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Justice Gorsuch Compared Nationwide Injunctions to the One Ring From ‘Lord of the Rings’

Justice Neil Gorsuch invoked J.R.R. Tolkien’s tri-part epic “The Lord of the Rings” in a Monday concurrence that suggested the Supreme Court may need to curtail the use of nationwide injunctions.

Gorsuch likened nationwide injunctions to the One Ring, an artifact of malevolent power whose destruction is the driving action of Tolkien’s saga. The justice alluded to the ring as he reviewed the history of litigation regarding the Trump administration’s public charge rule, which will take effect after the high court lifted two injunctions entered against it Monday afternoon.

A lengthy inscription on the band proclaims that the One Ring shall “rule them all.” Gorsuch found that domineering promise an apt descriptor for nationwide injunctions, which remain in force regardless of the outcome of other lawsuits on a given subject.

“Despite the fluid state of things — some interim wins for the government over here, some preliminary relief for plaintiffs over there — we now have an injunction to rule them all: the one before us, in which a single judge in New York enjoined the government from applying the new definition to anyone, without regard to geography or participation in this or any other lawsuit,” Gorsuch wrote.

Nationwide injunctions exceed judicial power, Gorsuch says

Gorsuch argued that nationwide injunctions raise fundamental questions about judicial power. The Constitution does not give federal judges freestanding authority to strike down laws or award damages. Instead, the courts are empowered to resolve specific “cases and controversies” that unfold in the real world between adversarial parties.

Since the judicial power extends to those particular disputes, it follows that courts only have power to bind the parties before them, Gorsuch said. But when a judge-ordered remedy reaches beyond a particular case, Gorsuch suggested courts are transformed from venues for dispute resolution into something else entirely.

“When a district court orders the government not to enforce a rule against the plaintiffs in the case before it, the court redresses the injury that gives rise to its jurisdiction in the first place,” Gorsuch wrote. “But when a court goes further than that, ordering the government to take (or not take) some action with respect to those who are strangers to the suit, it is hard to see how the court could still be acting in the judicial role of resolving cases and controversies.”

What’s more, Gorsuch said nationwide injunctions are contrary to our legal tradition. When new legal questions emerge, many different lower courts reach their own conclusions — sometimes divergent — over a long period of time.

In turn, higher courts review those results, then announce controlling principles for future cases. The hope is that higher courts can issue quality, well-informed decisions with the benefit of multiple inputs from the lower courts.

Nationwide injunctions interrupt that process, Gorsuch said, turning ordinary disputes into emergencies.

“By their nature, universal injunctions tend to force judges into making rushed, high-stakes, low-information decisions,” Gorsuch wrote.

“The rise of nationwide injunctions may just be a sign of our impatient times,” he added. “But good judicial decisions are usually tempered by older virtues.”

Justice Clarence Thomas, who joined Gorsuch’s Monday opinion, sounded similar notes in a concurrence to the 2018 travel ban decision. Like the public charge rule, the administration’s travel sanctions were subject to multiple nationwide injunctions.

“These injunctions did not emerge until a century and a half after the founding,” Thomas wrote. “And they appear to be inconsistent with longstanding limits on equitable relief and the power of Article III courts. If their popularity continues, this Court must address their legality.”

Trump administration searches for solution

Nationwide injunctions have beset the Trump administration since the president took office. By the Justice Department’s telling, the federal courts have entered about 40 injunctions against the executive branch since 2017. In contrast, only 27 nationwide injunctions were issued in the entire 20th century.

Vice President Mike Pence said that the administration would look for an appropriate case to challenge nationwide injunctions in the Supreme Court during a May 2019 speech to a Federalist Society conference in Washington, D.C.

The question cannot reach the high court on its own. Rather, the justices can only address the question if it is part of an ongoing dispute.

That could leave the government in something of a bind, however, as it raises the possibility the administration would have to lose a case on the merits in order for the justices to reach the injunction question.

