Many people were wondering who it was that preempted Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer making the announcement of his stepping down from the court.  That answer comes today.

White House Chief of Staff, Ron Klain, was the one who leaked the Breyer retirement, likely in an effort to change the narrative of negative stories that continue to overwhelm the Biden team.

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden’s chief of staff leaked Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer’s plan to retire to “a limited group” on Wednesday, a top Democrat told reporters.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard Durbin told reporters he received a “surprise” call on Wednesday morning from White House chief of staff Ron Klain, who “said that President Biden wanted [Durbin] to know that Stephen Breyer was about to announce his retirement from the court.”

Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said Klain told him to keep the news a secret and that Breyer planned to make an official announcement on Thursday. (read more)

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Multiple media reports now affirming that Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will retire at the end of the current court term [ABC Report – NBC Report] setting up the final step to elevate DC Appeals Court Judge Kentanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.

This is exactly what was planned from the appointment of Merrick Garland to U.S. Attorney General. [GO DEEP] As CTH outlined in January 2021, the series of moves was/is predictable.  The Obama crew behind Biden have been following a predictable roadmap. Four sequential steps.

In March 2021, Merrick Garland was confirmed Attorney General to open his seat in the DC Appeals Court for Kentanji Brown Jackson.  KBJ’s appointment to that specific court needed Senate confirmation.  In June 2021, KBJ was confirmed [GO DEEP] with a vote of 53-47.  Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Lindsey Graham voted with Democrats to support KBJ to the circuit court.  Now Breyer steps down and KBJ is nominated to replace him.

“U.S. Appeals Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, a former Breyer clerk, public defender and Biden appointee who won three Senate Republican votes in confirmation, is considered a top contender for nomination” ~ABC

As we predicted in March 2021, “this is how they roll”.  With Obama’s crew you always have to watch the other hand – the third and fourth moves.

MARCH 2021 – Judge Garland was an important judge on the important DC Circuit Court.  Garland’s replacement will be a senate confirmed seat for that court.

Once that replacement is Senate confirmed, we anticipate (almost to a certainty) that replacement will be quickly elevated to a Supreme Court nomination to replace Justice Stephen Breyer, now 82-years-old.  The Senate will have no political ammunition to block or not confirm the radical SCOTUS pick, because she will have been confirmed a few months before. It’s a smart play.

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The Supreme Court ruling is AVAILABLE HERE.  The court ruled 6-3 to strike down the big issue of the OSHA vaccine mandate for businesses with more than 100 employees. However, the court did allow (5-4) the federal vaccine mandate for federally funded healthcare agencies.  Justices Roberts and Kavanaugh joined the communists to allow the healthcare worker mandate to continue.

“OSHA has never before imposed such a mandate. Nor has Congress. Indeed, although Congress has enacted significant legislation addressing the COVID–19 pandemic, it has declined to enact any measure similar to what OSHA has promulgated here,” the majority justices wrote in an unsigned opinion.

(Via Associated Press) –  The Supreme Court has stopped the Biden administration from enforcing a requirement that employees at large businesses be vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing and wear a mask on the job.  At the same time, the court is allowing the administration to proceed with a vaccine mandate for most health care workers in the U.S.

[…] The court’s conservative majority concluded the administration overstepped its authority by seeking to impose the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s vaccine-or-test rule on U.S. businesses with at least 100 employees. More than 80 million people would have been affected.

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One would think a United States Supreme Court hearing containing emergency oral arguments about a federal mandate that impacts more than 100 million Americans in the workforce would mean the justices would be well prepared and full briefed with the latest information.

Alas, in an embarrassing display of judicial outlooks, activism and incompetence, the leftists on the court appeared to just be making stuff up in order to protect the current White House occupant.

Justice Bryer cited 750 million Americans infected yesterday as his reference point to justify his support for Joe Biden.  Unfortunately for justice Bryer there are only 350 million Americans alive.  It would be an ordinarily embarrassing mistake if the issues were not so serious.  However, given the nature of the constitutional issue here, these types of statements only reflect the abject nonsensical nature of a highly politicized supreme court.

Taking Bryer’s ball of insanity across the finish line, Justice Sotomayor, another leftist communist in a black robe, stated: “100,000 kids are currently in the hospital”, FALSE; that the “Omicron variant has been more deadly than Delta,” FALSE; COVID deaths are at an “all time high”, FALSE; and worse yet, “OSHA’s regulatory authority is part of the federal police power,” again FALSE.

