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Live blog of orders and opinions | June 25, 2018 (with John Elwood and First Mondays)

We live-blogged as the Supreme Court released orders from the June 21 conference (9:30 a.m.) and opinions in argued cases (10 a.m.). The justices added seven new cases to their merits docket for next term. The justices announced their decisions in Abbott v. Perez and Ohio v. American Express Co. Guest bloggers from First Mondays and John Elwood of Relist Watch also joined us.

3rd & 7 37yd

We have the second and final decision of the day. It is Ohio v. AmeEx, it is from Justice Thomas, and it is affirmed.

by Amy Howe 6/25/2018 2:11:24 PM
The vote is 5-4, with Breyer writing the dissent.

by Amy Howe 6/25/2018 2:11:40 PM
This is an antitrust case, in which a group of states are challenging a provision in the contract between American Express and the merchants that accept its cards; the provision bars the merchants from trying to steer their customers to use a particular credit card. The main issues before the court were twofold. First, at what market should courts look at in a case like this: Just at the merchants, or at the merchants and the cardholders? Second, if courts look at both the merchants and the cardholders as the market, do the plaintiffs have to show that both sides are harmed by the provision?

by Amy Howe 6/25/2018 2:11:50 PM
The Court holds that Amex's steering provisions do not violate federal antitrust law.

by Amy Howe 6/25/2018 2:12:12 PM
Here's the opinion in Ohio v. American Express. Beth Farmer will have our analysis:

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/16-1454_5h26.pdf

by Andrew Hamm 6/25/2018 2:12:51 PM
Court defines the market as two-sided, including both merchants and cardholders. When the market is defined this way, the Court says, it is clear that the plaintiffs have not met their burden to show anti-competitive effects.

by Amy Howe 6/25/2018 2:15:41 PM
Breyer, a former antitrust law professor, is reading his dissent from the bench. This means we will have to wait some more to hear when the court will be back.

by Amy Howe 6/25/2018 2:16:30 PM
Going to bet that 1 box means no Janus

by Greg 6/25/2018 2:16:50 PM
Good news of the day: we get to spend at least one more morning with Amy.

by David 6/25/2018 2:18:18 PM
Does Justice Breyer misspell laissez faire in the opening line of his dissent...?

by Col. Mustard 6/25/2018 2:19:09 PM
Doesn’t Justice Breyer speak French?

by Guest 6/25/2018 2:20:07 PM
So do we meet again here tomorrow?

by Scott 6/25/2018 2:21:09 PM
So, if we get only one more opinion day, there are going to be 3 significant cases. Janus, Hawaii, and NIFLA. So much for the conventional wisdom that they spread out big decisions

by Matt 6/25/2018 2:22:49 PM
Where can we access the transcripts of the opinions/dissents read from the bench on decision days?

by guest 6/25/2018 2:23:15 PM
Do we think Kennedy will announce a retirement today?

by Brandon 6/25/2018 2:23:40 PM
Was AMEX controversial? Is it odd that Thomas wrote it?

by KPOM 6/25/2018 2:24:09 PM
Tomorrow we will have more opinions. They did not announce that tomorrow will be the next day, so it looks like we get to do this again at least twice!

by Amy Howe 6/25/2018 2:24:47 PM
@Col.Mustard laissez means "allow" and lassez means to grow weary. I doubt it was a pun, but the spelling is perhaps Freudian.

by Dave H. 6/25/2018 2:25:16 PM
What will happen with petitions that had been relisted and are not on today's orders list?

by CDK 6/25/2018 2:27:18 PM
They have finished releasing decisions for today. We will be back again tomorrow! I'm going to get to work now, but hopefully others will stick around to answer questions.

by Amy Howe 6/25/2018 2:30:45 PM
So 2 more days for decisions this week?

by Paul Catorce 6/25/2018 2:31:02 PM
Any idea when the 'clean up' conference might take place and approximately when the order list from that conference will be released?

by PJK 6/25/2018 2:35:28 PM
Does Alito's writing the gerrymandering case say anything about his writing (or not) Janus?

by Glenn 6/25/2018 2:37:19 PM
I'm very surprised at how Ohio came out. I just re-listened to the argument Saturday and would have sworn it was going to go for Ohio.

by Ohio 6/25/2018 2:38:12 PM
I'm outta here. See y'all later.

by Tejinder 6/25/2018 2:38:23 PM
Hi all, that's all for this morning. We'll be back tomorrow and at least one other day this week (Wednesday?).

by Andrew Hamm 6/25/2018 2:41:20 PM
Already this morning I posted the latest First Mondays podcast -- and thanks to Dan, Ian, and Leah for joining us again.

by Andrew Hamm 6/25/2018 2:41:45 PM
Today we'll have Amy writing on this morning's orders and on Abbott v. Perez, the racial gerrymandering case from Texas. Beth Farmer will write on the antitrust decision, Ohio v. AmEx. And Mark Walsh will provide a "view" from the courtroom.

by Andrew Hamm 6/25/2018 2:42:34 PM
If we didn't get to your question or comment -- sorry about that and hopefully we can tomorrow!

by Andrew Hamm 6/25/2018 2:42:54 PM

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  The president has lawfully exercised the broad discretion granted to him under 8 U. S. C. §1182(f) to suspend the entry of aliens into the United States; respondents have not demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits of their claim that Presidential Proclamation No. 9645 violates the establishment clause.
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  The state of Illinois’ extraction of agency fees from nonconsenting public-sector employees violates the First Amendment; Abood v. Detroit Bd. of Ed., which concluded otherwise, is overruled.
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- Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31 The state of Illinois’ extraction of agency fees from nonconsenting public-sector employees violates the First Amendment; Abood v. Detroit Bd. of Ed., which concluded otherwise, is overruled.
- National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra Petitioners are likely to succeed on their claim that the California Reproductive Freedom, Accountability, Comprehensive Care, and Transparency Act (FACT Act) violates the First Amendment.
- Trump v. Hawaii The president has lawfully exercised the broad discretion granted to him under 8 U. S. C. §1182(f) to suspend the entry of aliens into the United States; respondents have not demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits of their claim that Presidential Proclamation No. 9645 violates the establishment clause.
- Abbott v. Perez The district court disregarded the presumption of legislative good faith and improperly reversed the burden of proof when it required the state to show a lack of discriminatory intent in adopting new districting plans; one of the challenged state house districts is an impermissible racial gerrymander.
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Scribble

Live blog of orders and opinions | June 25, 2018 (with John Elwood and First Mondays)

Featured Posts

Empirical SCOTUS: Getting rid of those amicus blues – Adam Feldman

Kavanaugh on presidential power: Law-review article on investigations of sitting presidents (UPDATED) – Kevin Russell

Kavanaugh and campaign finance: Republican National Committee v. Federal Election Commission – Charles Davis

Email Digest Sign-Up

Merits Case Pages and Archives

This Week at the Court

Major Cases

Recent Decisions

Recent Special Features

Statistical Snapshot

Live Blog Archives

Twitter Feed

Calendar: July 2018

Holiday

Download our App in the Apple Store

First Mondays see all

Videos see all

Peabody Award

Sigma Delta Chi

National Press Club Award

Silver Gavel Award

American Gavel Award

Webby Award

Cases argued	63
Cases decided	63
Summary reversals	11
Merits cases granted to date	63