Live blog of orders and opinions - Monday, June 15, 2020

We live-blogged on Monday, June 15, as the Supreme Court released orders from the June 11 conference and opinions in Andrus v. Texas, Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, and U.S. Forest Service v. Cowpasture River Preservation Association. SCOTUSblog is sponsored by Casetext, the most intelligent way to search the law.

3rd & 7 37yd

No more opinions today? 10 minutes past

by JMT 6/15/2020 2:14:30 PM
I think the server is down. I tried opening the opinion page on my phone and Bostock isn't even showing up. We could have an extended delay here.

by JD 6/15/2020 2:15:32 PM
And unlike the days when we are at the Court in person, no one even has hard copies of the opinion.

by Amy Howe 6/15/2020 2:15:43 PM
Sorry, we LGBTQ+ people are busy breaking the internet...

by Jordan 6/15/2020 2:15:45 PM
Is there a virtual number of boxes?

by Peter R 6/15/2020 2:16:06 PM
It's loaded for me. The court's opinion is only 30 pages long. The rest of the 172 pages is the dissent and a long appendix to Alito's

by Joseph 6/15/2020 2:16:53 PM
My blue bar in Safari is creeping along incrementally, which gives me hope.

by Mark Walsh 6/15/2020 2:16:55 PM
Is Justice Ginsburg powering the computers on a stationary bike right now?

by Josh Segal 6/15/2020 2:17:09 PM
For those that asked, Bostock opinion covers all three cases and applies to both sexual orientation and transgender identity.

by Jonathan Adler 6/15/2020 2:17:18 PM
There was a comment earlier about someone wanting to get the DACA opinion on the last day and I thought to myself that that would be a technological nightmare, server-wise.

by Amy Howe 6/15/2020 2:18:15 PM
Maybe when they said a new 10 minute rule they accidentally left off a zero and meant 100 minutes?

by Anthony 6/15/2020 2:18:45 PM
If the Bostock opinion covers 3 cases does that mean there are only 16 left to be decided?

by Micheal 6/15/2020 2:18:56 PM
I don't think Oncale is any indication of today's result. Oncase is a unanimous result and did not elaborate what ""because of sex" means. EEOC in 2015 determined that sexual orientation discrimination is discrimination "because of sex" but the current EEOC disagrees.

by Ernest 6/15/2020 2:19:24 PM
Even in the fully loaded version (at least for me) the first page of Kavanaugh's dissent appears to be missing...

by C. Ginez 6/15/2020 2:19:50 PM
Alito has a long dissent with at least 4 appendixes, Appendix D is full of images of government forms. It appears that no one file compressed these when they added them to the opinion, causing such a big file size, added with increased demand due to COVID on SCOTUS servers, makes it easy to cause an overload.

by Brad B 6/15/2020 2:21:10 PM
kavanaugh ends with:
"Notwithstanding my concern about the Court’s transgression of the Constitution’s separation of powers, it is appropriate to acknowledge the important victory achieved today by gay and lesbian Americans. Millions of gay and
lesbian Americans have worked hard for many decades to
achieve equal treatment in fact and in law. They have exhibited extraordinary vision, tenacity, and grit—battling often steep odds in the legislative and judicial arenas, not to
mention in their daily lives. They have advanced powerful
policy arguments and can take pride in today’s result. Under the Constitution’s separation of powers, however, I believe that it was Congress’s role, not this Court’s, to amend
Title VII. I therefore must respectfully dissent from the Court's judgement"

by andrew 6/15/2020 2:21:16 PM
Can someone provide a link to the current opinions that have been issued today?

by Jack 6/15/2020 2:21:56 PM
I'm at maybe 7/8 now on my iPad. We'll see?

by Amy Howe 6/15/2020 2:23:05 PM
So is the Twitterverse blaming the technical issues on SCOTUSblog too?

by Amy Howe 6/15/2020 2:23:52 PM
Any idea if we will have more decisions?

by Luis 6/15/2020 2:24:46 PM
Terry Moran has just come on ABC News to announce the decision.

by Mark Walsh 6/15/2020 2:25:59 PM
And I have the opinion. I will try to get around to reading it sometime today.

by Mark Walsh 6/15/2020 2:26:52 PM
Is it possible there is no R number because of the server slowness?

by Charlie A 6/15/2020 2:26:57 PM
After a technical error like today, do you think that pressures the justices to release the remaining opinions in court rather than online?

by Nick 6/15/2020 2:28:05 PM
Here is a link to the opinion on SCOTUSblog, without Alito's appendix. Much smaller file size: https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/17-1618_hfci.pdf

by Kalvis Golde 6/15/2020 2:29:23 PM
Our second opinion today is (or will be) U.S. Forest Service v. Cowpasture River Preservation Association, per the public information office.

by Mark Walsh 6/15/2020 2:30:28 PM
To Josh, who asked: "Is Justice Ginsburg powering the computers on a stationary bike right now?" No. In that case, the computers would be working.

