Steve Vladeck: “First, the total Court docket didn’t anticipate the Fifth Circuit—or act by means of the person Circuit Justice (Justice Alito). Even in different fast-moving emergency functions, the Court docket has usually made a present out of at the very least showing to attend for the decrease courts to rule earlier than intervening—even when that ruling may not have influenced the result. Right here, although, the Court docket didn’t wait in any respect; certainly, the order particularly invitations the federal government to reply as soon as the Fifth Circuit weighed in—acknowledging that the Fifth Circuit hadn’t dominated (and, certainly, that the federal government hadn’t responded to the applying within the Supreme Court docket) but. This will look like a technical level, however it underscores how severely the Court docket, or at the very least a majority of it, took the urgency of the matter…”
“Second, the Court docket didn’t conceal behind any procedural technicalities…. Right here, although, the Court docket jumped proper to the substantive aid the candidates sought—once more, reinforcing not simply the urgency of the difficulty, however its gravity.”
“Third, and maybe most importantly, the Court docket appeared to not be content material with relying upon representations by the federal government’s legal professionals.”
