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US Supreme Court Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 02, 2019 38 Comments
In August 2019, Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse signed and filed an Amicus Brief in the U.S. Supreme Court that threatened the Justices with future court-packing if they didn't vote his way on a 2nd Amendment case. It truly was an extraordinary move, as we explained in Dem Senators to Supreme Court: Rule our way on 2nd Amendment case, or face possible restructuring:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 13, 2019 115 Comments
It had been almost a decade since the U.S. Supreme Court took a major 2nd Amendment case, something Justice Clarence Thomas lamented in a dissent from the Court's refusal to hear an appeal from a 9th Circuit decision upholding California's 10-day waiting period even for those who already owned guns legally and had gone through the permitting and background check.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 17, 2019 22 Comments
Tuesday, Justice John Paul Stevens passed away at the age of 99. Justice Stevens' retirement from the Supreme Court paved the way for Justice Keagan's appointment.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 02, 2019 114 Comments
After the recent Supreme Court decision ruling that the Commerce Department had not given a sufficient explanation for a Census citizenship question, there still was a possibility that the Trump administration could pursue a new explanation. After all, the question itself was held substantively lawful, it was the process that was the problem. We covered the possibilities for a do-over in Chief Justice Roberts shot down Census citizenship question, but it’s not dead yet.

Posted by Jared Samilow on June 30, 2019 31 Comments
On the morning of June 28, 2012, CNN and Fox News initially told viewers that the Supreme Court had struck down the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, not yet realizing that the court had saved it as a tax. Fox’s Shannon Bream declared that the mandate was “gone” and for six minutes a CNN chyron blared, “Individual Mandate Struck Down.”

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 27, 2019 86 Comments
In a complicated ruling, the Supreme Court substantially upheld the inclusion of a census question regarding citizenship, but procedurally held that more inquiry was needed into C0mmerce Dept. reasoning in seeking to add the question. So the bottom line is that there might be a citizenship question, but it's unclear if there is time to get it resolved under deadlines for printing census forms.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 27, 2019 10 Comments
In one of the major cases of this term, the Supreme Court has refused to provide a role for federal courts in deciding so-called partisan gerrymandering cases. That is, cases in which the federal courts pass judgment on the political process that gave rise to sometimes unfair districts benefitting one party or another. It was a straight 5-4 conservative-liberal split.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 20, 2019 34 Comments
The U.S. Supreme Court has reversed the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, and has ruled that the 1925 'Peace Cross' Memorial erected to remember World War I dead can stay on public land. The Opinion is here. Here is an explainer about the case from The Federalist Society:

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 18, 2019 36 Comments
Melissa and Aaron Klein, the Christian owners of a bakery in Oregon called "Sweet Cakes by Melissa" were thrown into a legal and media maelstrom several years ago when they declined to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple. They were ultimately ordered to pay over $100,000 to the couple and closed the bakery as a result.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 10, 2019 14 Comments
During the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump famously put out a list of judges he would consider for the Supreme Court if he were elected. The list served both to assure conservatives and also to motivate Republican voters. It's widely agreed that the Supreme Court specifically, and the federal judiciary more generally, were key factors in Trump's victory.

Posted by Jared Samilow on June 05, 2019 30 Comments
The Supreme Court will soon decide whether the Trump administration can include a question about citizenship on the 2020 census. It might seem strange that such a matter is before the Supreme Court at all. But when the Trump administration explored adding the question it was not...especially solicitous, shall we say, about following administrative law. Nevertheless, the government argues that it is entitled to significant deference on how to best design the census and, after the oral argument in April, most observers got the impression that the five conservative justices agreed. 

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 28, 2019 17 Comments
The Supreme Court upheld an Indiana law that required a burial or cremation of an aborted human being, but decided to provide an unsigned opinion on the portion of the law that bans abortion based on sex, race, and disability. Vice President Mike Pence signed the bill into law in 2016 when he served as governor of Indiana. Justice Clarence Thomas issued an opinion in support of the Indiana law on abortion restrictions due to eugenics using abortion as a form of eugenics on minorities.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 23, 2019 61 Comments
The Supreme Court heard oral argument on the issue of whether the Commerce Department can add a citizenship question to the Census.  Various District Courts ruled against the Trump administration, and the administration sought the unusual remedy of direct review by the Supreme Court. We previously covered the issues in our post when the Supreme Court granted direct review, Supreme Court agrees to hear Census citizenship question case.
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