各位《Deadline: Legal》通讯的读者们，欢迎回来。新一季的联邦最高法院庭审将于周一拉开帷幕。刚刚过去的一季中，法院作出了多项具有历史意义的裁决，内容涉及出生地公民权、投票权、关税政策以及总统解雇联邦官员的权力等。尽管在公民权与关税问题上败诉，且未能立即解雇美联储理事丽莎·库克，特朗普政府仍在积极筹备替代方案，以期最终能将这些议题重新提交最高法院审理。
Welcome back, Deadline: Legal newsletter readers. The new Supreme Court term starts Monday. We’re coming off a huge term that featured historic decisions on birthright citizenship, voting rights, tariffs, presidential firing power and more. Despite losing on citizenship and tariffs, and despite being blocked from immediately firing Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook, the Trump administration is pressing backup plans on those fronts that could eventually return them to the high court.
整个夏季，大法官们虽未开庭，但仍处理了若干重要的紧急事务，其中包括与11月中期选举相关的案件。虽然大法官们支持了特朗普在白宫修建舞厅的计划——首席大法官约翰·罗伯茨对此持反对意见——但他们也否决了总统提出的邮寄选票限制措施，以及密苏里州试图采用某种选区划分方案以助共和党在下个月多获一个众议院席位的尝试。
The justices were off the bench for the summer, but they decided several important emergency matters, including ones related to the November midterm elections. Although they backed Donald Trump’s White House ballroom construction — over a notable dissent led by Chief Justice John Roberts — the justices blocked the president’s mail ballot restrictions as well as Missouri’s bid to use a congressional map that could’ve gained Republicans another House seat next month.
在这些裁决公布后，特朗普在社交媒体上怒斥那些作出对他不利裁决的三位大法官“已完全丧失了原本的品格”。他说道，最高法院“既无能力也不愿为国家做正确的事，这一行为必将被历史以极其负面的方式记录下来”——这句话或许连民主党人也会认同，只是理由各不相同。总体而言，刚刚过去的一季对特朗普及共和党而言是一次胜利。
Trump lashed out on social media following those losses, calling his three high court picks who ruled against him “merely a shell of their original selves.”In a line that Democrats likely agree with but for different reasons, he said the court’s “inability and unwillingness to do the right thing for our Country will go down, in a very negative way, in the annals of History.”The dramatic complaint follows a term that was an overall win for Trump and the GOP.
就在本月，最高法院还针对中期选举作出了有利于共和党的紧急裁决：一方面放宽了竞选广告的收费标准，另一方面允许政府使用公民身份验证数据库——后一项裁决遭到了由民主党任命的大法官们的反对，他们担心此举会导致合法选民的投票权受到侵害。
And just this month, the court granted emergency relief ahead of the midterms for Republicans on campaign broadcast advertising rates and, for the administration, on using a citizenship verification database — the latter over dissent from the court’s Democratic appointees, who raised concerns about lawful voters being disenfranchised.
紧急影子备审裁决全年都会发生，即使在新任期开始后也会继续。法官们可能会被要求迅速决定与中期选举有关的任何紧急事项以及死刑等持久问题。
Emergency shadow docket rulings happen year-round and will continue even after the new term starts. The justices could be called on to quickly decide any urgent matters that arise in connection with the midterms, as well as enduring issues such as capital punishment.
本周，共和党任命的多数派因指控多数派滥用权力而为田纳西州处决克里斯塔·派克扫清了道路，死刑成为焦点。尽管高等法院提供了帮助，该州仍未能执行因1995年残酷谋杀科琳·斯莱默而判处的死刑。派克在她的律师所说的“折磨人”拙劣的注射死刑中幸存下来，这是该州今年第二次处决囚犯的失败尝试。(As在撰写本文时，最新的报道是，派克在纳什维尔一家医院靠呼吸机昏迷不醒。）
The death penalty was in focus this week after the GOP-appointed majority cleared the way for Christa Pike’s execution in Tennessee, over dissent that accused the majority of abusing its power. Despite the high court’s help, the state failed to carry out the death sentence that was imposed for the brutal 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer. Pike survived what her lawyers called a “torturous” botched lethal injection, the state’s second failed attempt to execute an inmate this year. (As of this writing, the latest reporting is that Pike is unconscious on a ventilator at a Nashville hospital.)
法院任期内的常规事务于周一上午开始。第一个需要辩论的案件是森科尔诉博尔德案，在该案中，石油和天然气公司希望法官阻止科罗拉多州法院提起的一项诉讼，该诉讼旨在要求他们对气候变化损害赔偿承担责任。这些公司表示，联邦法律禁止提起诉讼。在大法官塞缪尔·阿利托（Samuel Alito）因对能源行业的经济利益而令人惊讶地在最后一刻回避后，他们将向八名成员组成的法官提出诉讼。
The court’s regularly scheduled business for the term starts Monday morning. The first case set for argument is Suncor v. Boulder, in which oil and gas companies want the justices to block a lawsuit in Colorado state court that seeks to hold them liable for climate change damages. The companies say federal law bars the suit. They’ll make their case to an eight-member bench after Justice Samuel Alito’s surprising, last-minute recusal due to his financial interest in the energy sector.
