At One First Street, life comes at you fast. On May 22 at 10:00 a.m., the Court 4-4'd in St. Isidore v. Drummond, letting the Oklahoma Supreme Court's decision stand. I wrote:
Before the case was even argued, I made a crude prediction to several reporters that the Chief would take the easy-out, and just vote to 4-4 affirm. There would be no opinion, and the Court could focus on more important issues. The children of Oklahoma really didn't matter.
What was that "more important issue"? Trump v. Wilcox. After 5:00 p.m. on May 22, after the markets closed, right before a holiday weekend, the Court issued a two-page per curiam opinion in the removal power case. (I'm sure Roberts was humming the Jimmy Buffet song when planning the release time.) The Court, by an (ostensible) 6-3 vote, stayed the lower court rulings that reinstated a member of the NLRB and a member of the MSPB. The actual legal analysis can be compressed in a single sentence:
