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Live blog of opinions | June 23, 2016

3rd & 7 37yd

Good morning, everyone! Welcome to our live blog. We expect opinions at 10 am; as is almost always the case, we don't know which ones or how many.

by Amy Howe 6/23/2016 1:29:02 PM

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Having said that, though, the field of cases has narrowed significantly, and we are now waiting on just eight more opinions. I summarized them briefly in Plain English on the blog last night; the link is here: www.scotusblog.com

by Amy Howe 6/23/2016 1:29:55 PM

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Yesterday Amy updated her answers to "frequently asked questions." That post is available here: www.scotusblog.com

by Andrew Hamm 6/23/2016 1:33:37 PM

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For those of you who want the really short version of what's left: tribal-court jurisdiction, affirmative action, DUI tests without a warrant, the interpretation of a federal law prohibiting possession of firearms by individuals convicted of domestic violence, abortion, Bob McDonnell, immigration, and issues relating to considering prior state convictions for purposes of mandatory minimums and removal under immigration law.

by Amy Howe 6/23/2016 1:34:37 PM

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Is it true that if there is an opinion in whole woman's health, then it will be written by Kagan or Breyer (which is a good sign for the plaintiffs)? Could the court punt on an opinion even at this late stage?

by Is it true that if there is... 6/23/2016 1:34:41 PM

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Good morning from the press room.

by lylden 6/23/2016 1:34:59 PM

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How many opinions are remaining at this time.

by Peggy Nienaber 6/23/2016 1:36:05 PM

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Nice stat pack. As always, fun to look at and informative.

by Leo Weiss 6/23/2016 1:37:19 PM

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Regarding Fisher, should the Court's ruling be the final word on this case or is there a chance it might punt it back to the lower courts using some other basis?

by Irvin Z. Martinez 6/23/2016 1:37:52 PM

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What are the chances of the opinions on more than one case from Texas being released today?

by Moises 6/23/2016 1:37:55 PM

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USA Today reported that Donald Verrilli will be on vacation in Italy on Monday. Assuming that we are still expecting opinions on major cases, are we thinking he'll be glued to the news Monday morning (perhaps joining us here) or that he'll be in full vacation mode (for those whose definition of that is being "disconnected")? Just some silly musing from my brain.

by Jordan 6/23/2016 1:38:38 PM

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Kagan has authored an opinion for every month except Feb. So if she has WWH then it should be the first opinion released today as she's the most junior, correct?

by LoveRBG 6/23/2016 1:38:51 PM

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Apologies if this has been covered previously, but what happened to Justice Scalia's clerks after his passing?

by Hurley 6/23/2016 1:39:11 PM

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If the court reaches a 4 member majority, like in Fisher, does it hold the precedent weight of a 5 member majority opinion, or is it similar to when the court reaches a 4 vote plurality?

by GMan 6/23/2016 1:39:22 PM

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Is today opinions only?

by No1LyleFan 6/23/2016 1:39:47 PM

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Out of curiosity, how many decisions have split 4-4 since February and how many have been binding? I was wondering if there was a trend.

by Sarah M 6/23/2016 1:39:53 PM

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Any hope for the "liberal" side of the Fisher case (based on oral argument, other indications), given that Kagan is not participating?

by Ben 6/23/2016 1:40:06 PM

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How does the Court handle Scalia's participation in cases prior to his death? Does his vote still factor in on those cases?

by Paul 6/23/2016 1:41:15 PM

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It's been six and a half months since the Dollar General oral argument; what is the record for longest time between argument and issuing of an opinion?

by Savannah 6/23/2016 1:42:02 PM

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For the Birchfield v. North Dakota, do you personally think, based on oral arguments, that there will be a majority? Or do you think there is a possibility that it locks at 4-4 and they order re-argument?

by DJ 6/23/2016 1:42:56 PM

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What is the difference between orders and opinions?

by Jimmy 6/23/2016 1:43:03 PM

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Does the Court generally also try to balance majority assignments throughout the term, too? So that Ginsburg and Kennedy, at 8 each, are unlikely to have any more majority opinions?

by Shashakiro 6/23/2016 1:43:10 PM

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Any idea why affirmative action has gotten so much of the Court's attention recently? They've heard 3 cases in the last 4 terms: Fisher 1, Schuette, Fisher 2.

by Bb 6/23/2016 1:46:51 PM

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Here's Lyle with the first opinion.

by Amy Howe 6/23/2016 2:00:45 PM

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Mathis v US

by Amy Howe 6/23/2016 2:00:55 PM

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Justice Kagan has the opinion.

by Amy Howe 6/23/2016 2:01:03 PM

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The Eighth Circuit is reversed.

by Amy Howe 6/23/2016 2:01:08 PM

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There is a concurring opinion by Kennedy and by Thomas.

by Amy Howe 6/23/2016 2:01:16 PM

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There is a dissent from Breyer joined by Ginsburg.

by Amy Howe 6/23/2016 2:01:24 PM

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Also a separate dissent from Alito.

