Answer:
The chief justice presides over the Court's public sessions and also presides over the Court's private conferences, where the justices decide what cases to hear and how to vote on the cases they have heard.
Benjamin,Franklin,Thomas
A litmus test is a question asked of a potential candidate for high office, the answer to which would determine whether the nominating official would proceed with the appointment or nomination. The expression is a metaphor based on the litmus test in chemistry, in which one is able to test the general acidity of a substance, but not its exact pH. Those who must approve a nominee, such as a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, may also be said to apply a litmus test to determine whether the nominee will receive their vote. In these contexts, the phrase comes up most often with respect to nominations to the judiciary.
The Administration is dropping everything to find a replacement for an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court who just died. Just to mollify the liberals and frighten the conservatives, Toby and Josh interview a Judge Lang who is too liberal. They play it straight, but she knows what's going on:
"A conservative anchor of the Court has just died: a young, brilliant thinker who brought the right out of the closet and championed a whole conservative revival. You cannot replace Owen Brady with a woman who overturned a parental consent law. You'd be shish-kabobed and set aflame on the South Lawn.... I'm window dressing. That's fine. I'm happy to help. But let's just chat about the weather."
The Supreme Court just handed down a 5–4 decision striking the unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act. iz what D.O.M.N.A stands for and according to Justice Anthony Kennedy’s opinion for the Court, “[t]he federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and to injure those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity. By seeking to displace this protection and treating those persons as living in marriages less respected than others, the federal statute is in violation of the Fifth Amendment.”
