SCOTUS Updates and RIP Louis Casuso

 1. KBJ starts her confirmation hearings this morning.  Right-wing attacks seem desperate and unhinged.  Here's Erwin Chemerinsky responding to some of the worst ones:

Lacking any grounds for opposition, Republicans are resorting to slime. Some are criticizing her because she worked as a public defender, including representing a Guantanamo detainee. But in our constitutional system, every criminal defendant is entitled to an attorney, and lawyers who perform this role are fulfilling the most noble goals of the legal profession. That Jackson will be the first public defender to be a Supreme Court justice should be celebrated, not attacked.

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley is stooping even lower. He criticizes an article she wrote as a law student and has said that when she was a federal judge there were seven child pornography cases where she gave a sentence less than the Department of Justice recommended. But as the White House has pointed out, in five of those cases, Judge Jackson imposed the sentences that were the same as or greater than what the United States probation office recommended.

Hawley criticizes statements she made when she was a member of the United States Sentencing Commission but omits that the commission was bipartisan and voted unanimously to modify the recommended sentences for possession of child pornography, where there was no proof that the person was involved in producing or trafficking child pornography.

Kyle Martinsen, of the Republican National Committee, emailed reporters that Jackson has a “pattern of advocating for terrorists AND child predators. What other criminals is Ketanji Brown Jackson an advocate for?” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “Her supporters look at her résumé and deduce a special empathy for criminals.”

Have they no shame? Representing criminal defendants or Guantanamo detainees reflects a desire to uphold the Constitution, not “special empathy for criminals.” One cannot help but wonder whether Jackson being a Black woman is fueling this “soft on crime” attack.

2. Justice Thomas is sick in the hospital, but should be released soon.  From CNN:

 Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was admitted to Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, DC, on Friday evening "after experiencing flu-like symptoms," the court's public information office said Sunday evening, but he does not have Covid-19.

"It is not COVID related. The Justice does not have COVID," a spokesperson for the Supreme Court said.

"He underwent tests, was diagnosed with an infection, and is being treated with intravenous antibiotics," the court's press release said.

"His symptoms are abating, he is resting comfortably, and he expects to be released from the hospital in a day or two. Justice Thomas will participate in the consideration and discussion of any cases for which he is not present on the basis of the briefs, transcripts, and audio of the oral arguments," it added.

 3. In non-SCOTUS news, RIP Louis Casuso -- a good guy, who always had a good story.  Rumpole and David Ovalle had nice obits about him.