Massachusetts judge apologizes to conservative justices on Supreme Court

""Before we do anything, I really feel it's incumbent upon me to - on the record here - to apologize to Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh if they think that anything this court has done has been done in defiance of a precedential action of the Supreme Court of the United States," said Young, who was appointed to the bench by President Ronald Reagan in 1985."

"Young's apology came at a hearing Tuesday to discuss how to move forward after the Supreme Court in August overruled his decision to block the Trump administration from slashing hundreds of millions of dollars in grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health. Writing as part of that emergency order, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh had suggested that Young subverted the court's will by failing to apply an earlier emergency order focused on canceled Education Department grants to his NIH case."

Judge William G. Young apologized from the bench and pledged to adjust his approach after the Supreme Court overruled his order halting reductions to NIH grant awards. He acknowledged difficulty interpreting a growing number of unsigned emergency orders and said he had not realized he was expected to rely on a brief three-page order issued in April concerning canceled Education Department grants. Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh had warned lower-court judges not to defy the court after suggesting Young subverted the court's will. Young said he did not intend to act in defiance and emphasized his long judicial record.

Read at Boston.com