Good morning, everyone! Welcome back, for those of you who were here yesterday. It's a lot quieter at the Supreme Court today. Everyone is moving just a little bit slower, and there are plenty of open seats in the press room.
This should be a relatively short order list, because it should primarily involve cases that were relisted so that the court can decide whether to grant them or cases that, as one commenter has noted, were being held for a merits case decided recently. (Here I am thinking of a case like Hall v. United States, which looks an awful lot like it was a hold for Gamble v. United States, involving the "separate sovereigns" doctrine.)
Some of the petitions that we are watching closely include the trio of DACA cases, the challenge to Alabama's ban on what the state calls "dismemberment" abortions and physicians call "dilation and evacuation" abortions, the "Bridgegate" petition filed by Bridget Kelly, the former deputy chief of staff to Chris Christie, and the case involving the constitutionality of a Montana law that provides tax credits to parents who send their children to private schools. The Montana Supreme Court struck the law down because it allows parents to use the credits for religious schools and therefore, the court said, provides aid to religious institutions.
The cases that were being held for merits cases could appear on the order list today as either "GVRs" -- the court grants the petition and vacates the lower court's decision but then immediately sends the case back for the lower court to reconsider the case in light of one of the recent merits rulings -- or straight-up denials, depending on who won or lost in the lower court.
There has been some chatter in the press room and elsewhere about the possibility that the DACA cases could be GVR'd -- that is, sent back to the lower courts for reconsideration in light of yesterday's census case. We will know quite soon. I'm going in now to wait for orders. Back soon.
The Supreme Court has granted the DACA cases, consolidated for one hour of argument.
Other grants include Kelly v. US, the "Bridgegate" case.
The Court grants Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, the Montana aid-to-schools case.
The Court has denied the Alabama abortion case. Justice Thomas concurs (not dissents) in the decision.
There are many GVRs, which I will cover later.
The court grants review in Thole v. US Bank, involving whether a participant in a pension fund can sue the fund managers when he has not actually suffered any financial injury. The justices also asked the parties to brief whether Thole and the other petitioners have shown a legal right to sue.
The court's order in the Alabama case means that the 11th Circuit's ruling stands, and the state will NOT be able to enforce the law.
Another grant is in Babb v. Wilkie, in which the justices asked the two sides to brief only whether "the federal-sector provision of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, which provides that personnel actions affecting agency employees aged 40 years or older shall be made free from any 'discrimination based on age," requires a plaintiff to prove that age was a but-for cause of the challenged personnel action."
Other grants include GE Energy Power Conversion v. Outokumpu Stainless, Lucky Dungarees v. Marcel Fashions Group, Romag Fasteners v. Fossil, Inc., Rodriguez v. FDIC, and Shular v. US.
Basically, today's grants will fill almost an entire month on the court's calendar in the fall.
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