Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our live blog, sponsored by Bloomberg Law. We are expecting one or more opinions in argued cases at 10 a.m. today, although we do not know which decisions we will get today.
Good morning from the Court's press room.
Yesterday the Court issued three decisions, continuing to clear the decks, so to speak, from its October and November sittings: it gave us the opinions in Kaley v. US, argued in October, and in Walden v. Fiore and Fernandez v. California, argued in November.
To get the disclosures out of the way, in Walden Tom Goldstein, the blog's publisher, argued on behalf of the respondents in the case. Kevin Russell, who also contributes to the blog occasionally, was among the counsel to the petitioner in Fernandez.
Rep. Dingell retired too soon.
Looking ahead to what we could get today, the Troice troika of cases is a strong candidate; beyond the high-profile McCutcheon v. FEC and Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, it is the only other opinion from the October sitting that we are waiting for.
From the November sitting, there are two non-high-profile possibilities for today: Rosemond v. United States and Lawson v. FMR. The other outstanding cases from that sitting, which I think we are less likely to get today, are Town of Greece v. Galloway and Bond v. US.
It is a 2 box day, so that likely means 2 or 3 opinions.
Okay, now we are waiting for Lyle. It's ten o'clock!
Here's Lyle. The first opinion is in Troice.
This is a trio of cases. Justice Breyer has the opinion. The Fifth Circuit is affirmed.
The vote is seven to two. Justice Thomas concurs; Justice KEnnedy dissents, joined by Alito. The Court holds that the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998 does not bar the plaintiffs' state law class actions.
We are expecting one or more additional opinions.
To repeat my earlier disclosure, the Troice cases were argued by Tom Goldstein, the blog's publisher, who represented the respondents.
Mostly I just like referring to the Troice troika.
Because the Justices issue opinions in order of reverse seniority, this means that we do not expect opinions today from Kagan, Sotomayor, or Alito, who are all junior to Breyer.
The Chief Justice of course came onto the Court after Breyer, but he's the Chief Justice.
With the decision in Troice, that means that only McCutcheon (campaign finance) and Schuette (affirmative action) are left from October. Let's see what we get next.
Here's Lyle. We have the second and final opinion of today, United States v. Apel.
The opinion is by the Chief Justice. The Ninth Circuit's decision is vacated and remanded. The Court holds that a portion of an Air Force base that contains a designated protest area and a easement for a public road qualifies as part of the military installation, which therefore has control over who enters it and uses it. The opinion is unanimous, although Justice Ginsburg has filed a concurring opinion joined by Justice Sotomayor; Justice Alito has also filed a concurring opinion.
To our commenter who was asking about Apel, here you go. And to answer another question, Apel was argued on December 4.
Thanks for joining us. We expect to be back next week for more opinions in argued cases; as soon as we know when and whether that will happen (probably later on this week), we will let you know on the blog. Take care, and have a good week!
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