Supreme Court Won't Take Up Case Because Too Many Justices Recused Themselves

[WhiskeyGrinder]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2025/05/19/supreme-court-wont-take-up-case-because-too-many-justices-recused-themselves/

archive: https://archive.ph/PquTB

The Supreme Court said Monday it would not take up the case Ralph W. Baker, Jr. v. Ta-Nehisi Coates et al, a copyright dispute in which Baker alleged Coates’ book “The Water Dancer” plagiarized Baker’s book “Shock Exchange: How Inner-City Kids From Brooklyn Predicted the Great Recession and the Pain Ahead.”

The court said it lacked a quorum to hear the case, after five of the court’s nine justices—Justices Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor—all recused themselves.

The justices did not give a reason for why they were recusing and the court has not responded to a request for comment, but Barrett, Gorsuch, Jackson and Sotomayor all published books through Penguin Random House, whose parent company Bertelsmann was named as a party in the case.

(snip)

The justices who didn’t have ethical conflicts determined the case “cannot be heard” as a result of the lack of a quorum, meaning a lower court ruling against Baker will stand.

[newdeal2]

1. Don't give Trump any ideas

He’s going to be gifting 6 of them membership to his golf courses and demanding that they recuse themselves from any future rulings against him.