![\"Supreme](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/GettyImages-1243619362-1-300x200.jpg?resize=300%2C200&ssl=1\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\nPhoto by Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
There were some very surprising legal outcomes last year: Young Thug walking away from a RICO charge with probation<\/a>, they continued the functional impeachment of Pauline Newman<\/a>, and people kept on using ChatGPT to do their lawyering despite the obviously clear fault in its stars<\/a>. But what was the worst legal outcome from the Supreme Court? Pulling inspiration from Austin Sarat\u2019s<\/a> write-up, let\u2019s go through some of the worst decisions the Supreme Court handed down this year.<\/p>\n Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo<\/em> is a long case name, but fret not: it can be usefully abbreviated as Chevron<\/em> is Dead. The underlying reasoning was that judges are not only better suited to interpret statutes than field specialists, but the Constitution requires it. This idea that judges know best might make sense in theory, it isn\u2019t the case in practice. It didn\u2019t take very long for one of the brightest minds on the court to crack everyone up when he repeatedly confused Nitrogen Oxide (dangerous ozone pollutant) with Laughing Gas (the teehee spray the dentist uses to make your root canals a lot<\/em> more pleasant). Expect a rise in food-borne illness and rat poison in your frankfurters<\/a>. As written, the opinion leaves enough wiggle room for some of the protections gained from decades of Chevron<\/em> deference to stay in place, but don\u2019t expect them to last if the issue comes before the Court again<\/a>.<\/p>\n We used to be a reasonable country: you could have an ordinance preventing loitering or panhandling, but if a homeless person was found sleeping on the sidewalk and had nowhere else to go, you had to check and see if there were any empty beds at the shelter before you policed them for being unconscious in public. What else could you do without being cruel? 2024 answered: You don\u2019t have to worry about that! City of Grants Pass v. Johnson<\/em><\/a> rewrote common sensibilities and announced that there\u2019s nothing cruel about punishing a person with nowhere to go for not going somewhere else.<\/p>\n Trump v. United States<\/em> granted Presidents broad protection against prosecution for actions that are official acts of office. Does that include sending the military to assassinate political opponents? Hell, maybe!<\/p>\n This is a fearsome power to hold, especially when it\u2019s in the hands of a person who campaigned on arresting his political opposition and bragged about how he could shoot someone in broad day light years before this opinion was handed down. Four more years of greatness.<\/p>\n These are all bad outcomes, but Grants Pass<\/em> holds a special, morally objectionable place in my heart. I won\u2019t pretend to play anthropologist, but there\u2019s a story attributed to Margeret Mead \u2014 likely incorrectly<\/a> \u2014 that a healed femur was the earliest sign of civilization. Veracity aside, I genuinely believe that you can learn a lot about a person and a people by how they care for their worst off. In other words, safety nets are a sign of a civilization\u2019s strength<\/em>, and Grants Pass<\/em> is just about the strongest refutation of \u201cgive me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore\u201d we\u2019ve seen from the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n The Year\u2019s Worst Legal Decision: 2024 Edition<\/a> [Verdict]<\/p>\n Earlier<\/strong>: People Are Scrambling To Understand Presidential Immunity, So Many Of The Opinions Are Cracked<\/a> So much happened! Let’s take a moment to reflect. The post What Was The Worst Supreme Court Decision Of 2024? appeared first on Above the Law. Photo by Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States via Getty Images There were some very surprising legal outcomes last year: Young Thug walking away from a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":99093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law","category-legal_matters"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/GettyImages-1243619362-1-scaled-GlgMN3.jpeg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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Is This The Roberts Court Or The Clarence Court?<\/a>
Struggling With The Status Versus Conduct Distinction? So Are The Supreme Court Justices<\/a>
SCOTUS Just Greenlit The Crime Of \u2018Sleeping While Homeless\u2019 As Totally Fair Game<\/a>
John Roberts Says Judges Should Decide How Much Rat Poison Is Too Much For Your Hot Dogs<\/a><\/p>\n
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Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s<\/a>. \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim,\u00a0a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor<\/a>, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>\u00a0and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"