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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2020 TWO SECTIONS | $2.00 aily INSIDENEWS aily Judge Amy Coney Barrett, like other nominees, won’t “opine” on Griswold birth control decision. p. 2 Class actions over canceled flights hit turbulence. p. 6 epA SMARTor READ FOR SMART READERSt Newsreel Law Center Reports Surge in Confederate Some Atlanta Monument Removal • The Montgomery, Alabama- based Southern Poverty Law Area Courts Call Center released information from a report Wednesday showing more than 100 Con- in Grand Jurors, federate symbols have been removed since May 26—the start of the protests following Others Bide Time the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. GREG LAND | [email protected] The report, called “Whose Heritage?,” tracks and maps WITH THE ISSUANCE of his most recent judi- data on public symbols of the cial emergency orders—one on Sept. 10 and the Confederacy across the United latest on Oct. 10—Georgia States. Supreme Court Justice Chief The center launched the JOHN DISNEY/ALM Justice Harold Melton gave the project after learning that nine Randy Kessler (left), founder of Kessler & Solomiany, said law partner Marvin Solomiany is go-ahead to courts statewide Black people were killed dur- asked to serve as a private judge more and more often for financial and custody issues. ing a Bible study at Mother to once again convene grand Emanuel A.M.E. Church in juries and jury trials. Charleston, South Carolina. But Melton also made clear The shooter who open fire on Family Law Firm Opens that how and when those events the victims while their heads would occur is a decision left were bowed in prayer had been up to the chief judges and their Christopher Brasher radicalized by white suprema- Private Courtroom Amid local justice system partners. cist websites. The report shows While some circuits have 171 Confederate symbols have already forged ahead in con- been removed or relocated from vening grand juries—one of public spaces since the Mother Clients’ COVID Fears the most pressing issues for Emanuel massacre. | “The public killing of George MEREDITH HOBBS [email protected] term, the pandemic could spark great- courts sitting on backlogged Floyd has served as a turning er usage of private judges for safety’s criminal calendars—others point in American race rela- KESSLER & SOLOMIANY, one sake in family law cases, said Randy are navigating the shoals more tions—particularly for those of Atlanta’s largest family law firms, Kessler, the 15-lawyer firm’s founder. cautiously. who believed that systemic has built a courtroom in its downtown Kessler noted that his law partner, In Cherokee County, for George Hutchinson anti-Black racism and police office space as an alternative to brav- Marvin Solomiany, “is being asked instance, grand juries have violence against people of color ing Georgia courthouses during the to serve in that role more and more already convened with panelists summoned to didn’t exist,” SPLC Chief of Staff COVID-19 pandemic. often” for financial and custody the courthouse Oct. 12 for the first time since the Lecia Brooks said. “The ensu- The firm anticipates the new court- issues. COVID-19 lockdown for two days of deliberations. ing protests forced states that room to be in demand. In the long See COURTROOM, page 3 See COURTS CALL, page 5 had no intention of acting to rid communities of these symbols of hatred and oppression.” Virginia has removed the Federal Judge Voids Abortion Wait-Time Law most—40 since May—fol- lowed by North Carolina and KATHERYN HAYES TUCKER “Defendants’ suggestion that women the Eastern District of Michigan said in a Texas. Litigation is pending [email protected] are overly emotional and must be required 136-page order. Friedman was sitting in by over Confederate monu- to cool off or calm down before having a special designation on the case in the Middle ments in other states, includ- ABORTION RIGHTS GROUPS were medical procedure they have decided they District of Tennessee, Nashville Division. He ing Georgia and Louisiana— cheering the feminist language in a Wednes- want to have, and that they are constitution- enjoined the state from enforcing a law that where groups supporting the day ruling from a federal judge throwing ally entitled to have, is highly insulting and has been in effect in Tennessee since 2015. symbols have hired counsel to out a state law requiring women to wait 48 paternalistic—and all the more so given that Tennessee Attorney General Herbert oppose governments’ efforts hours—and hear opposition-inspired coun- no such waiting periods apply to men,” U.S. Slatery III defended the state. “We are to remove them. Meanwhile, the SPLC report seling—in order to receive care. District Senior Judge Bernard Friedman of See ABORTION, page 4 shows nearly 1,800 Confeder- ate symbols are still publicly present in the