by Amy Howe 6/23/2016 2:01:29 PM

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Evan Lee will have our analysis of the opinion in Mathis v. US. Here is the opinion: www.supremecourt.gov

by Andrew Hamm 6/23/2016 2:02:00 PM

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Holding: Becasue the elements of Iowa's burglary law are broader than those of generic burglary, Mathis's prior convictions cannot give rise to the Armed Career Criminal Act's sentence enhancement.

by Amy Howe 6/23/2016 2:02:10 PM

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Two concurrences in Mathis.

by Amy Howe 6/23/2016 2:02:39 PM

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Ok well Kagan, Kennedy and Thomas on one side with Alito, Breyer and Ginsburg on the other - is that an odd makeup to anyone else?

by Odd Pairings 6/23/2016 2:02:53 PM

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So for those of you wondering what is happening now, Kagan is presumably reading her summary of the decision from the bench. We won't get the next opinion until she has finished.

by Amy Howe 6/23/2016 2:03:33 PM

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Kenendy's opinion states his continued belief that Apprendi was wrongly decided.

by Kevin Russell 6/23/2016 2:03:52 PM

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And because the Justices issue their decisions in order of reverse seniority, we could hear from Kagan or any other Justice today.

by Amy Howe 6/23/2016 2:04:01 PM

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Where did Roberts fall? With Kagan?

by Browning 6/23/2016 2:04:03 PM

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Justice Kagan is the Keeper of the Categorical Approach; she's written a lot of these cases.

by True 80% 6/23/2016 2:04:09 PM

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Are the dissent's generally read as well?

by CGJ 6/23/2016 2:04:43 PM

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Kagan is the newest, so any other justice may have the next opinion, correct?

by Joe Peltzer 6/23/2016 2:05:20 PM

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Here's Lyle again with the next opinion.

by Amy Howe 6/23/2016 2:05:53 PM

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Drunk driving cases.

by Amy Howe 6/23/2016 2:05:58 PM

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Birchfield v. ND.

by Amy Howe 6/23/2016 2:06:01 PM

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Justice Alito has the opinion.

by Amy Howe 6/23/2016 2:07:01 PM

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Challengers urge justices to dismiss census case after district court ruling – Amy Howe

Reargument analysis: Justices seek a “middle position” in takings litigation case – Miriam Seifter

