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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   17531 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 16, 2026

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ROBERTS, C. J., announced the judgment of the Court and delivered the opinion of the Court with respect to Parts I, II–A–1, and II–B, in which SOTOMAYOR, KAGAN, GORSUCH, BARRETT, and JACKSON, JJ., joined, and an opinion with respect to Parts II–A–2 and III, in which GORSUCH and BARRETT, JJ., joined. GORSUCH, J., and BARRETT, J., filed concurring opinions. KAGAN, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and concurring in the judgment, in which SOTOMAYOR and JACKSON, JJ., joined. JACKSON, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and concurring in the judgment. THOMAS, J., filed a dissenting opinion. KAVANAUGH, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which THOMAS and ALITO, JJ., joined.

If you ever see an opinion announcement like that, you are about to read some grade-A incomprehensible giberish. I didn't even bother reading the opinion after that. Good luck to the lawyers of the future tasked with figuring out which parts are holdings and which parts are dicta.

I don't know why the court even bothers issuing these kinds of rulings. Fractured opinions are always worse than useless, sowing confusion and wasting everyone's time. Better to GVR and at least not fuck up the precedent any more than you have to.

looks like something that costs $1000/hour to read

I, II-A-1, and II-B are holdings. The only major difference was that the conservatives in the majority invoked the Major Question Doctrine and the liberals thought the statutory language was sufficient. The upshot is that the president can't unilaterally invoke tariffs under the Act.

Eh, it's pretty simple. The 6 in the majority only really disagreed about whether the result is reached by MJD (R,G,B) or by regular statutory construction (S,K,J).

Gorsuch's concurrence doesn't add more except to call out both the dissenters and the liberal wing for their hypocrisy, and especially to roast Thomas.

Hardly incomprehensible, but I totally agree that there isn't now a clear marker of whether future arguments that hinge on MJD will stand or not.

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