阿利托的缺席增加了4比4僵局的可能性，这将有效地维持科罗拉多州最高法院的裁决，即公司希望美国最高法院推翻该裁决。在特朗普政府的支持下，他们告诉法官们，让诉讼继续进行可能会对全国的企业造成毁灭性的影响。听证会应该表明法院的走向。
Alito’s absence raises the prospect of a 4-4 deadlock, which would effectively uphold the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling that the companies want the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn. Supported by the Trump administration, they tell the justices that letting the suit move forward could be ruinous for corporations nationwide. The hearing should signal where the court is headed.
除了这一重要的气候案件外，本届法庭的其他重大案件还将包括：关于第二修正案是否保护拥有AR-15步枪的上诉；要求在亚利桑那州投票时出示公民身份证明；以及涉及政府前所未有的大规模拘留政策、以及将人员迅速遣返回非其原籍国的移民案件。
On top of that important climate case, other big ones this term will include appeals over whether the Second Amendment protects AR-15 ownership; requiring proof of citizenship to to vote in Arizona; and immigration cases featuring the administration’s unprecedented mass detention policy and its efforts to quickly deport people to countries other than their country of origin.
对于想要回顾（或初步了解）本届法庭工作安排的人来说，大法官们从10月到4月举行为期两周的听证会，通常在7月前裁决所有案件。他们在整个法庭年度内按滚动方式发布意见，一些最具影响力的裁决往往在6月下旬出炉，因为这些案件往往需要法庭花费最长时间来理清头绪。
For a refresher on (or introduction to) how the term will unfold, the justices hold two-week hearing sessions from October through April and typically decide all the cases by July. They issue opinions on a rolling basis throughout the term, with some of the most consequential rulings coming in late June because those can take the longest for the court to sort out.
我们并不清楚大法官们本届将审理的所有案件，因为他们会随着年份推进逐步填充日程。他们可能会增加的议题包括：在公立学校教室展示“十诫”的合宪性，以及政府政策如禁止跨性别者服役等。
We don’t know all the cases the justices will decide this term because they fill out their calendar as the year goes on. Among the issues they could add to their docket are the constitutionality of Ten Commandments displays in public school classrooms, as well as administration policies such as banning transgender people from the military.
特朗普还在敦促大法官们受理他个人案件中的几起上诉，包括他试图推翻E. Jean Carroll赢得的8330万美元诽谤判决（大法官此前拒绝审查他针对她赢得的另一起500万美元案件的上诉）。他还希望重启一起针对CNN的诽谤案，该案源于他2020年大选失利，以及一起针对希拉里·克林顿的案件，他在其中声称这位前国务卿等人合谋“编织虚假叙事”，称他的2016年竞选团队与俄罗斯勾结。
Trump is also pressing the justices to take up several appeals from his personal docket, including his effort to upend the $83.3 million defamation judgment that E. Jean Carroll won against him (the justices previously declined to review his appeal in the separate $5 million case she won against him). He also wants to revive a defamation case against CNN that stems from his 2020 election loss, as well as a case against Hillary Clinton in which he claims that the former secretary of state and others conspired to “weave a false narrative” that his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.
说到选举，除了法院可能收到的任何有关中期选举的紧急诉讼外，如果民主党下个月重新掌控参议院，也会引发新一轮猜测：阿利托、克拉伦斯·托马斯大法官，或两人是否会辞职，以便在参议院易手前由共和党总统和参议院继任者取代他们。法院资历最深的成员尚未透露任何要离开的迹象——恰恰相反——但他们是否愿意赌一把，冒着有朝一日在民主党执政时离开法院的风险？
Speaking of elections, on top of any emergency midterms litigation that comes to the court, if Democrats regain Senate control next month, that will prompt another round of speculation over whether Alito, Justice Clarence Thomas or both will step down so that a Republican president and Senate can replace them before the chamber changes hands. The court’s senior-most members haven’t given any indication they are going anywhere — quite the opposite — but would they want to roll the dice on potentially leaving the court someday with Democrats in power?
我们可以确定的是，对于这两位由历任共和党总统任命的大法官，特朗普比对亲自任命的大法官更满意。就在他贬斥尼尔·戈萨奇、布雷特·卡瓦诺和艾米·康尼·巴雷特大法官的同时，他又称托马斯和阿利托为“传奇”。你们有任何问题或意见想对我提出吗？请通过此表单提交，有机会在Deadline法律博客和新闻简报中刊登。
One thing we know for sure is that Trump is happier with those two justices, who were appointed by previous Republican presidents, than he has been with his own appointees. In the same breath that he trashed Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, he called Thomas and Alito “legends.”Have any questions or comments for me? Please submit them through this form for a chance to be featured in the Deadline: Legal Blog and newsletter.