That’s because the high court has no reason to decide on an injunction when the government wins and successfully defends its policy. If the challengers lose, they aren’t entitled to anything. Only after the challengers prevail is the question of a remedy relevant.

Liberals and conservatives alike have obtained nationwide injunctions to attain their litigation goals.

Republican state attorneys general used such orders to good effect in the waning days of the Obama administration. Those injunctions, obtained from right-leaning trial courts in places like Texas, blocked an Obama-era policy on transgender bathrooms and a companion initiative to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

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Kevin Daley is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Background Photo “The One Ring” by Rodrigo Olivera. CC BY 2.0.

https://tennesseestar.com/2020/01/29/justice-gorsuch-compared-nationwide-injunctions-to-the-one-ring-from-lord-of-the-rings/

SpaceX Starship just aced another explosive tank test and Elon Musk has the results [video]

SpaceX has successfully repaired a leak in a Starship prototype, filled the giant tank with an ultra-cold liquid, and pressurized it until it (spectacularly) popped — and Elon Musk has the preliminary results.

[...] Musk recently revealed that the new steel Starship and Super Heavy designs will require tanks pressures of at least 6 bar (90 psi) to survive the stresses of orbital flight.

[...] We’ll have to wait for dawn tomorrow to see the extent of the damage, but it appears that Test Tank #2’s demise was dramatically more violent than its predecessor — a largely expected side effect of performing the pressure test with a cryogenic liquid. In fact, just minutes after it appeared to fail, Elon Musk revealed that the second test tank had burst around 8.5 bar (~125 psi), soundly trouncing all records set by earlier tests and suggesting SpaceX is unequivocally ready to begin building the first orbital Starships. Critically, Musk had previously indicated that if Starship’s tanks could survive up to 8.5 bar, SpaceX would have the minimum safety margins it needs to deem Starship safe enough for astronauts.

SpaceX is ready to build the first Starship destined for space after latest tests

As Musk himself noted on Monday, he is now confident that SpaceX can immediately start building the first Starship destined for spaceflight and further revealed that two of that particular Starship’s three tank domes are already nearing completion.

Known as Starship SN01 (serial number 01), there’s a strong possibility that the massive spacecraft will never reach higher than a 20 km (12.5 mi) flight test SpaceX intends to perform. The company’s rapidly changing strategy may very well mean that SN01 – now ‘go’ for production – could also support suborbital spaceflight testing and maybe even the first orbital Starship launch, although orbital launches will require a Super Heavy booster. Elon Musk, for one, has already christened Starship SN01 an “orbital vehicle”.

John Bolton’s impeachment bombshell, explained

Former National Security Adviser John Bolton claims that, contrary to President Trump’s denials, the president said outright that he was blocking aid to Ukraine unless Ukrainian officials helped with investigations into the Bidens.

That’s according to an unpublished book manuscript written by Bolton and reported on by the New York Times’s Maggie Haberman and Michael Schmidt Sunday night. And this revelation is enormously significant for Trump’s unfolding impeachment trial — since Bolton has offered to testify to the Senate. It may throw a wrench into Senate Republicans’ hope of wrapping up the trial quickly without any witness testimony.

The news could also scramble the dynamics of Trump’s trial. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been patiently trying to line up the necessary votes to bring proceedings to a close without calling any witnesses. But Bolton has already made clear he’d testify willingly, and now the Times has made clear his testimony would be damaging for Trump.

So ending the trial without getting his testimony would now look even more like a cover-up. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) said Monday that the Bolton news made it “increasingly likely” that enough Republicans vote to get his testimony. And Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said the reports “strengthen the case for witnesses and have prompted a number of conversations among my colleagues.”

Call the witnesses! A trial without witnesses is not a trial!

CES 2020: Analogix Announces ANX2187 TCON With Gamut Rotation

We haven’t talked about Analogix in a few years, and we certainly haven’t talked about TCON announcements much at all. At CES 2020 Analogix announced the new ANX2187 TCON chip with little fanfare, but it could drastically change the way PC displays are manufactured and how end products end up in terms of their colour accuracy.

