Showing 1–50 of 1277 items published in 2014, most recent first.
On this last day of 2014, here’s the Court-related news, briefly: Jessica Gresko of the Associated Press (via Yahoo! News) reports that Bobby Chen, the pro se petitioner in Chen v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, still cannot be found; the deadline for him to file his opening brief was December 22, but the Court has not yet received it.
The Supreme Court is moving toward a full and free-access system for all documents filed in cases before the Justices — a system expected to be working “as soon as 2016,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., revealed in his annual year-end report on the federal judiciary.
As 2014 draws to a close, coverage of the Court looks ahead at cases that will or may be before the Court in 2015.
Briefly: At PrawfsBlawg, Steve Vladeck discusses the amicus brief that he filed on behalf of former officials of the Department of Health and Human Services in Armstrong v. Exceptional Child Center, in which the Court will consider whether the Supremacy Clause gives Medicaid providers a private
State officials in North Carolina plan to ask the Supreme Court to sort out a dispute among lower courts on state power to require doctors to perform ultrasound tests while delivering an anti-abortion message to pregnant women before an abortion can occur.
UPDATED Tuesday 11:58 a.m. Oklahoma and five other states where the federal government operates insurance marketplaces have filed a brief in the granted case of King v. Burwell, supporting the challenge to tax credits for those shopping at the federal exchanges.
UPDATED Tuesday 3:43 p.m. The Supreme Court’s electronic docket now confirms that the four Sixth Circuit cases have been distributed to the Justices for consideration at the January 9 Conference. The docket numbers are 14-556, 14-562, 14-571 and 14-574.
The Supreme Court will hold oral argument on the next major legal battle over the Affordable Care Act on Wednesday, March 4, at the end of the February-March sitting, the Court disclosed on Monday with the release of that argument calendar.
Last week Nebraska and Oklahoma asked the Justices to allow them to file a lawsuit seeking to block part of Colorado’s scheme for the legalization of marijuana.
The Supreme Court has stepped into the center of a divisive issue: whether, consistent with the First Amendment, states that elect some or all of their judges may prohibit the candidates from directly soliciting campaign funds.
Whether a vision of the Court might affect coverage; facing new questions of identity and gender, three Justices who are women and the Court reflecting a larger social anxiety; the “Roberts Court”; and how the Court can be more than one thing at a time. “I think always the humor was a means to an end.
Last week Nebraska and Oklahoma asked the Justices to allow them to file a lawsuit seeking to block part of Colorado’s scheme for the legalization of marijuana.
Accredited access to the Court; reading the contrast between what the Court says about free speech as a legal doctrine and the practicalities of the Court’s institutional position; andthe Internet as the model for covering the Court. I think always the humor was a means to an end.
The Justices will meet for their next Conference on January 9. Our list of “Petitions to watch” is here. The January sitting begins on January 12.
Breaking ranks with other federal appeals courts, and probably setting up a major test case for the Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has ruled that laws imposing controls on the personal right to have a gun must satisfy the most rigorous constitutional test.
Over the dissents of two Justices, the Supreme Court late Friday afternoon refused to delay — beyond January 5 — a federal judge’s order that would permit same-sex couples in Florida to marry after that day. Neither the apparent majority of seven nor the two dissenters gave any explanation.
Two of Colorado’s neighboring states, arguing that the legalization of marijuana for Coloradans is causing crime problems across state borders, asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to allow them to file a lawsuit directly before the Justices.
At ACSblog, Neil Kinkopf discusses the challenge to the availability of tax subsidies for individuals who buy their health insurance on an exchange operated by the federal government.
Cameras in the Supreme Court and the importance of seeing government at work; whether audio provides sufficient access; and how the Internet affects thinking about the Court in public. “I think always the humor was a means to an end.
What a Justice says and does not say in public; Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s recent presence in the media; the line in a Justice’s mind between talking law and talking politics; the risk of talking to the media; and what to infer from a Justice’s choice to speak publicly. “I think always the humor was a means to an end.
Although the Court is officially in recess until January, business continues there. Yesterday the Court turned down Arizona’s application to allow it to deny driver’s licenses to “Dreamers” — young adults who came to this country illegally as children — if they have permits allowing them to have jobs here.
John Elwood reviews Monday’s relisted cases, with help from Clement Clarke Moore. ‘Twas the last Conference before break, when all through the land; All the lawyers were waiting, petitions in hand; Their eyes were trained on SCOTUSblog with care; In hopes that cert. grants soon would be there.
Two groups of Florida same-sex couples, anticipating a chance to get married in less than three weeks, urged the Supreme Court today not to delay that opportunity.
UPDATING EARLIER POST: Over the dissents of three Justices, the Supreme Court today rejected Arizona’s request to allow it to deny driver’s licenses to young undocumented immigrants who have been permitted by Obama administration policy to remain in the United States.
A federal judge in Pittsburgh, in the first court ruling on President Obama’s new policy on undocumented immigrants, ruled on Tuesday that, because the president had no authority to act alone, the policy is unconstitutional.
