Live blog of opinions - Wednesday, July 8, 2020
We live-blogged on Wednesday, July 8, as the court released opinions in Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania and Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru. SCOTUSblog is sponsored by Casetext: making litigation more efficient with A.I. and machine learning technology.
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I noticed in the “faithless electors” case that Justice Kagan used almost all masculine pronouns when referring to both electors and presidential candidates. What gives? Does the Court have any sort of policy on gender-neutral language? I recall that Scalia and Garner disagreed on this.
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Fair to assume that the reason we don't know when the next opinion day will be (assuming today is not the final day), because the justices have not finalized the opinions and don't know themselves...or is it likely that they know the next day, but like the suspense that comes with the public not knowing
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So much going on right now. As Mark noted below, we think this is not going to be the last day for decisions. It's all a bit topsy-turvy because of the pandemic, but normally the chief justice would announce in court that "tomorrow" (whenever that would be) is the last day for decisions.
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A couple of things to get out of the way. We don't know what decisions we are getting or how many. I have a quick summary of the five remaining decisions here: http://amylhowe.com/2020/07/06/after-opinions-on-july-6-five-to-go-the-terms-remaining-decisions/
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And we get a lot of comments and questions on days like today. As Mark noted, it's nothing personal if we don't respond to your comment; it's just that there are too many to publish them all. In particular, if it is a question that can be answered by reference to our FAQs (here: https://www.scotusblog.com/educational-resources/faqs-announcements-of-orders-and-opinions/) we probably aren't going to answer it.
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So, while we are waiting . . . Circling back to the Hamilton fandom from the other day! While we can never be in the Conference Room where it happens, you CAN read all about the many, many reasons why Hamilton: An American Musical is really a legal story, full of insights on today's most contentious legal issues. Contributors include SCOTUS advocates Neal Katyal, Greg Garre, and Elizabeth Wydra. Check it out here! www.hamiltonandthelawbook.com
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By the way, today is the latest day for opinions in a long time. Stephen Wermiel has been going through the court's journal for this interesting SCOTUS for Law Students piece. I hereby give permission to all to read it, even if you aren't in law school.
SCOTUS for law students: Still deciding in July - SCOTUSblog
SCOTUSblogBy law, the Supreme Court term begins on the first Monday in October. By custom, the justices finish their work in late June (although the term does not technically end until the next term begins). So when the justices are still handing down decisions in July, it is buzzworthy in Washington and amon -
We've had some questions about what goes on behind the scenes surrounding these last opinion days. The answer is a lot of writing, and sometimes -- but not at all often -- some intrigue around what will happen in the cases.The important thing to remember is that the vote already happened in these cases weeks or months ago, and the end of the term mostly involves the finalization and circulation of opinions and dissents. Because the opinions and dissents like to discuss each other sometimes, that requires some back and forth and some time to wrap up. But the end of the term involves mostly the writing and polishing of decisions that have been agreed upon long ago.That said, it isn't always that way. Sometimes the cases are close enough, and a justice is close enough to the fence, that the writing has the prospect of swaying someone, or there is something important at stake in whether one or another rationale appears in an opinion. Also, there is sometimes a lack of clarity about whether an opinion will be for a four justice plurality with another concurring only in the judgment, or whether there will be five joins for an opinion. The ironing out of those kinds of wrinkles can occupy the last few weeks of the Court's Term. But I would say that things like that are far more rare than not.
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@Romanette: Was JPS the most senior justice at the time? If so, that means Clarence Thomas would preside if Roberts missed a session.
Alternatively, if Thomas decided to pass because of his dislike of speaking, then that would mean Ginsburg would preside.
@JerseyLad: I feel due to the important of the case and the huge politicization of it, Roberts will absolutely write the opinion for Trump taxes.
@Kalvis Golde: I thought Gorsuch wrote the opinion in Bostock. -
The other big court news includes the announcement of the coming retirements of Marshal Pamela Talkin and Reporter of Decisions Christine Fallon. Both would be in the courtroom at this time of year, if we were in the courtroom. (Pam always, and Christine on opinion days.)
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