Trump-era grievances could get second life at Supreme Court

[Geee]

The Hill

The Supreme Court's most conservative justices are signaling an interest in issues closely associated with former President Trump, from rules on social media platforms to how elections are governed. 

Justice Clarence Thomas this week opined on how Twitter might be more strictly regulated after it banned Trump from its platform, and predicted the court would soon be called upon to address big tech's “highly concentrated control” of speech.

He and fellow conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch also recently made clear their hope to address whether state officials and courts have the power to make changes to election rules, after a number of states relaxed voting restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic.

 

Court watchers say these signals can be read as an open call for lawsuits that would tee up the legal issues for the 6-3 conservative majority court to decide.

“Justices have long used public statements or published opinions to invite litigation or legislative reform,” said Robert Tsai, a constitutional law professor at Boston University. “It reminds us that they are part of the political community and that the modern Supreme Court is not simply a neutral institution but one that participates in determining the nation’s values.”

It’s unclear the degree to which politics or public opinion may have motivated the conservative trio to publicly state their interest in legal issues underlying these hot-button topics, and they did not explicitly say how they would rule in potential disputes.