Monday’s two decisions in argued cases continue to generate coverage and commentary. In Heien v. North Carolina, the Court held that a police officer’s reasonable mistake of law can provide the reasonable suspicion that justifies a traffic stop under the Fourth Amendment.
The tension between how the media covers the Court and how the Court wants to be seen; understanding the Justices in public; and what might get lost in focusing, however deftly, on high-level legal analysis. “I think always the humor was a means to an end.
Idaho’s governor today asked the Supreme Court to wait to act on new same-sex marriage cases until after officials from his state can file an appeal, early next month.
The exercise of police discretion to stop people on the street is front and center in today’s headlines. In this case, a North Carolina policeman stopped Heien’s car because it had a brake light that did not work.
The Court issued two decisions in argued cases yesterday. Its decision in Dart Cherokee Basin Operating Company v. Owens, in which it held that a notice of removal requires only a plausible allegation that the amount in controversy exceeds the state court’s jurisdictional threshold, garnered the most commentary.
Since the argument in Dart Cherokee Basin Operating Co. v. Owens, the only real question has been whether the Court would decide the case at all. There seemed no doubt that the Court, if it reached the merits, would reverse the Tenth Circuit.
Law school; covering the Supreme Court; an irreverence found in Canada; and working to convey that the Court is not as hard to know as it might seem. “I think always the humor was a means to an end.
On Friday afternoon the Court issued orders from its Conference earlier that day, granting four new cases. The highest-profile new grant came in Toca v. Louisiana, in which the Court will consider (among other things) whether its 2012 decision in Miller v. Alabama, banning mandatory sentences of life without parole for juveniles who commit murder, applies retroactively.
The order list is here. There is one CVSG. There are no new grants. The opinion in Dart Cherokee Basin Operating Co. v. Owens is here. The opinion in Heien v. North Carolina is here.
The Supreme Court chose again today to bypass a dispute over state authority to strictly limit the access of pregnant women to abortion procedures that use drugs instead of surgery.
FURTHER UPDATE Tuesday 5:28 p.m. Justice Clarence Thomas has called for a response to the Florida application, by 5 p.m. Thursday, December 18. The application has now been docketed as 14A650. ———— UPDATED 5:58 p.m.
We are live blogging as orders and opinions are announced this morning. Click here to be taken to the live blog.
On Monday the Court issued additional orders from the December 12 Conference, which Lyle covered here. No new cases were granted. The views of the Solicitor General were called for in one case.
Yesterday Arizona filed papers asking the Court to step in and block a ruling by the Ninth Circuit striking down the state’s policy of denying driver’s licenses to “dreamers” – undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children.
On Wednesday, a subdued Court spent two hours hearing oral arguments in United States v. Wong and United States v. June, considering whether the limitations periods under the Federal Tort Claims Act are jurisdictional or subject to equitable tolling.
Oyez has posted recordings of this week’s oral arguments before the Court. The Court heard arguments this week in: Department of Transportation v. Association of American Railroads Direct Marketing Association v. Brohl Alabama Department of Revenue v. CSX Transportation, Inc. Gelboim v. Bank of America United States v. June United States v. Wong
After passing up the issue several times, the Supreme Court agreed today to consider whether its 2012 decision in Miller v. Alabama, limiting sentences of life without parole for minors who commit murder, applies retroactively — that is, to inmates whose conviction had become final before the ruling was issued.
UPDATED 6:42 p.m. Taking the same position as state officials have in other same-sex marriage cases, government officials in Ohio on Friday urged the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of state laws against same-sex marriage. “The country deserves a nationwide answer — one way or the other,” the state’s brief said.
The transcript in United States v. Wong is here. The transcript in United States v. June is here.
Coverage of and commentary on the Court continue to focus on Tuesday’s two opinions in argued cases. In Integrity Staffing Solutions v. Busk, the Court held that workers at a warehouse are not entitled to compensation for time spent in anti-theft screenings.
Tax systems treat taxpayers differently all the time, and the central question before the Court in Alabama Department of Revenue v. CSX Transportation is when a difference in treatment amounts to a violation of the anti-discrimination provision of the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976 (the “4-R Act”).
Lawyers for both parties faced skeptical questioning in Tuesday’s arguments in Gelboim v. Bank of America. Tasked with deciding the appealability of a decision dismissing all claims in an action that is part of a consolidated MDL action, the Court considered competing approaches that exposed questions about the meaning and scope of particular rules and that may or may not make much practical difference.
UPDATED 5:31 p.m. Justice Kennedy has called for a response to this application, to be filed by noon (Eastern time) next Tuesday, December 16. ————— State officials in Arizona, seeking to block undocumented immigrants from getting driver’s licenses even if they have been spared from deportation, asked the Supreme Court today to examine new Obama administration moves on immigration policy.
John Elwood reviews Monday’s relisted cases. Happy holidays, dear readers! And welcome to the penultimate Relist Watch of 2014.
Justice Sotomayor delivering the opinion of the Court.