Wednesday round-up
On Monday Senator Chuck Grassley suggested that he might be willing to consider President Barack Obama’s nominee, Chief Judge Merrick Garland, if enough senators push for a hearing after the November election.
August 2016 Archive
Everything published in August 2016, most recent first.
The Court after Scalia: Affirmative action in a changing Court
Sherrilyn A. Ifill is the president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which filed an amicus brief in support of respondents in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin. How will the confirmation of a ninth Justice affect the future of diversity in higher education?
North Carolina comes up one vote short for stay in election law case
A closely divided Court today denied North Carolina’s request to allow the state to enforce three provisions of its controversial 2013 election law when voters go to the polls for this fall’s general elections.
The Court after Scalia: Standing at the crossroads on voting rights
Richard L. Hasen is Chancellor’s Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of California, Irvine. When it comes to jurisprudence on voting rights, the Supreme Court stands at a crossroads.
The Court after Scalia: The future of voting rights
Edward Blum, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, is the president of the Project on Fair Representation, which provided counsel to the petitioners in Shelby County v. Holder and Evenwel v. Abbott. …[In] a government in which they are separated from each other, the judiciary, from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution….
School board files petition for review on transgender bathrooms
Urging the Justices to resolve the dispute over the use of school bathrooms by trangender students “once and for all,” today a Virginia school board asked the Supreme Court to examine a decision by a federal appeals court in favor of a transgender student who identifies as a boy and wants to be allowed to use the boys’ bathroom.
Tuesday round-up
Yesterday a Virginia school board asked the Supreme Court to review a decision by a federal appeals court in favor of a transgender student who identifies as a boy and wants to use the boys’ bathroom.
Introduction: The Court after Scalia
In the weeks that followed the February 13 death of Justice Antonin Scalia, it became clear that his absence was having a significant impact on the Court.
Monday round-up
Legal action related to transgender Americans and the likelihood that those disputes will end up at the Supreme Court continue to generate coverage.
Challengers respond to North Carolina’s emergency voting rights request
Earlier this month, North Carolina asked the Justices to halt a lower-court ruling that blocked the implementation of its controversial 2013 election law – including provisions requiring voters to present a government-issued photo ID, reducing the number of days when voters can go to the polls before Election Day, and eliminating preregistration for young voters.
Friday round-up
Yesterday the Obama administration asked the Supreme Court to leave in place a lower court ruling striking down North Carolina’s controversial election law, which included a requirement that voters provide a government-issued photo ID.
“Progress,” but no decisions, in former governor’s case
Earlier this year, the Court threw out former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell’s conviction on federal corruption charges and sent the case back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Both sides then asked the court of appeals to put the case on hold for thirty days.
Thursday round-up
Mark Sherman of the Associated Press (via PBS NewsHour) looks at the presidential candidates’ positions on Supreme Court nominees, while at Real Clear Politics William Bennett argues that – although there are “many good reasons” to support Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump – “nothing
Tuesday round-up
At Vox, Dylan Matthews contends that the “unfilled vacancy of Antonin Scalia’s seat combined with a Hillary Clinton victory in November could set the Court on a new course.” At MinnPost, Paul Anderson – a retired state supreme court justice – argues that the “refusal of Senate Republicans to allow
Monday round-up
In The New York Times, Alan Rappeport reports that “Democrats are planning to redouble their efforts to make the fate of the Supreme Court a signature election issue,” while Morgan Lee of the Associated Press (via Deseret News) reports on recent remarks by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who indicated
Petitions of the day
The petitions of the day are: Government of Belize v. Newco Limited 16-135 Issue: (1) Whether, under the doctrine of forum non conveniens, as applied to a confirmation action to enforce a foreign arbitration award, a foreign forum is per se inadequate because assets in the United States cannot be
Friday round-up
Briefly: At the Fed Soc Blog, Brian Miller argues that, although Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association (the challenge to fees paid by public employees who are represented by a union to which they do not belong, on which the Court deadlocked last Term) “was – and still is– derided in the
Thursday round-up
Briefly: In Supreme Court Brief (subscription required), Tony Mauro reports that the “late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia would have loved to take on the case of Armstrong v. Thompson, now before the court,” because – if review is granted – “it would be the first time in decades that the
Wednesday round-up
Briefly: In The Huffington Post, Cristian Farias reports that Chief Justice John Roberts denied a request by lawyers for a Virginia school board for an extension of time to file its petition for review in the case of a transgender student who wants to be able to use the boys’ bathroom.
North Carolina asks the Justices to step in on voter ID law (UPDATED)
UPDATE: Today Chief Justice John Roberts instructed the challengers in the case to respond to the state’s application to stay the lower court’s ruling. The response is due on Thursday, August 25, at 4 p.m. Eastern.
Tuesday round-up
Yesterday North Carolina asked the Supreme Court to step into the dispute over its 2013 election law and allow it to use several provisions of that law – including a requirement that voters present a photo ID – in the November 2016 elections.