Analogix has been a leader in delivering TCON solutions to the PC and laptop market for many years, and the market has been relatively speaking quite boring when it comes to new developments. Analogix wants to modernise the display panel experience for monitors and laptops with the introduction of the new ANX2186 which promises to bring 3D Colour Gamut rotation to the PC market.

Display makers usually have a quite hard time in terms of producing accurate display panels using the “traditional” manufacturing methods. In the old way of doing things, a panel’s colour accuracy is largely dependent upon its manufacturing and if it comes out matching the target specifications, with it being very hard for display vendors to individually adjust the display controller firmware on each panel in order to achieve better calibrations and accuracy.

The ANX2186 is a TCON that features gamut manipulation in the optical domain – in essence it’s a calibration engine that sits at the TCON level between the display input and the DDIC and is able to transparently manipulate the gamut in its 3D space. This technology isn’t inherently new, one area it’s been present for years has been in the mobile space (Samsung’s mDNIe was first as far as I know) as well as in TVs by various TV SoC vendors.

What this allows is for calibration and manipulation of the colours fully independent of the DDIC firmware of a display panel. Display manufacturers can now very quickly with help of automatic tooling calibrate each individual panel in a product line, write the compensation/calibration factors as ROM data to the TCON, and not have to worry about fiddling with the much more complex firmware data on the side of the DDIC.

TCON = timing controller.

Virginia HB1627:

If any person, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, or harass any person, shall use a computer or computer network to communicate obscene, vulgar, profane, lewd, lascivious, or indecent language, or make any suggestion or proposal of an obscene nature, or threaten any illegal or immoral act, he shall be is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. A violation of this section may be prosecuted in the jurisdiction in which the communication was made or received or in the City of Richmond if the person subjected to the act is one of the following officials or employees of the Commonwealth: the Governor, Governor-elect, Lieutenant Governor, Lieutenant Governor-elect, Attorney General, or Attorney General-elect, a member or employee of the General Assembly, a justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, or a judge of the Court of Appeals of Virginia.

You'd think they'd at least get the 2A out of the way before they go balls out after the 1A. Remember this shit next time you get butthurt because someone tells you the Democrats are authoritarian shitstains.

[Update]: Deathmonkey was kind enough to point out that this was in fact a Republican-passed bill from 2K that is being reaffirmed/reenacted by the Democrats, as well as adding the ability for the state to prosecute in Richmond no matter where the crime was committed if it's against state-owned property or a politician. Let's hear it for bipartisan fuckwadery! This would have been updated sooner but this is the first time I've looked at it since Thursday around lunchtime. Sorry, you're just not as interesting as The Roomie's kids who arrived a couple hours later.

(What, you thought I'd support it if Republicans had a hand in it? You must be new here.)

Tens of thousands of armed citizens came to protest in VA, said what they had to say, and harmed nobody at all. Then they left. But not before cleaning up after themselves. Talk about pissing the ones trying to sell the progtard narrative off. I did laugh.

Clinton says 'nobody likes' Sanders and won't commit to backing him if he's the Democratic nominee

Hillary Clinton blasts Sen. Bernie Sanders in a new documentary, saying "nobody likes him" and declining in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter to say whether she would endorse and campaign for him if he's the Democratic 2020 nominee.

"He was in Congress for years. He had one senator support him. Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him, he got nothing done," Clinton says in the film, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "He was a career politician. It's all just baloney and I feel so bad that people got sucked into it."

[...] In the THR interview, Clinton also pointedly questions the "culture" around Sanders' campaign, from "his leadership team" to "his online Bernie Bros."

"It's not only him, it's the culture around him. It's his leadership team. It's his prominent supporters. It's his online Bernie Bros and their relentless attacks on lots of his competitors, particularly the women," Clinton said, before suggesting that Sanders himself was complicit in promoting those voices.

