On October 15, the Supreme Court heard nearly 2.5 hours of oral argument in the Voting Rights Act Case. Without even taking a break, the Court heard the second case, fittingly titled Case v. Montana. It was obvious the Justices were spent. They said so. At one point, Justice Gorsuch referred to a case called Brigham City as Brigham Young. He apologized, and said "Sorry. I am tired." At another point, Justice Barrett apologized for mispronouncing Caniglia, and said "it's been a long day."
Still, for those who managed to slog through the arguments, there was an important takeaway. The Justices did not want to write an opinion based on the unusual facts of this case. They wanted to write a broader rule that would be easy to apply.
Fred Rowley, who represented Case, spent a lot of time discussing the particular facts that the police officers knew about the defendant. He mentioned several officers by name, and referenced what they said on body camera footage. This approach may have been appropriate for this case, but it was unusual. In most Supreme Court cases, the facts on the ground really don't matter. The Justices are trying to set some sort of national rule. In this case, Justice Jackson in particular seemed frustrated with the fixation on the record. At one point, Jackson interrupted Rowley, who was talking about the facts, and said "We're trying to think about a standard here." Later, Rowley was talking about knowledge that one of the officers had about Case. Jackson again said, "Well, setting aside this particular case, let me just try to understand the standard that you want us to apply."