Monday round-up
Briefly: At Jost on Justice, Kenneth Jost contends that the Court’s ruling striking down the fraud convictions of former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell “is the latest evidence that for all the lip service given to the jury system, juries are an endangered species today in federal and state courts
Symposium: Gay rights, religious liberty and … tire scraps? The inclusive Fourteenth Amendment path in Trinity Lutheran
Mark L. Rienzi is an associate professor at The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law.
Friday round-up
In The Wall Street Journal, Kristina Peterson reports on recent comments by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who told reporters that “he expected Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton would re-nominate Merrick Garland for the U.S. Supreme Court if she is elected in November”; similar coverage comes from Jordain Carney for The Hill.
Symposium: Religious freedom, not religious discrimination
Richard Katskee is the Legal Director at Americans United for Separation of Church and State. He filed an amicus brief on behalf of religious and civil-rights organizations, supporting the respondent.
Thursday round-up
Briefly: In Supreme Court Brief (subscription required), Tony Mauro interviews Sidley & Austin’s Jeffrey Green about criminal defense advocacy at the Court.
Wednesday round-up
At Politico, Michael Grunwald looks at President Barack Obama’s legacy in the judiciary, concluding that, “even if the Garland nomination stalls, Obama has already reshaped the judiciary, not only the Supreme Court but the lower courts that hear more than 400,000 federal cases every year.” And the editorial board of USA Today urges the Senate to “put politics aside and give Judge Garland a hearing and a vote.
Symposium: Not on the taxpayers’ dime
Daniel Mach is Director of the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief. He co-authored an amicus brief on behalf of the ACLU and various religious freedom and civil liberties organizations in Trinity Lutheran Church v. Pauley.
Symposium: Confronting a nativist past; protecting school-choice’s future
Richard W. Garnett is Paul J. Schierl / Fort Howard Corporation Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame.
Symposium: A soft landing at the Supreme Court
Throughout this week the blog is hosting an online symposium on Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Pauley, the challenge by a Missouri church to its exclusion from a state program that provides grants to help non-profits buy rubber playground surfaces.
Symposium: Ban on state funding of churches protects independence
Hollyn Hollman is the general counsel and associate executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, which filed an amicus brief in support of the state of Missouri.
Tuesday round-up
Briefly: At his eponymous blog, Lyle Denniston reports that yesterday the Justices denied rehearing in a capital case out of Louisiana “that they had passed up last Term, thus rejecting a new attempt by lawyers to turn it into a sequel to the Justices’ important Sixth Amendment ruling in January in
Monday round-up
More coverage relating to last week’s order blocking a federal district court’s ruling that would have required a Virginia school board to allow a transgender student who identifies as a boy to use the boys’ restroom while the dispute is being litigated comes from Lisa Keen at Keen News Service.
Merits CasesSymposium before the oral argument in Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Pauley
Introduction: More than just a playground dispute
This fall the Court will hear oral arguments in a dispute that began as a battle over a playground – or, to be precise, the surfaces of the playground at the daycare and preschool operated by a Missouri church.
Friday round-up
At Think Progress, Ian Millhiser discusses the “courtesy” vote cast by Justice Stephen Breyer on Wednesday, leading to an order blocking a federal district court’s ruling that would have required a Virginia school board to allow a transgender student who identifies as a boy to use the boys’ restroom while the dispute is being litigated.
Thursday round-up
Yesterday the Court blocked a federal district court order that would have required a Virginia school board to allow a transgender student who identifies as a boy to use the boys’ bathroom until the dispute can be litigated on the merits.
Wednesday round-up
Yesterday, relying on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in January invalidating Florida’s death penalty scheme, the Delaware Supreme Court struck down that state’s death penalty law.
Court enters, at least temporarily, the fray over transgender rights
The U.S. Supreme Court stepped into the dispute between a Virginia school board and a transgender student who identifies as a boy. In June, a federal district court in Virginia ordered the Gloucester County School Board to allow “G.G.” to use the boys’ bathroom at Gloucester High School until the case can be fully litigated.
Tuesday round-up
Briefly: At FiveThirtyEight, Oliver Roeder predicts that “the median justice during Trump’s or Clinton’s presidency could become one of the most extreme in almost a century.” At Philly.com, Samantha Melamed reports that, in Pennsylvania, four “juvenile lifers” were “given new sentences as a
Monday round-up
Briefly: The Southeastern Legal Foundation discusses the amicus brief that it filed urging the Justices “to reverse the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) backward interpretation of its own rule which allows pilots to post pre-planned flights on old-fashioned bulletin boards but not virtual
The Court at the ABA’s annual meeting in San Francisco
In early August, the American Bar Association will hold its annual meeting, which will include four different panels related to the Supreme Court. All panels will take place at the Moscone Center unless otherwise indicated; all times are Pacific.