U.S., and 696 of those symbols are monuments. “As long as Confederate ico- nography remains on public lands, our country’s dehuman- ization of Black people prevails,” Brooks said. —Katheryn Hayes Tucker Atlanta is facing a dire eviction crisis, but we can do something about it. Slappey & Sadd is proud to support Atlanta Legal Aid’s mission to keep people housed. Make a donation at: atlantalegalaid.org/ways-to-give/ 2 DAILY REPORT FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2020 Barrett, Like Nominees Before Her, Dodges Questions on Griswold Birth Control Decision MARCIA COYLE | [email protected] there, and so that’s an area that I do not feel it appropriate for me to comment on.” MORE THAN HALF a century after the Alito was somewhat more circumspect U.S. Supreme Court struck down a ban when Pennsylvania Republican Sen. on the use of contraceptives by married Arlen Specter asked: “Starting with the couples based on a right to privacy, recent woman’s right to choose, Judge Alito, do conservative nominees to that court, you accept the legal principles articulated including Judge Amy Coney Barrett, still in Griswold v. Connecticut that the liber- find it difficult to answer whether the case ty clause in the Constitution carries with was correctly decided. it the right to privacy?” The Griswold v. Connecticut question Alito answered: “Senator, I do agree is sensitive for those nominees because it that the Constitution protects a right to is a foundational precedent for a substan- privacy. And it protects the right to pri- tive due process right to privacy, which vacy in a number of ways. The Fourth became the basis for the landmark abor- Amendment certainly speaks to the right tion decision in Roe v. Wade and other of privacy. People have a right to privacy rulings, including the landmark same-sex in their homes and in their papers and marriage decision, Obergefell v. Hodges. in their persons. And the standard for Barrett, like two other Trump nomi- whether something is a search is whether nees to the high court—Justices Neil Gor- there’s an invasion of a right to privacy, a such and Brett Kavanaugh—declined to legitimate expectation of privacy.” answer directly if the Griswold decision Specter followed up, asking, “Well, itself was correctly decided. Griswold dealt with the right to privacy During Wednesday’s hearing on Bar- DIEGO M. RADZINSCHI/ALM on contraception for married women. rett’s nomination, Democratic Sen. Chris Judge Amy Coney Barrett said Wednesday during her Supreme Court confirmation hearing that she You agree with that?” Alito said, “I agree Coons of Delaware noted Barrett’s state- could not “opine” on Griswold, “because it does lie at the base of substantive due process doctrine.” that Griswold is now, I think, understood ment to him in a phone conversation that process doctrine, which is something that Gorsuch would only say, “It has been by the Supreme Court as based on the she could not think of a specific issue of continues to be litigated in courts today.” repeatedly reaffirmed.” When pressed liberty clauses of the due process clause law where she disagreed with the late Jus- Barrett’s response was even more by Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard of the Fifth Amendment and the 14th tice Antonin Scalia, her mentor and for- restrained than the response of then Judge Blumenthal for his personal opinion on Amendment.” mer boss. Brett Kavanaugh during his Supreme whether Griswold was correctly decided, On Eisenstadt, Alito said, “I do agree “Do you agree with him that Griswold Court hearing. Democratic Sen. Kamala Gorsuch replied: with the result in Eisenstadt.” was wrongly decided and thus states Harris of California asked Kavanaugh “My personal views have nothing to do And what about a progressive or liberal should be able to make it illegal to use whether he believed two right-to-privacy with my job as a judge,” he said. On Eisen- nominee who faces the Griswold ques- contraceptives if they so choose?” Coons precedents of the Supreme Court were cor- stadt, Gorsuch said, “To say I agree or tion? Justice Elena Kagan was the last asked Barrett. rectly decided: Griswold and Eisenstadt v. disagree with the United States Supreme Democratic nominee for the high court. Barrett answered: “Well, Senator, as Baird (extending right to use contracep- Court as a judge is an act of hubris.” In 2010, Kagan had this to say and sur- I’ve said a number of times, I can’t express tives to unmarried persons). Kavanaugh All three nominees were more reluctant prisingly, it was not dramatically different a view yes or no, A+ or F. In my other initially answered by describing what those to answer the Griswold question than now from Roberts’s response. capacity I get to grade, but not in this par- decisions held, but Harris pressed him for Chief Justice John Roberts Jr.

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