In everything the Supreme Court does, it’s supposed to ask a simple question: Is this constitutional or not? However, under Chief Justice John Roberts’s thumb, the court has been using something called the shadow docket to issue emergency orders on important cases. In case you couldn’t tell by my framing, Roberts isn’t really using that power in a way that benefits the American people. A trove of memos that were leaked over the weekend put the whole affair on display. If you want to know more, read Esquire columnist Charles P. Pierce’s thoughts on the news below.
—Chris Hatler, deputy editor
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All in service of its corporate patrons.
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Over the weekend, The New York Times published a trove of personal memos from the members of the Supreme Court outlining the court’s promiscuous use of the so-called shadow docket. It has become the carefully constructed conservative majority’s favorite work-around to kill policies it doesn’t like and support causes that it and its corporate patrons do.
The report is an astonishing leak of private communications between the justices. It bespeaks a court at war with itself, completely out of the control of Chief Justice John Roberts. The best evidence of the latter contention is the fact that Roberts emerges from these memos as a complete hack. The Times traces the invigorated shadow docket back to when Roberts used it to block an environmental program from President Barack Obama.
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Talk about a high score. Decades after Jay and Silent Bob's first appearance in the seminal indie comedy Clerks in 1994—and later Mallrats, Chasing Amy, and Dogma, as well as their own movies, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back in 2001 and Jay & Silent Bob Reboot in 2019—Jersey's biggest zeroes are now heroes of their own video game. Its name? Jay & Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch. But their creator and architect of the "View Askewniverse," Kevin Smith, is quick to say how hands-off he was on the endeavor. "They'll call it mine as if I did anything other than give the kids my blessing and go tub-thump for it," Smith says.
While Chronic Blunt Punch oozes affection for Smith's cinematic universe, the man insists it's the brainchild of the "kids" at Interabang. "I've never considered the things I've written to lend anything outside the medium it was conceived," Smith tells me. "Over 30-plus years, we've been able to take characters in movies, who normally stand around talking to each other, and turn them into toys, merchandise. But we've never had a video game. For years, people would be like, 'Would you [make a video game]?' I would in a heartbeat. But nobody was interested."
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If you dread the thought of having the same thing on your wrist as someone else in the room, you’ve come to the right place. Not that there’s anything wrong with yearning for a Submariner or a Seamaster—we’re just as guilty as any watch fan—but sometimes it pays to do things a little differently. And though the juggernauts of the watch world tend to dominate the conversation, there are so, so many other players out there that are well deserving of your attention.
We’re talking about watchmakers with penchants for vintage good looks but price tags that don’t require a bank loan. Brands with unexpected sources of inspiration. (Coffee, anyone?) And companies that take the “just have fun with it” ethos more seriously than you might expect. They tend to be grouped under the somewhat generic “microbrand” label. While that’s not exactly wrong when you compare them with the big guys, there’s a ton of variety and nuance to explore within that space.
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