Para-Ord.45,
From what I’ve heard in the last day or so, we needed 5 - not 4 - Justices to stop this freight train.
Here’s why:
It takes 4 Justices to grant “cert,” short for Certiorari, i.e., for the Supreme Court to agree to hear the case.
But this case didn’t get to this the Supreme Court via a request for cert. Because the entire case is moot if the Obama-ordered and 2nd Circuit approved sale of Chrysler’s assets to “New Chrysler” (Fiat + the federal government) is allowed to go through, this case got to the Supreme Court via an application for a STAY, i.e., a request for an injunction to stop the sale. And a stay requires 5 Justices to vote YEA. (Example: Back in 2000, we needed 5 Justices to issue a stay to stop the Florida recount in Bush v. Gore.)
So Thomas-Scalia-Roberts-Alito could have all voted YEA, and that wouldn’t be sufficient. And I’ll bet that’s what happened, too. The 4 could not convince the emotionally unpredictable Kennedy to join them.
To obtain a delay, or stay, someone must show that at least four of the nine justices find that the issue raised is serious enough to warrant hearing a full appeal and that a majority of the court will conclude the lower court decision was wrong.Yep. I'd bet Kennedy and the liberal wing slammed the door on Alito, Thomas, Roberts and Scalia."The applicants have not carried that burden," the court said.
I still wish some lawyer-type would tell me ANY legal (not political) argument the O-Team could have put forward before the court. So far, I haven't heard a breath of a legal case on their side.