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US Supreme Court Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 14, 2018 10 Comments
The Supreme Court, in the case of Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky, ruled that a Minnesota law that banned “political badge, political button, or other political insignia" at polling places on Election Day was unconstitutional. The case was brought by voters who, among other things, wanted to wear a Tea Party Patriots tee shirt (see featured image, via MVA Facebook):

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 08, 2018 11 Comments
In February 2011, the Obama/Holder DOJ abruptly announced it would refuse to continue defending the Defense of Marriage Act after years of arguing in Court that DOMA was constitutional. In defending DOMA for years, the DOJ was upholding an important principle, that DOJ should defend existing laws in court so long as there was any reasonable basis for doing so.

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 04, 2018 49 Comments
The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in favor of the Colorado baker who refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple. From USA Today:
The verdict criticized the state's treatment of Jack Phillips' religious objections to gay marriage, ruling that a civil rights commission was biased against him. As a result, the decision did not resolve whether other opponents of same-sex marriage, such as florists and photographers, can refuse commercial wedding services to gay couples.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 25, 2018 60 Comments
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument this morning on Trump's Travel Order No. 3, which restricts visa travel to the U.S. from seven countries, Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and North Korea. The Travel Order is not a "travel ban," it's an order regulating who can come into the United States. It's no more a "travel ban" than the U.S. immigration laws. But "travel ban" is how the media and even many Trump supporters refer to it -- at one point Trump himself capitulated to this media characterization as to earlier versions of the travel order.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 10, 2018 8 Comments
Has it really been a year? Yes, on April 10, 2017, Neil Gorsuch was sworn in as Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Remember, Gorsuch only was nominated for the Scalia seat because Merrick Garland, Obama's nominee, was not given a Senate hearing much less vote (it's highly unlikely he would have been confirmed by the Republican Senate even if given a vote). Mitch McConnell recently commented that stymying the Garland nomination was the "most consequential" decision of his career.

Posted by Andrew Branca on April 02, 2018 51 Comments
The Supreme Court just handed down a police use-of-force decision, Kisela v. Hughes (pdf.)(full embed at bottom of post), the most notable characteristic of which is the gutting of a typically nutty Ninth Circuit court of appeals ruling and a typically silly dissent by Sotomayor (joined, unsurprisingly, by Ginsburg). The legal issue in play is whether a woman who was shot by a police officer should be permitted to sue that officer personally.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 26, 2018 75 Comments
We previously reported that the Trump administration took the unusual step of trying to get the Supreme Court to hear the case of the San Francisco federal district court order preventing Trump from ending DACA without getting a ruling first from the 9th Circuit. What made the procedure confounding, is that the administration did not seek a stay from the 9th Circuit and then the Supreme Court, only expedited direct Supreme Court review on the merits. That direct review procedure is rarely granted.  At the same time, the administration filed an appeal in the 9th Circuit.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 21, 2018 19 Comments
On February 19, 2018, the majority Democrat members of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court imposed a new congressional district map that was very Democrat friendly, likely swinging 4-5 seats to Democrats. It could be the difference between Democrats taking control of the U.S. House or not in the 2018 midterms. The map became so Democrat-friendly after a series of decisions as to placement of boundaries that helped Democrats. Nate Cohn at The NY Times described it this way:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 20, 2018 59 Comments
Opponents of the 2nd Amendment are gearing up to exploit the Parkland School shooting by making it part of the Resistance movement against Trump, the NRA and Republicans. That was obvious from the start, and it's more so now that the March For Our Lives on March 24 picks up celebrity donations and endorsements. Rather than proposing solutions that might actually reduce school gun violence while also respecting the constitutional rights of law abiding citizens protected under the 2nd Amendment, it is turning into the equivalent of the Women's March that greeted Trump's Inauguration. Meanwhile, a week before that, the Women's March organization itself is organizing a national school walkout.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 13, 2018 40 Comments
Earlier today I was reading Prof. Josh Blackman's post responding to criticism he has received for using the term Judicial Resistance, On the Judicial Resistance:
Over the past year, I have discussed at some length the self-professed “legal resistance,” which has coordinated legal strategies to resist President Trump in the courts. This front is part of the broader #Resistance movement against President Trump in the political sphere. These actions are completely rational, and unsurprising from the party that (unexpectedly) lost the election....

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on February 13, 2018 103 Comments
During a discussion at Columbia University, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg blamed a "macho atmosphere" and rampant sexism for Hillary Clinton's 2016 electoral loss. "I think it was difficult for Hillary Clinton to get by even the macho atmosphere prevailing during that campaign, and she was criticized in a way I think no man would have been criticized," she said. "I think anyone who watched that campaign unfold would answer it the same way I did -- Yes, sexism played a prominent part."

Posted by Jared Samilow on February 05, 2018 26 Comments
On January 22, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, on a 5—2 party-line vote, struck down the state's congressional map and ordered the legislature to draw a new one by February 9. See my prior post, Bad news for GOP: Pennsylvania Supreme Court tosses state’s congressional maps. Two members of PA's state legislature—its Speaker of the House and president pro tempore of the Senate—quickly asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene and stay the ruling.

Posted by Jared Samilow on January 25, 2018 13 Comments
Three days ago, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania struck down the state's congressional map, holding that it "clearly, plainly and palpably violates the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania." Offering no rationale for this decision, which upends districts that have been in place for six years, the State Supreme Court further instructed the legislature to propose a new map by February 9, and get Democratic Governor Tom Wolf's approval before February 15. Otherwise, the court itself will decide the new maps that will be used for the 2018 primaries and midterms.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 23, 2018 21 Comments
After a bizarre and completely unfounded San Francisco federal District Court injunction against the Trump administration wind-down of DACA, the Trump administration both filed for leave to appeal in the 9th Circuit and filed a Petition for a Writ of Certiorari Before Judgment in the Supreme Court. That latter Petition would circumvent the 9th Circuit. The Trump administration, however, did not ask the Supreme Court to stay the District Court order, arguing that a stay would create more problems in the administrative wind-down of DACA:
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