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This Week at the Court
The Supreme Court released additional orders from the January 11 conference on Monday; the justices called for the views of the U.S. solicitor general in CSX Transportation Inc. v. Alabama Department of Revenue, Alabama Department of Revenue v. CSX Transportation Inc. and Toshiba Corp. v. Automotive Industries Pension Trust Fund.
On Tuesday, the justices released their opinions in New Prime Inc. v. Oliveira and Stokeling v. United States.
On Monday, the justices heard oral argument in Thacker v. Tennessee Valley Authority and Rimini Street Inc. v. Oracle USA Inc.
On Tuesday, the justices heard oral argument in Home Depot U.S.A. Inc. v. Jackson and Azar v. Allina Health Services.
On Wednesday, the justices heard oral argument in Knick v. Township of Scott and Tennessee Wine & Spirits Retailers Association v. Blair.
On Friday, the justices meet for their January 18 conference; John Elwood's Relist Watch compiles the petitions relisted for this conference.
Recent Decisions
- New Prime Inc. v. Oliveira A court should determine whether the Federal Arbitration Act’s Section 1 exclusion for disputes involving the “contracts of employment” of certain transportation workers applies before ordering arbitration; here, truck driver Dominic Oliveira’s independent contractor operating agreement with New Prime Inc. falls within that exception.
- Stokeling v. United States The Armed Career Criminal Act’s elements clause encompasses a robbery offense that, like Florida’s law, requires the criminal to overcome the victim’s resistance.
- Culbertson v. Berryhill The Social Security Act’s fee cap of 25 percent of past-due benefits imposed on attorneys who successfully represent Title II benefit claimants in court proceedings applies only to fees for court representation and not to aggregate fees for both court and agency representation.
- Henry Schein Inc. v. Archer and White Sales Inc. The “wholly groundless” exception to the general rule that courts must enforce contracts that delegate threshold arbitrability questions to an arbitrator, not a court, is inconsistent with the Federal Arbitration Act and Supreme Court precedent.
- City of Escondido, California v. Emmons The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit failed to conduct the analysis required by Supreme Court precedents in determining whether two Escondido police officers were entitled to qualified immunity.
- Shoop v. Hill Because Danny Hill’s intellectual disability claim must be evaluated based solely on holdings of the Supreme Court that were clearly established at the time the state-court decisions were rendered, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit’s reliance on Moore v. Texas -- which was handed down much later -- was plainly improper.
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Current Relists
- Altitude Express Inc. v. Zarda Whether the prohibition in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1), against employment discrimination “because of . . . sex” encompasses discrimination based on an individual’s sexual orientation.
- Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia Whether discrimination against an employee because of sexual orientation constitutes prohibited employment discrimination “because of . . . sex” within the meaning of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2.
- Box v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky Inc. (1) Whether a state may require health-care facilities to dispose of fetal remains in the same manner as other human remains, i.e., by burial or cremation; and (2) whether a state may prohibit abortions motivated solely by the race, sex or disability of the fetus and require abortion doctors to inform patients of the prohibition.
More Petitions »
Major Cases
- Lamone v. Benisek
  In case in which the plaintiffs allege that a Maryland congressional district was gerrymandered to retaliate against them for their political views: (1) whether the various legal claims articulated by the three-judge district court are unmanageable; (2) whether the three-judge district court erred when, in granting plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment, it resolved disputes of material fact as to multiple elements of plaintiffs’ claims, failed to view the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, and treated as “undisputed” evidence that is the subject of still-unresolved hearsay and other evidentiary objections; and (3) whether the three-judge district court abused its discretion in entering an injunction despite the plaintiffs’ years-long delay in seeking injunctive relief, rendering the remedy applicable to at most one election before the next decennial census necessitates another redistricting.
- Kisor v. Wilkie
  Whether the Supreme Court should overrule Auer v. Robbins and Bowles v. Seminole Rock & Sand Co., which direct courts to defer to an agency’s reasonable interpretation of its own ambiguous regulation.
- Department of Commerce v. U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
  Whether, in an action seeking to set aside agency action under the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 701 et seq., a district court may order discovery outside the administrative record to probe the mental processes of the agency decisionmaker—including by compelling the testimony of high-ranking Executive Branch officials—when there is no evidence that the decisionmaker disbelieved the objective reasons in the administrative record, irreversibly prejudged the issue, or acted on a legally forbidden basis.
- Rucho v. Common Cause
  (1) Whether plaintiffs have standing to press their partisan gerrymandering claims; (2) whether plaintiffs’ partisan gerrymandering claims are justiciable; and (3) whether North Carolina’s 2016 congressional map is, in fact, an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.
- The American Legion v. American Humanist Association
  (1) Whether a 93-year-old memorial to the fallen of World War I is unconstitutional merely because it is shaped like a cross; (2) whether the constitutionality of a passive display incorporating religious symbolism should be assessed under the tests articulated in Lemon v. Kurtzman, Van Orden v. Perry, Town of Greece v. Galloway or some other test; and (3) whether, if the test from Lemon v. Kurtzman applies, the expenditure of funds for the routine upkeep and maintenance of a cross-shaped war memorial, without more, amounts to an excessive entanglement with religion in violation of the First Amendment.
- Gamble v. United States
  Whether the Supreme Court should overrule the “separate sovereigns” exception to the double jeopardy clause.
see all this term’s cases »
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Cases argued 43

Cases decided 9

Summary reversals 2

Merits cases granted to date 73

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Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
		1 Holiday	2	3	4 Conference	5
6	7 Orders MERCK SHARP & DOHME CORP. V. ALBRECHT (17-290) OBDUSKEY V. MCCARTHY & HOLTHUS LLP (17-1307)	8 HERRERA V. WYOMING (17-532) FOURTH ESTATE PUBLIC BENEFIT CORP. V. WALL-STREET.COM, LLC (17-571) Opinions	9 FRANCHISE TAX BOARD OF CALIFORNIA V. HYATT (17-1299)	10	11 Conference	12
13	14 Orders THACKER V. TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY (17-1201) RIMINI STREET INC. V. ORACLE USA INC. (17-1625)	15 HOME DEPOT U.S.A. INC. V. JACKSON (17-1471) AZAR V. ALLINA HEALTH SERVICES (17-1484) Opinions	16 KNICK V. TOWNSHIP OF SCOTT, PENNSYLVANIA (17-647) TENNESSEE WINE AND SPIRITS RETAILERS ASSOCIATION V. BLAIR (18-96)	17	18 Conference	19
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Justice Sotomayor at Harvard

On November 13, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit and Judge Susan Carney of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit presided over the final round of the 2018 Ames Moot Court Competition at Harvard Law School.

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Awarded the Peabody Award for excellence in electronic media.
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Awarded the Sigma Delta Chi deadline reporting award for online coverage of the Affordable Care Act decision.
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Awarded the National Press Club's Breaking News Award for coverage of the Affordable Care Act decision.
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Cases argued	43
Cases decided	9
Summary reversals	2
Merits cases granted to date	73

Scribble

Live blog of opinions | June 23, 2016

Featured Posts

Challengers urge justices to dismiss census case after district court ruling – Amy Howe

Reargument analysis: Justices seek a “middle position” in takings litigation case – Miriam Seifter

Argument analysis: Justices have strong views about removal of class actions – Ronald Mann

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Conference of January 18, 2019

Major Cases

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Jan. 2019

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Peabody Award

Sigma Delta Chi

National Press Club Award

Silver Gavel Award

American Gavel Award

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