Opinions in one or more of the 15 remaining #SCOTUS cases from this term expected at 10a. We don't know which cases or how many will be decided, but those left include voting rights, financial disclosure, student speech rights, college athletes, and more.
First opinion is in Goldman Sachs v. Arkansas Teacher Retirement System. Barrett has the opinion for the court in the class-action case, vacating and remanding the 2nd Circuit. supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…
Interesting vote divergence here, with Sotomayor dissenting in part as to the judgment and Gorsuch (joined by Thomas and Alito) dissenting in part as to the burden of persuasion. So, Barrett's full opinion was only for 5 justices (her, Roberts, Breyer, Kagan, and Kavanaugh.
Breaking: #SCOTUS unanimously rules that NCAA rules barring student athlete education-related benefits violate federal antitrust laws. Goruch writes the opinion. supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…
From Gorsuch's conclusion:
Kavanaugh wrote a concurring opinion, although he also joined Gorsuch's opinion, to basically write that he is ready to take on the other NCAA compensation rules not at issue in this appeal.
Today's final #SCOTUS decision is in US v. Arthrex. Roberts has the Court's 5-4 opinion, finding that Administrative Patent Judges' authority under their appointment method is unconstitutional. [Clarified.] Thomas joins the 3 liberals in dissent. supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf…
From Thomas's dissent:
The Court's remedy is that the director can review the APJ decisions. Breyer — joined by Sotomayor and Kagan — agrees with Thomas on the merits but joins Roberts' opinion as to the remedy (in order to create a majority for the remedy, b/c Gorsuch declined to join that). Roberts:
Here's Gorsuch, dissenting as to the remedy:
Thomas also dissents as to the remedy, meaning that we have a 5-4 decision on the merits (Thomas, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan, dissenting) and a 7-2 decision on the remedy (Gorsuch and Thomas, dissenting).
That's it from #SCOTUS today. With 12 decisions remaining — including voting rights, financial disclosure, student speech rights, and more — the next decision day is Wednesday.
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Schumer is filing cloture on several judicial nominations. Republicans are forcing them to go into executive session separately for each nomination. The Dems are just pushing ahead. Here was Schumer before the 10th vote, by my count, began.
By the Republicans refusing to give unanimous consent, the Dems are having to go through a series of procedural votes on each nominee.
They're passing on party-line votes, but the Republicans are literally just forcing them to take hours on this.
So far, cloture has been filed for:
- Amir H. Ali (D.D.C.)
- Sparkle L. Sooknanan (D.D.C.)
- Brian E. Murphy (D. Mass.)
- Anne Hwang (C.D. Calif.)
- Cynthia Dixon (C.D. Calif.)
This voting began at 6:32 pm, C-SPAN notes, after the vote on Kidd for the 11th Circuit.
BREAKING: The Fifth Circuit blocks an order from Judge Reed O'Connor that Media Matters turn over donor information to X Corp. in a lawsuit over the group's coverage of X, holding MM is likely to succeed in stopping disclosure.
The panel had a far-right majority, too, with both Judge Jerry Smith, a Reagan appointee, and Judge Kurt Engelhardt, a Trump appointee, on it — so, if O'Connor had a shot, it was here. Judge James Graves, an Obama appointee, was the third judge. Opinion: documentcloud.org/documents/2524…
Here's my big report at Law Dork from last month on O'Connor — troubling figure in today's federal judiciary, both on the substance of his rulings and the many direct and indirect conflicts that his extensive individual stock ownership has caused. lawdork.com/p/judge-overse…
I do think it's important to talk about this as it is. The GOP AGs are *asking* to amend their complaint in the existing lawsuit. It has some new claims, but most was already in their earlier complaint. And, DOJ has already said the entire case should be tossed.
They are doing this because they want to stay in front of Kacsmaryk — despite the fact that he is a Northern District of Texas judge and they are the Missouri, Kansas, and Idaho AGs. And despite the fact that SCOTUS already said the original plaintiffs lacked standing.
The AGs filed a motion for Kacsmaryk to accept their amended complaint on Friday, Oct. 11.
Before that, though, on Sept. 30, all the parties told Kacsmaryk what they thought should happen to the case now that it was back to him from SCOTUS. DOJ said it should be dismissed:
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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