Speed dial

I am not a fan of Justice Sotomayor's writing, even when I agree on the substance--it comes across as over-wrought without being lyrical. But check out the final line of her dissent from the Court's "clarification" of the third-country removal order--"Today’s order clarifies only one thing: Other litigants must follow the rules, but the administration has the Supreme Court on speed dial." That's a great line.

In the wake of Justice Kavanaugh's CASA concurrence, this order shows the majority's palpable contempt for district judges.* Not just SCOTUS supremacy, but contempt. They proceed as if the district court decision--and, more importantly, the remedy it grants and the monitoring of that remedy--is less than a full order of a court of competent jurisdiction that parties (or at least the government) must obey subject to appellate review. District court decisions are preliminary pronouncements, an inconvenient-and-inefficient, unfortunately necessary speedbump on the way to SCOTUS' meaningful ruling. And the executive need not obey or respect them as anything more than a preliminary recommendation. Worse, the Court seems increasingly likely to reject that "recommendation."

[*] Not a new phenomenon. Recall Justice Scalia in the Iqbal argument:

Well, I mean, that's ovely, that -- that the -- the ability of the Attorney General and Director of the FBI to -- to do their jobs without having to litigate personal liability is dependent upon the discretionary decision of a single district judge.

The latest episode of Preet Bharar's Stay Tuned With Preet features Melissa Murray, Trevor Morrison, and Jack Goldsmith. In discussing CASA, either Trevor or Jack (can't remember who) argues that SCOTUS wanted to get the Administration off the backs of district courts, to tamp down on the accusations of lawless judges. Perhaps. But the Court seems to be offering the Administration reasons to not take trial courts and their orders seriously or treat them as worthy of respect in the interim.