A collection of significant and strange cases decided by the federal courts of appeals this week. Each summary delivered in a minute or less: seven cases, seven minutes. On the docket this week was United’s vaccine requirements, turpitude, identity theft, and cryptocurrency.
Read More »
A collection of significant and strange cases decided by the federal courts of appeals this week. Each summary delivered in a minute or less: eight cases, eight minutes. On the docket this week was retirement plans at SCOTUS, COVID-19, predatory lending, and visas for geniuses. We also honor Justice Stephen Breyer, who announced his retirement after nearly 28 years on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Read More »
Yesterday morning, a three-judge panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia dismissed Donald Trump’s lawsuit challenging the state’s ballot-counting and -certification process. Trump’s next move would be to head to the Supreme Court, just as his legal team has proclaimed all along. But don’t be fooled; Trump’s chances of getting any Justice to take his case seriously are as bad as Rudy Giuliani’s oral argument performance (calamitous by “any standard of review!”). The case is dead on arrival.
Read More »
This week was relatively quiet, especially as the Court nears the end of its term. The Justices decided just two cases: Liu v. SEC (an arcane securities law case) and DHS v. Thuraissigiam (challenging asylum denials in court). They didn’t grant any new cases. Court-watchers enjoyed a brief lull after the tumultuous Title VII and DACA decisions last week, but that lull won’t last long. We’re the unguarded tree in the photo above, facing an impending deluge of 13 major decisions to be handed down over the next few weeks. So as we await the Court’s decisions in matters concerning abortion, Trump’s tax returns, religious liberty, Obamacare, free speech, and the Electoral College (among others), there’s just one thing to say: I hope you enjoyed the calm before the storm.
At the outset, this week looked as if it’d be a quiet one; no opinions were expected, and oral arguments wrapped up a few weeks ago. Even this week’s orders list turned out as unremarkable as any. But a series of emergency, coronavirus-related petitions wound up in the Court’s hands. All told, the Court issued rulings on four such petitions, culminating in a 1:00am, Saturday morning decision to reject a California church’s assertion that the state’s stay-at-home orders discriminate against houses of worship (a decision made on a 5:4 vote). So while Court-watchers expected this to be the last “dead-week” before the Court’s term concludes in July, it turned out to be anything but.
After two busy weeks, the past seven days were much quieter. The Court is now between its February and March sittings, so no cases were argued this week. The Justices released an orders list on Monday, adding an Eighth Amendment case to next term’s docket. The Court allowed the Trump Administration to temporarily enforce its “remain in Mexico” policy after lower courts had issued preliminary injunctions. Finally, Justice Sotomayor announced that she will recuse herself from one of the two “faithless elector” cases to be argued in April. Here’s your brief for the week of March 9.
This was the third and final week of the Court’s inter-sitting recess. Headlines this week came from the Court’s decision to allow the Trump Administration to enforce its new “public charge” immigration rule nationwide—over the dissent of four Justices (including a seven-page dissenting opinion from Justice Sotomayor). Here’s your brief for the week of February 17.
Earlier this summer, the Supreme Court stayed an injunction against the Trump Administration, which had barred it from using nearly $2.5 billion in interdepartmental transfer funds for construction of the border wall. Tonight was Part II. The high court lifted another injunction that had been issued against the Administration, this one concerning the latest asylum rule promulgated in July. Justices Sotomayor and Ginsburg dissented. With less than a month until the Court is back in session, it seems clear the Justices are not shy of acting on their summer shadow docket. Here’s a summary of the case, the Court’s order, and Justice Sotomayor’s dissent.
Benchwarmers 