2005—Two days after Justice Sandra Day O’Connor announces her intention to retire, Senator Joseph Biden threatens that if President George W. Bush nominates D.C. Circuit judge Janice Rogers Brown to replace O’Connor, Biden and other Senate Democrats will filibuster the nomination of the first African-American female to the Court.
Running for president fifteen years later, Biden will promise that his first Supreme Court nominee will be an African American woman, and when he nominates Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson in February 2022, he will take credit for the historic first that he acted to thwart Bush from achieving.
2019— In Sierra Club v. Trump, a divided Ninth Circuit panel bars the Trump administration from reprogramming appropriated funds to build a border wall with Mexico. Specifically, the panel leaves in place, pending its consideration of the government’s appeal, a permanent injunction entered by a district court against the use of reprogrammed funds. In dissent, Judge N. Randy Smith concludes that plaintiffs have no legal claim that they are entitled to invoke.
Three weeks later, the Supreme Court, by a 5-4 vote, will override the Ninth Circuit’s ruling and block the district court’s injunction from taking effect.