#ILikeBernie Trends After Hillary Clinton Says 'Nobody Likes' Bernie Sanders

Despite Clinton's criticism, Sanders is a clear front-runner for the Democratic nomination, with the latest data from Morning Consult showing that he has the highest favorability of all candidates in the primary race. Sanders is viewed positively by 76 percent of voters, while former Vice President Joe Biden is viewed favorably by 71 percent. Senator Elizabeth Warren comes in third at 65 percent.

Meanwhile, only 17 percent of respondents said they had an unfavorable opinion of Sanders, while 22 percent had an unfavorable view of Biden. Warren was viewed unfavorably by 18 percent.

Hillary Clinton Defends Harvey Weinstein Association: 'How Could We Have Known?'

Hillary Clinton has defended her years-long association with disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein, saying it was "something that everybody thought made sense."

Weinstein has long been a major donor and fundraiser for the Democratic Party and reportedly brought in over $1.4 million to Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.

Clinton has since disavowed Weinstein, saying she was "shocked and appalled" following the publication of numerous claims of sexual assault and harassment against him in 2017 that led to his fall and the rise of the #MeToo movement.

It could be a moot point. FiveThirtyEight forecasts a 45% chance for Biden to win the nomination, and just 18% for Sanders.

Quibi Versus the World: Can Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman change everything about video on your phone?

Jeffrey Katzenberg insists that his new video-streaming service Quibi isn’t competing against Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Peacock, or any of the other streaming services that have launched or are launching soon. You’ve got it all wrong. You’re not even asking the right questions.

“We don’t think we’re in the streaming wars,” Katzenberg, the former boss of Walt Disney Studios and founder of DreamWorks, tells The Verge in a closed-door meeting the day before the company’s grand reveal at a CES keynote. “They’re all battling for this,” he says as he thrusts his arm toward a TV in the room. “We’re going for this,” he says, gesturing toward his phone. “Don’t tell them!”

Katzenberg and Quibi CEO Meg Whitman, who is best known as the CEO of HP and eBay, are publicly announcing Quibi at CES — but not quite unveiling it — after having raised $1 billion on the promise of a roster of Hollywood stars and supposedly revolutionary video-streaming technology that delivers portrait and landscape video at the same time. Everything on Quibi is designed for viewing on a phone, on the go, in 10 minutes or less. These chunks of video are called “quick bites” — hence, “Quibi.”

A streaming service for millennial goldfish. Should be about as successful as Meg Whitman's campaign for Governor of California.

CES 2020: Innogrit SSD Controllers Score Multiple Design Wins

Phison At CES 2020: Preparing For QLC To Go Mainstream

NAND flash memory prices are projected to climb in 2020. The manufacturing transitions to 96-layer 3D NAND and beyond are not going to increase bit output as quickly as demand will be growing. This will be a major change from the NAND oversupply that caused price crashes in 2018 and into 2019.

SSD controller vendor Phison is betting that increasing prices will finally push the consumer SSD market to embrace 4 bit per cell QLC NAND flash memory, which thus far has seen only limited success in the retail SSD market and virtually no adoption from PC OEMs. The price premium for SSDs with 3 bit per cell TLC NAND has been small or non-existent across all market segments, so the performance and endurance advantages of sticking with TLC NAND have been worthwhile. Those days may be coming to an end. Phison expects—quite reasonably—that when NAND flash memory supplies are constrained the bulk of the TLC NAND manufactured will be snatched up by the higher-paying enterprise SSD customers, more or less forcing the consumer SSD market to start shifting toward using QLC as the mainstream option.

QLC data retention, write endurance, and speed drop-offs: manageable?

CES 2020: Samsung 980 PRO PCIe 4.0 SSD Makes An Appearance

OWC Releases Accelsior 4M2 SSD: Quad-M.2 For Over 6000 MB/s

CES 2020: ADATA Preparing Three PCIe 4.0 Consumer SSDs

The next-gen consoles due for release in late 2020 have been rumored to use faster-than-typical SSDs.