AWESOME opinion today by Roberts in Bond v. United States!

I’ve written extensively here at AB about a two-time Supreme Court case called Bond v. United States, first three years ago when the case was heard the first time, then in the last few months as the case was heard there again.  My most recent post on it, from May 15, was called “The Supreme Court’s opinion in Bond v. U.S. will be about separation of powers.  But about separation of WHICH powers?”  I updated that post on May 17 to include an exchange between reader Mike Hansberry and me in the Comments thread to the post.

In that exchange of comments, I outlined exactly what I hoped the Court would do in the case–and how, and why.  I haven’t yet read the opinion and the concurrences in the judgment* and won’t have a chance to until later today, but SCOTUSblog’s Amy Howe and Tom Goldstein summarized it briefly on the live blog of the Court’s actions this morning, and it appears that the opinion, written by Roberts and joined by Kennedy and the four Dem appointees, is exactly what I said in that post and exchange with Hansberry that I hoped–but did not expect; no one did, best as I could tell–that the Court would do and say.  Here’s their summary from the live blog:

• Here’s Lyle again. The third and final opinion is Bond v. US. The decision holds that Section 229 does not reach Bond’s simple assault. It is by the Chief Justice.

  by Amy Howe 10:11 AM

  Comment
• The decision of the Third Circuit is reversed. There are no dissents; there are multiple opinions, however. Scalia has concurred in the judgment, joined by Thomas and in part by Alito. Thomas filed an opinion concurring in the judgment in which Scalia joined and Alito joined in part. Alito filed an opinion concurring in the judgment.

  by Amy Howe 10:12 AM

  Comment
• The Court seems to avoid a major ruling on the Treaty power by limiting the federal criminal statute under which the defendant was charged.

  by tgoldstein 10:13 AM

  Comment
• The opinion makes clear that the Court does not interpret the scope of the international weapons treaty at issue. The state laws are sufficient to prosecute an assault like the one in this case. There is no indication in the federal law that Congress intended to abandon its traditional reluctance to define as a federal crime conduct controlled as criminal by the states.

  by Amy Howe 10:13 AM

  Comment
• The separate opinions by the other conservatives likely argue that the Treaty Power should be limited. But the Chief Justice and Justice Kennedy do not join them.

  by tgoldstein 10:13 AM

  Comment
• A quote from the Court’s opinion: “The global need to prevent chemical warfare does not require the federal government to reach into the kitchen cupboard.”

  by Amy Howe 10:14 AM

  Comment
• Here is the opinion in Bond.

  by kborkoski 10:16 AM

The surprise basis for the ruling–an actual honest consideration of what Congress’s purpose was, and the breadth Congress actually intended, in enacting the statute at issue–is similar to a ruling on May 19, in an opinion by Ginsburg, concerning a procedural statute.  This is a very good, new development for the current Court (although the three dissenters in that case, a Copyright Act case, called Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, were Roberts, Kennedy and Breyer).

The other big news from the Court this morning–and this is VERY big news–is that the Court agreed to hear two cases filed respectively by the Alabama Democratic Conference and the Alabama Legislative Black Caucus, both which lost in the lower federal courts.  Amy Howe writes:

The questions at issue in the Alabama redistricting cases involve packing black voters into districts to concentrate their voting strength. In 13-1138, there is a subpart in the question that the Court agreed to hear about whether these plaintiffs have standing to bring their claims of racial gerrymandering.

And, a few minutes later:

Here’s Lyle [Denniston, at the Court]. We have one grant (technically noting of probable jurisdiction), in the two Alabama redistricting cases, Alabama Democratic Conference v. Alabama (is limited to question one), Alabama Legislative Black Caucus v. Alabama (question two only).

I probably will write a detailed post on Bond, hopefully tomorrow.  I don’t think I’ll have time today.

—-

*Corrected to say “concurrences in the judgment” rather than “dissents.”  I was really rushed this morning when I inadvertently misstated  that these were dissents, despite Amy Howe’s clear statement that these were concurrences in the judgment, not dissents–a particularly important distinction in this case, and one that highlights the importance of the grounds the majority did choose versus the grounds that they rejected. 6/2 at 8:42