#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.
#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.)
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:
NEW: Alito continued, as of the end of 2023, to own shares of more than 25 companies' stocks.
Under our "financial disclosure" system, we learned of Alito's 12/31/23 stock holdings in a delayed report not filed until 8/13/24 and not posted until today. documentcloud.org/documents/2510…
As you might recall, Law Dork reported on two of Alito's stock trades earlier this year, when a "Periodic Transaction Report" revealed that he sold at least some of his stock in Anheuser-Busch and bought stock in Molson Coors on 8/14/23. lawdork.com/p/alito-bud-li…
In today's posted annual disclosure, we confirm that Alito sold *all* of his Anheuser-Busch stock that day when he replaced it with Molson Coors stock.
Background: Here's my Law Dork report on the July Supreme Court immunity ruling. lawdork.com/p/robertss-maj…
Jack Smith added "private" to all of the co-conspirators, to highlight their clearly non-official roles — and got rid of Jeffrey Clark, the DOJ guy who was willing to be acting AG and pursue Trump's fake election fraud claims if Trump let him.
NEWS: The ACLU has filed their brief at the Supreme Court on behalf of the plaintiffs challenging Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors.
Here's the ACLU brief, calling on the Supreme Court to vacate the Sixth Circuit's ruling from last year holding that the Tennessee ban is likely constitutional: supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/2…
DOJ's brief is also due today. I'll have more at Law Dork after it is in.
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BREAKING: SCOTUS, on a 5-4 vote, allows Arizona to enforce AZ law requiring "documentary proof of citizenship" to register to vote on state forms, but, over 3 noted dissents, keeps other parts of the law blocked applying that requirement to those registering w/ the federal form.
BREAKING: The Eighth Circuit blocks the Biden administration from implementing the SAVE student loan forgiveness program. The court previously issued an administrative stay blocking the program. media.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/24/08/2…
This three-judge panel was all Republican appointees (but that's not really a surprise, given the fact that there's only one Democrat on the Eighth Circuit).
I will have more on this, a complicated set of cases in which one is already pending on the SCOTUS shadow docket and that has very real, day-by-day effects on people while this remains in litigation.