Rehnquist has cancer. Now what?

[Loopydude]

@Polycarp

Dealing just with BrainGlutton’s questions here, IMO the controversy over Bush v. Gore is going to make them very reluctant to resolve another election dispute. Except for the truly odd circumstance of 1876, 2000 was the first time that SCOTUS had stepped in w/r/t the Presidential election.

Do they have the option to punt? How could the SCOTUS have dodged Bush vs. Gore, for instance? If a similar issue arises (as is entirely likely), what are the alternatives, a tiebreaker election in a particular state?

[Polycarp]

@Loopydude

Do they have the option to punt? How could the SCOTUS have dodged Bush vs. Gore, for instance? If a similar issue arises (as is entirely likely), what are the alternatives, a tiebreaker election in a particular state?

Subject to some possible rare exceptions that a Doper-at-Law will have to specify, the entire jurisdiction of the Supreme Court is “discretionary” – they get petitions to grant certiorari (take an appeal, more or less) which they may grant or refuse, effectively at their whim. Obviously, there are compelling legal and/or political reasons to “grant cert.” in many cases and refuse it in others, but the fact remains that virtually every case they hear is completely at their free choice.

Obviously (or maybe not), if they refuse to grant cert., then the decision that someone has asked them to review, be it by a lower Federal court, by a state court, or an official’s official act or ruling that someone is trying to challenge, stands.

In Bush v. Gore, for example, the decision was that of the State of Florida Supreme Court, allowing recounts to continue under specified conditions.

[plnnr]

@BrainGlutton

Yes. VP Calvin Coolidge was on vacation in his home state of Vermont when he received news that President Warren G. Harding had died and Coolidge was now president. He had his oath of office administered by a local notary public. But the important question is, how will Rehnquist taking ill now, on the eve of an election, affect the future?

The “local notary public” that administered the oath of office to Calvin Coolidge was his father.

[Airman_Doors_USAF]

And Judge Sarah T. Hughes administered the oath to LBJ on Air Force One in Dallas, making her the first woman to do so.

[BobLibDem]

The medical opinion is split on his prognosis. See today’s MSNBC article . The details of his condition and prognosis are up to the patient to reveal as much or little as he wishes, all the rest of us can do is make educated guesses. I never was a Rehnquist fan, but I wish him well in this battle.

[BrainGlutton]

Update from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6328363/?GT1=5472:

WASHINGTON - Although Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist is planning to return to work next week, some physicians questioned whether his treatment for thyroid cancer would sideline him longer.

<snip>

The Supreme Court statement did not say if Rehnquist has a treatable form of the cancer, or a fatal one.

Doctors differ on recovery time
With the limited information, doctors differed on his prospects.

“The tracheotomy is a clue that he probably has an unusual variety,” said Dr. Yosef Krespi, chairman of otolaryngology at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in New York. “It has to be the aggressive type or complicated thyroid cancer for someone to have a tracheotomy.”

But Dr. Paul Wallner of the National Cancer Institute said a tracheotomy, which involves opening the throat and inserting a tube, might be done for two reasons: “Simply in anticipation of routine thyroid surgery or … because he was having breathing difficulty.”

[E72521]

@MSNBC

But Dr. Paul Wallner of the National Cancer Institute said a tracheotomy, which involves opening the throat and inserting a tube, might be done for two reasons: “Simply in anticipation of routine thyroid surgery or … because he was having breathing difficulty.”

My BS meter is pegged. IANAD, but you would never ever do a tracheotomy in anticipation of routine thyroid surgery. Thyroid surgery is very tricky. There is a risk of what is known as thyroid storm, flooding the body with hormone and, among other things, sending the patient into cardiac arrest. In fact, trach tubes are never used as a routine airway in surgery. You do not want to cut a hole and insert a large cumbersome tube into the area you need to do some very delicate work. An endotracheal tube passed through the mouth and vocal chords is routine, Dr. Wallner’s scenario is pure crap.

As I said yesterday, he has a cancer that has spread to his trachea, or there was an emergency while trying to insert the endotracheal tube.

And he’s not going back to work next week.