by Jonathan 6/15/2020 2:33:29 PM
The Court holds in the US Forest Service Case (also known as the Appalachian Trail case) that because the Department of the Interior's decision to assign responsibility over the Appalachian Trail to the National Park Service did not transform the land over which the trail passes into land within the National Park system, the Forest Service had the authority to issue the special use permit" to Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

by Amy Howe 6/15/2020 2:35:30 PM
The Fourth Circuit's decision is reversed and remanded.

by Amy Howe 6/15/2020 2:35:49 PM
The vote was 7-2. Thomas wrote the opinion for the court. Sotomayor dissented, joined by Kagan.

by Amy Howe 6/15/2020 2:36:22 PM
Thanks so much for keeping us informed this morning. Very appreciated.

by Dianne Burke 6/15/2020 2:38:31 PM
looking at statistics page: any insight into why gorsuch doubled up in oct with today's opinion when there is nothing from roberts/ginsburg/kavanaugh?

by andrew 6/15/2020 2:39:19 PM
Any indication when cowpasture will actually release? It was 'supposed' to go up at 10:20, right?

by Breyer's Rabbit-duck 6/15/2020 2:41:14 PM
Generally they choose the justice most likely to flip to write the opinion. I'm guessing that was Gorsuch

by Aladin 6/15/2020 2:41:49 PM
We're awaiting some confirmation from the court on whether Cowpasture is the last opinion of the day.

by Mark Walsh 6/15/2020 2:42:49 PM
So, I don't about R-numbers being posted yet and continuing technical difficulties, but the court has confirmed that we are finished with opinions for the day!

by Mark Walsh 6/15/2020 2:46:16 PM
How come you know the outcome of Cowpasture when it isn't on the website yet?

by 23 mb for an opinion>> 6/15/2020 2:47:00 PM
While we will not know until we see the drafts and see if there was some movement in one of the cases that caused a reassignment, I am very surprised that Justice Gorsuch got both Ramos and the Title VII cases from October.

by TMM 6/15/2020 2:47:13 PM
Is there a Public Information Office website? Can we pick up the decisions there?

by Diego B 6/15/2020 2:47:41 PM
So, Thursday we'll get more decisions? Any guess how many? Could the technical difficulties caused them to withhold more opinions for today, and postpone them to Thursday?

by Adelina 6/15/2020 2:49:49 PM
Sharing this one more time for anybody who didn't get it earlier. We have a link on our site to the Title VII opinions now, without the long appendix, which should work for the time being: https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/17-1618_hfci.pdf

by Kalvis Golde 6/15/2020 2:50:33 PM
Folks, lots of great comments coming in on the Title VII decision and may good quips about the technical difficulties today. But we do have to move along to writing our stories. So I am singing off and we will do this again Thursday.

by Mark Walsh 6/15/2020 2:51:43 PM
And here is a link to our case page for the Appalachian Trail case, which has some info, though no opinion PDF yet. https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/united-states-forest-service-v-cowpasture-river-preservation-association/

by Kalvis Golde 6/15/2020 2:52:08 PM
Thanks so much for joining us; we can confirm that we are finished with opinions for the day. Mark and I have stories to write. We'll be back here again on Thursday morning for more opinions (but no orders), and hopefully the tech issues will go a little more smoothly. Take care, and stay well.

by Amy Howe 6/15/2020 2:53:00 PM
Thanks so much for joining, everyone. Please stay tuned for analysis of both of todays' decisions from Amy and Professor Noah Sachs, as well as a symposium on the Title VII decisions over the coming days. We'll be back again on Thursday - hopefully without today's technical difficulties! 16 decisions to go. Until then, stay well.

by Kalvis Golde 6/15/2020 2:55:07 PM

Cases granted for this term	31
Cases argued	0
Cases decided	0
Summary reversals	0
Cases granted for next term	0

Editor's Note :

Scribble

Live blog of orders and opinions - Monday, June 15, 2020

Featured Posts

Symposium: Ginsburg was a champion of voting rights, but mostly in dissent – Richard Hasen

Case preview: In newest chapter in long-running water dispute, court will hear first-ever challenge to ruling by interstate river master – Reed Benson

“What would Ruth do?”: A feminist pioneer on what Justice Ginsburg meant to her – Gloria Steinem

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Editor's Note :

Scribble

Live blog of orders and opinions - Monday, June 15, 2020

Featured Posts

Symposium: Ginsburg was a champion of voting rights, but mostly in dissent – Richard Hasen

Case preview: In newest chapter in long-running water dispute, court will hear first-ever challenge to ruling by interstate river master – Reed Benson

“What would Ruth do?”: A feminist pioneer on what Justice Ginsburg meant to her – Gloria Steinem

Sponsored by Casetext

SCOTUStalk see all

Email Digest Sign-Up

Merits Case Pages and Archives

This Week at the Court

Statistical Snapshot

Twitter Feed

Calendar: September 2020

Sept. 2020

Labor Day

Conference

Download our Apple or Android App

Videos see all

Peabody Award

Sigma Delta Chi

National Press Club Award

Silver Gavel Award

American Gavel Award

Webby Award