Las Vegas Observers Offer Own Opinions on this Supreme Court Written By Valerie Miller
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egal professionals, political commentators and other Las Vegans have diverse predictions, hopes – and fears --- for the new Supreme Court. A key case for University of Nevada, Las Vegas Boyd School of Law Professor Leslie Griffin is Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, where “(the city) is claiming a free exercise right to discriminate against same-sex couples who want to be foster parents,” she says. Griffin also wrote an amicus brief in that Fulton case. In the bigger picture, President Donald Trump’s impact on the court will be felt for decades, Griffins continues. “Usually, court watchers understand that the Court changes every time you add a justice. Trump has added three Justices to the Court, which is incredible given that President (Jimmy) Carter, e.g., never even got to nominate one justice.”
But Griffin is just as concerned about the religious backgrounds of a vast majority of the justices and how that will impact the way they vote on cases. “I am one of the few who think it should be controversial that (Chief Justice John) Roberts, and Justices (Clearance) Thomas, (Samuel) Alito, (Sonia) Sotomayor, (Brett) Kavanaugh, and (Amy Coney) Barrett are all Catholic, and (Neil) Gorsuch was raised Catholic,” she points out. “As a person raised Catholic, I believe there should be a lot more religious and nonreligious diversity on the Court, as that would reflect the population of the United States.” Ruben Garcia, also a UNLV Boyd School of Law professor, sees more-subtle changes when it comes to landmark past precedents, such as the 1972 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion.
