#SCOTUS: Orders coming at 9:30, followed by one or more opinions at 10. We don’t know which cases or how many of of the 21 remaining cases. They include Obamacare, religious beliefs & gay rights, Voting Rights Act, NCAA, student speech rights, First Step Act, & more.
No new cases granted by #SCOTUS this morning.
#SCOTUS does, however, ask the Biden administration to weigh in on the Harvard affirmative action case. (Which also serves as a reminder that there is still no SG nominee.)
Here's the full #SCOTUS orders list: supremecourt.gov/orders/courtor…
First #SCOTUS opinion is in Greer v. US. Kavanaugh has the opinion for the Court reversing the 11th Circuit in a decision limiting when a prior SCOTUS decision about the felon-in-possession law applies to protect defendants. Sotomayor dissents in part. supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…
There will be at least one more decision.
Greer v. US was consolidated with US v. Gary, and Sotomayor concurs in the result in Greer, the lead case, but dissents in part (including in the judgment) in Gary's case. See below:
Second, and final, decision of the day is in Terry v. US. The unanimous decision is by Thomas, limiting who is eligible for resentencing under the First Step Act due to crack/powder cocaine disparities. Sotomayor concurs in part and in the judgment. supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…
Sotomayor writes separately, in part, to call for legislative action, detailing how Congress has addressed many similar areas of the crack/powder cocaine disparity, but not this particular one.
Sotomayor also wrote separately, however, to note why she did not join Part I of Thomas's opinion for the Court, writing that "it includes an unnecessary, incomplete, and sanitized history of the 100-to-1 ratio" for crack-to-powder cocaine.
Here is the relevant part from Thomas.
With that, 19 #SCOTUS cases remain outstanding, including Obamacare, religious beliefs & gay rights, Voting Rights Act, NCAA, student speech rights, & more. As of now, the next possible decision day is Thursday.
More on the Thomas-Sotomayor discussion and underlying issues here:
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