want to stall to have a  larger conservative majority on the court.  The repugnant ones need to stop their incessant partisan whining and start working on reading up on her decisions.  They seem to have some spare time this week so they have plenty of time now to read her decisions and they'd better get cracking as excuses will not be tolerated.

So far so good for Dr. Nancy Snyderman's show.  Looks like she could be another winner with Dylan Ratigan's new show.  Now if only MSNBC tv could replace the Mourning Jerk with some real newsers.

Confirm Sotomayor Now!
Dump Sotomayor as a candidate.  The horribly un-wise comment about "a wise latina woman" was racist, arrogant and just stupid.  

A white man saying the same would have been rejected as a SCJ replacement, crucified by the media and may have been disbarred and rightfully so.

The SC has correctly reversed the decision on the firefighters.  The test should have been examined after the results were in but if all was okay then those who passed should have gotten the jobs.

Can anyone make any sense out of Ginsberg's dissent? This case should have been a 9 - 0 no brainer. Blatant discrimination against the firefighters.
This is not unusual for rulings made by justices as judges in lower courts who make it to the supreme court, to be overturned...

In his book, The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court (Doubleday, 2007), New Yorker staff writer and CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin wrote that, in 1992, O'Connor had "excoriated" the "logic, approach, and conclusions" of her eventual successor, Alito, in her opinion for the abortion-rights case, Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Moreover, Alito identified four more reversals -- in each of which O'Connor voted with the majority reversing Alito -- in his Supreme Court nomination questionnaire:

   * Rompilla v. Horn, 355 F.3d 233 (3d Cir. 2004), cert. granted 542 U.S. 966, and rev'd 125 S.Ct. 2456 (2005)

   * Thomas v. Comm'r of Soc. Sec., 294 F.3d 568 (3d Cir. 2002), cert. granted 537 U.S. 1187, and rev'd 540 U.S. 20 (2003)

   * Coss v. Lackawanna County D.A., 204 F.3d 453 (3d Cir. 2000) (en banc), cert. granted 531 U.S. 923 (2000), and rev'd 532 U.S. 394 (2001)

   * Fiore v. White, 149 F.3d 221 (3d Cir. 1998), cert. granted 526 U.S. 1038, question certified 528 U.S. 23 (1999), certified question answered 562 Pa. 634 (2000), and rev'd 531 U.S. 225 (2001)

Alito was reversed unanimously in Thomas.

Furthermore, it also would not be unprecedented for the court to reverse a ruling reached by a justice before his or her elevation to the Supreme Court. As an appeals court judge, Chief Justice John Roberts was a member of a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which, in its July 2005 unanimous ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, allowed a military commission to try Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Guantánamo Bay detainee.

Roberts was confirmed as chief justice several months later, in September 2005. Then, in 2006, the Supreme Court reversed the circuit court's decision on a 5-3 ruling.
A question about the white firefighters in the New Haven case...

How many of those white firefighters had uncles or fathers or brothers or cousins who 'helped' them get into the Department ?

How many had 'pull' to get into the Department ?
Or to advance iwthing the Department

In SF the police and firefighters were 'traditionally' Irish

Were Irish any better suited to be Police

The stink they raised when the Department was integrated with Black and Hispanic police
Then, Asians
Then, Women
and finally, gay Police officers

PS
The World DID NOT END !!

Confirm Sotomayor NOW!

Old, Rich, White men have ruled the roost since the beginning of time.

The SC, unfortunately is still doing the bidding of the Bushwacker.....Throw them all out, especially Uncle Thomas!
Everyday it seems more and more that we are finding out that Sotomayor would not be qualified to be on the Supreme Court along with her highly questional background beliefs and associations.
How many of those white firefighters had uncles or fathers or brothers or cousins who 'helped' them get into the Department ?

How many had 'pull' to get into the Department ?
Or to advance iwthing the Department
MSierra, SF (Sent Monday, June 29, 2009 12:37 PM)
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Exactly MSierra, exactly! There are your beloved trade unions in action and the corrupt political hiring which dominates the Chicago and Crook County IL landscape to this day!

Just look up the name Robert Sorich, convicted aide to DEMOCRATIC Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago. Almost 5,000 names of politically connected people given city and county jobs. It had nothing to do with Bush or the Republicans.

This is Democratic corruption in its most chemically pure form in Baracks and Rahm's home town!  


The SC, unfortunately is still doing the bidding of the Bushwacker.....Throw them all out, especially Uncle Thomas! Ed, San Antonio (Sent Monday, June 29, 2009 12:43 PM)
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Now you can see the true face of the so called open minded liberal! If an African American is a Republican he is labeled an Uncle Tom or a sellout!

Apparently the Dems think they have some exclusive OWNERSHIP of African-Americans and must wisely direct their political choices for them!

How PC of you Ed!
If you count the combined vote of the appeals court and the supreme court, Sotomayor voted with the majority, not the minority, so does her ruling show that she is out of the mainstream of our highest decision makers?
If a 4-4 tie ensues, they could always go to penalty kicks to break it.


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