Additionally, as to the aspect of the argument surrounding Monday’s federal deadline of mask enforcement for all unvaccinated workers, all of the leftist communists on the court held firm in their belief that masks stop the virus, false.  This issue has even been conceded by officials in the same administration now tasked with enforcing a mask mandate they admit is not based in science.

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Here’s audio of the oral arguments from the Supreme Court hearing January 7, 2022.

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BREAKING TONIGHT – The Supreme Court has announced [LINK HERE and LINK HERE] it will hold a special hearing next month to consider challenges to the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for large employers and a separate coronavirus vaccine mandate for health-care workers.

[Order 595 LINK]

Both vaccine mandates have been partially blocked from going into effect by lower courts after challenges from states, business and religious coalitions.

Justices Alito and Kavanaugh both received requests, both affirmed acceptance, and then both cases were consolidated by THE COURT.  The court will hear oral arguments for one hour on Friday January 7, 2022, just before the court begins regularly scheduled oral arguments. [SCOTUS Order Link]

Additionally, earlier today a Florida judge blocked the federal contractor mandate writing in part:

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When New York’s original vaccine mandate for healthcare workers was announced, it included an exemption for religious reasons.  However, when the administration changed hands, Governor Hochul removed the religious exemption. A lawsuit was filed.  A federal appeals court loss brought the plaintiffs to the Supreme Court requesting an injunction.

Today, the request from the 20 plaintiffs was rejected by the Supreme Court as referred by Justice Sotomayor who covers the New York region.  Justices Alito, Gorsuch, and Thomas dissented and would have provide the injunctive relief.  However, Chief Justice John Roberts, Amy Coney-Barrett, and Brett Kavanaugh sided with the liberal wing and denied the request.  [Full pdf Decision Here]

Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch wrote in their 14-page dissent that Governor Hochul’s record in the case “practically exudes suspicion of those who hold unpopular religious beliefs,” adding, “That alone is sufficient to render the mandate unconstitutional as applied to these applicants.”

Unfortunately, the alignment of Justices Roberts, Barrett and Kavanaugh with the left wing of the court makes future constitutional appeals around the vaccine mandate look increasingly tenuous.  Justice Kavanaugh and Justice Barrett have been big disappointments.

The U.S. Supreme Court has again overturned the national eviction moratorium imposed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).  In a 6-3 ruling [pdf HERE] the court has rejected arguments that the CDC is permitted to arbitrarily enforce an eviction moratorium.  The high court notes such a government mandate would have to come from the U.S. Congress, not an unelected bureaucratic agency.

This is the second time the eviction moratorium has reached the Supreme Court this year.  In June, the court allowed the prior version of the moratorium to remain in place through July.  However, on August 3rd the CDC arbitrarily renewed it for two months.  This time the court halts it.  “It strains credulity to believe that this statute grants the CDC the sweeping authority that it asserts.”

From the majority ruling: “It is indisputable that the public has a strong interest in combating the spread of the COVID–19 Delta variant. But our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully even in pursuit of desirable ends. Cf. Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U. S. 579, 582, 585–586 (1952) (concluding that even the Government’s belief that its action “was necessary to avert a national catastrophe” could not overcome a lack of congressional authorization). It is up to Congress, not the CDC, to decide whether the public interest merits further action here.” (link)

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This evening the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Texas in a lawsuit against the federal government.   [View pdf Here]  The outcome is a ruling requiring the Biden administration to reinstitute the “remain in Mexico” policy put into place during the Trump administration.  The policy requires asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while they await hearings in the United States.

The ruling was 6-3 with Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer dissenting from the majority opinion.  The ruling is a significant victory for Missouri and Texas, the two states who sued over Biden’s repeal of the policy and won a favorable ruling earlier this month requiring the Biden administration to return to the Trump-era policy.

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A group of Indiana University students asked the lower courts for help as the university was requiring COVID vaccinations as a condition of returning to school.  The federal district court in Indiana and 7th Circuit court refused to block the vaccination mandate while the students sued the school.  That lead to the students requesting emergency relief from the United States Supreme Court.

This track became the first test of COVID-19 vaccination requirements to reach the Supreme Court.   Justice Amy Coney Barrett handles the region; however, she has rejected the student’s request and will not pass it along to the full court.  [CASE Details Here]

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Obviously Justice Barrett is not as conservative as many supporters believed she was.