Good morning, everyone! Welcome to our all-electronic live blog. I am not at the Supreme Court building today, so I will be checking the website for the release of the order list at 9:30. And then at 10 a.m. we'll get opinions, but -- alas -- we'll have to do without the box count.
I hope everyone is doing okay, all things considered, and staying safe and well.
Good morning, everyone. Your View from the Courtroom contributor does not have a very good view of the courtroom this morning, as of course I too am not at the court.
No reading of the opinions in the courtroom, and no live audio.
I do not necessarily think that all opinions will be released at once.
Almost to orders. The government's challenge to California's "sanctuary law" is one of the petitions we're waiting on today.
I'm hitting refresh on the website just like everyone else.
Of course, the orders list, coming any moment now, will have a fair amount on it all at once.
I will unpack in a second.
Yes, and as I have noted before, the per curiam decisions are at the bottom of the orders list. When we get a copy handed to us in the press room, those opinions are on top.
Okay, there do not appear to be any grants.
There is a per curiam opinion in Davis v. United States, involving the Fifth Circuit's practice of refusing to review certain unpreserved factual arguments for plain error.
There is also a statement from Justice Kavanaugh respecting the denial of review in Avery v. United States, involving whether 28 USC 2244(b)’s ban on successive filings applies to federal prisoners seeking collateral review.
Not surprisingly, no action on the government's challenge to California's "sanctuary" law.
In Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru (and its companion case), the court has denied a request by Virginia along with 15 other states and the District of Columbia for 10 minutes of argument time in support of the respondents. The court did grant the U.S. Solicitor General's request to argue in support of the petitioner schools in this case about whether the "ministerial exception" applies to various employment-discrimination claims brought by teachers who suffered adverse job actions.
I think that's all I have on the order list for now, unless anyone has any specific questions. Nice catch by Mark to note the denial of the states' request for argument time supporting the respondents in the "ministerial exception" case.
Of course, whether there will even be oral argument in the school case, which was originally set for April 1 and was part of the postponement of the March sitting, is a big question.
This about the time I would be going upstairs to the courtroom on an opinion day. Just for a sense of normalcy, I am wearing my press pass in my home office this morning. No one has asked to inspect it.
Art Lien and any other courtroom artists are usually the first to go up to the courtroom. Alas, no sketches of opinion deliveries today.
Any guesses as to what we get today? In the press room (which is now virtual), we have been expecting the Puerto Rico cases for months, on the theory that they were somewhat time-sensitive. But that is turning into one of those "stopped clock is right twice a day" guesses.
As we approach 10 a.m. and our first electronic opinions in argued cases, it will be interesting to see whether they are released, per tradition, in reverse order of seniority of the justice writing the majority opinion.
As my list of October cases suggests, there's not really any low-hanging fruit left from the October sitting; they are all pretty big cases.
But there are lower-profile cases left once you get into November and December.
Let's all pretend we just heard the five-minute buzzer.
The Court's summary reversal of the Fifth Circuit today is a remarkable slap down. It constitutes essentially quoting the relevant rule and adding a couple of sentences
The buzzers in the Supreme Court building remind me that in various respects, the court is like school. It keeps a somewhat academic calendar, it has buzzers before and at the end of "class," it has a cafeteria that would remind many people of their schools days. It even has a woodshop!
Going to switch over to hit refresh. :)
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