The facts
The U.S. Supreme Court is commencing a new term with a slate of cases addressing critical issues including climate change, gun rights, immigration, and religious liberty. PBS News Supreme Court analyst Amy Howe described the preceding summer as not "much of a 'recess,'" noting an increase in petitions to the emergency docket, also known as the "shadow docket." This docket requires justices to issue temporary decisions on cases moving through lower courts, often without extensive explanations. Howe stated that compared to past years, the court hears relatively few cases on the 'merits,' with much of its work occurring on the emergency docket, which can have long-term effects. One case to be heard involves whether state and local governments can sue energy companies over their role in climate change. Boulder, Colorado, and its county sued Suncor and Exxon Mobil in 2018, alleging the companies contributed to climate change and caused harm. The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments on October 5. Additionally, the court will consider the legality of a local Illinois law banning assault weapons, with arguments scheduled for December. This case questions whether the Second and 14th Amendments grant the right to possess semiautomatic weapons. The court will also weigh in on the Trump administration's policy of deporting immigrants to countries other than their own, having already allowed the policy to continue temporarily. Another case concerns the legality of mandatory immigration detention under the Trump administration, which requires all immigrants arrested within the U.S. to be detained without the right to a bond hearing. Finally, the court will hear a case from a Catholic preschool challenging Colorado's universal preschool program, which requires schools to sign a nondiscrimination agreement to receive state funds. The preschool claims the requirement infringes on its religious freedom by preventing it from excluding children of same-sex couples.
Our take
The Supreme Court is gearing up for its big, fancy, on-the-record term, which is a cute bit of theater considering the real action happens in the back alley shithole they call the 'shadow docket.' Analyst Amy Howe politely noted the justices didn't have 'much of a recess,' which is the professional way of saying these pompous fucks spent the summer flushing out half-baked, unexplained orders that fuck people's lives without even having the decency to write 'because we said so' on a napkin. That's their real job now: being the nation's most powerful emergency toilet. But sure, let's pretend the scheduled show matters. First up, some cities had the audacity to sue oil companies for setting the planet on fire for profit. Boulder sued Suncor and Exxon, which is like trying to sue a volcano for being lava-y. The Court will now solemnly debate whether communities can hold the pricks who cooked the sky accountable, and the smart money is on a resounding 'fuck no.' Then, they'll ponder whether the Second Amendment - crafted for muskets - secretly guarantees every asshole's God-given right to a weapon that can turn a school into a colander. An Illinois ban on these pecker-extenders is on the chopping block. Next, they'll bless Trump's 'deport you to fucking anywhere' policy, because why follow international law when you can just dump human beings in a random country like unwanted garbage? They'll also rubber-stamp mandatory detention without bond, because treating immigrants like subhuman stock is a proud American tradition. The pièce de résistance, however, is a Catholic preschool crying that its religious freedom is being violated because Colorado's universal preschool program says you can't take state money and then discriminate against gay kids' toddlers. The sheer, galling cuntishness of this - whining that your right to be a bigot is infringed because you have to *not* be a bigot to get public funds - is so perfectly on-brand for this court of sanctimonious pricks. Get ready for a term of these unelected, life-tenured dickheads playing ideological games with the planet, our safety, and basic human decency, all while pretending their most consequential work isn't done in the shadows like the cowards they are.
