Gorsuch Builds Influence in Second Term on High Court

between him and a just decision. Sitting here, I'm acutely aware of my own imperfections, but I pledged to each of you into the American people. If I am confirmed, I will do all my powers permit to be a faithful servant of the constitutional laws of this great nation. In his second term serving the US Constitution as a Supreme Court justice, course which has become something of an

inside player in a closely divided court joining us. As Greg Store Bloomberg new Supreme Court reporter, Gregg, you've written about this inside player role, and Chief Justice John Roberts has assigned Gorsage to write three opinions in five to

four decisions. Tell us about that. Yes, so the Chief Justice gets to decide who writes the opinion when he's in the majority, and oftentimes in a in a closely divided decision like that, it might go to a more experienced justice or the justice who holds the swing vote.

One case in particular, though that was argued early in the in this this term involving the rights of workers to to file class action suits instead of having to go to individual arbitration, he assigned the opinion to Justice Gorcis, and it was notable because, uh, he could have the Chief could have very easily assigned it to Justice Thomas, who instead got that that setting a unanimous opinion in

a criminal case. And some people I talked to said, you know, it is starting to look like the Chief Justice has some confidence that Justice Corsage can write an opinion like this and not lose the five justice majority. So is is he getting a different role than than the man he replaced, Justice Scalia. Well, in some ways he is almost a perfect replacement for Justice Scale in terms of the way he looks at cases, or at

least it's starting to appear that way. Um, you know, he he obviously doesn't have nearly the track record of Justice Scalia. He's not the conservative icon that Justice Scalia was, but in terms of how he's voting. H one case in particular where Justice Course has decided with the courts liberals. It was in a deportation case where he basically said, this law is not clear enough, uh to subject somebody

to mandatory deportation. It echoed a lot of of Scalia, a real skepticism of letting the government apply its power to an individual without a very clear law that says what the government can do. Scalia certainly someone that Gorsch has said he looks up to. Well. Greg a little over one mo until the end of the term. We're still waiting for those high profile decisions. But we got

one decision on Tuesday. Wasn't high profile, but it was significant in that it backed privacy rights against police power. Tell us about that. Yeah, the bottom line of this case is it was it involved a motorcycle that was parked right out somebody's house in there in the driveway, and the court said that, uh, the protection that we give to a home into the area around the home called a curtilage, UH, that applies even when uh it is something like a motorcycle that might be easily moved.

So in this case, a police officer who went to a house saw a motorcycle that he's suspected of being stolen in the driveway, walked up the driveway, UH, lifted up a tart that was covering the motorcycle and checked out the the motorcycle and the vin the VN number on it. UH that officer UH might have violated UH the individual's Fourth Amendment rights by doing that without a warrant.

And the explanation is that even though that motorcycle is something that could have been easily moved, and there's a reason why the officer wanted to go quickly, the home in the area around it is is so sacrosanct that unless there's a really really good reason, a police officer needs to get a warrant before going onto it to look for something. I've actually learned what the word curtilage means.

After all the Supreme Court opinions on this, So the Court has been really careful about the sanctity of the home. But does his opinion expand privacy rights in any way. It certainly reinforces it, and it it takes this doctrine that was known as the automobile exception that basically said, because an automobile is something that can be easily moved, UH, it's going to be more easier for a police officer

to be allowed to to search it. It takes that doctor and and it really limits it to the context where the automobile or a motorcycle is out on the out somewhere and not in somebody's uh, somebody's private property. And that is a significant additional reinforcement of the protection that people have UH for their their homes and the area around their homes. And there was also this big decision this week, I believe yesterday on the Arkansas on

Arkansas abortion law. Yeah, so Peter, this this was the case where the court just said we're not going to hear it, but it was it was pretty significant. This is an Arkansas law that UH says that if you are an abortion clinic and you provide medication abortions abortions using pills UM, you have to have a contractual relationship with a doctor who has admitting privileges to a hospital.

Arkansas says this is to protect the health of the mother UM the UH if this law goes into effect, which it now has because the Supreme Court rejected the appeal, UH, two of the three abortion clinics in Arkansas will have to stop providing abortions. A federal appeals court UH didn't say the law is is definitely constitutional, but it did kick it back down to a lower court for some from more detailed, more detailed factual findings about the effect

of it. By rejecting the clinics appeals, UH, the Supreme Court said that at least for now, the law can go into effect, but it's eventually going to come back to the Supreme Court. Greg alre surprising to me is that there weren't four votes to take this case and there were no published ascents. Were the liberals asleep? I don't think they were asleep, June. Uh. It's it's a good question, and it's probably a tactical decision that if they didn't have the five votes to intervene and um

uh prevent this law from from taking effect. UH, knowing that the case is going to come back up at some point. UH, the decision apparently was made not to UH draw line in the sand at this point, to

let it go. We'll have other chances to object about thirty seconds for you here, Greg, But how did they distinguish the case of the court below, how did they distinguish the the Texas case from yes so, so they essentially said, we don't have enough facts at our disposal to make that decision right now, that a district judge had blocked the law but hadn't made detailed factual findings about the number of women that would not be able to get abortions or that would have to postpone abortions

if the law took effect. Uh. Ultimately, this law may be struck down for that same reason, but for the time being, the Appeals Court is is saying we don't have enough information. Thank you, Greg, It's always a revelation when you talk to us. That's Bloomberg New Supreme Court reporter Greg's store. Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Law Podcast. You can subscribe and listen to the show on Apple podcast, SoundCloud, and on Bloomberg dot com slash podcast. I'm June Brosso. This is Bloomberg m