Scribble

Editor's Note :

Scribble

Court will review census citizenship dispute this term – Amy Howe

Argument preview: Justices to examine rejection of contracts in bankruptcy – Ronald Mann

Argument preview: Justices to consider ability of government to challenge patents in administrative process – Ronald Mann

Live blog of orders and opinions | June 29, 2015

Live blog of orders and opinions | June 29, 2015

Feb. 2019

Featured Posts

Email Digest Sign-Up

Merits Case Pages and Archives

This Week at the Court

Major Cases

Recent Decisions

Current Relists

Recent Special Features

Statistical Snapshot

Live Blog Archives

Twitter Feed

Calendar: February 2019

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

Conference of February 15, 2019

Conference

Holiday

Orders

RETURN MAIL INC. V. U.S. POSTAL SERVICE (17-1594)

MISSION PRODUCT HOLDINGS INC. V. TEMPNOLOGY INC. (17-1657)

Opinions

Conference

Orders

MANHATTAN COMMUNITY ACCESS CORP. V. HALLECK (17-1702)

UNITED STATES V. HAYMOND (17-1672)

MONT V. UNITED STATES (17-8995)

THE AMERICAN LEGION V. AMERICAN HUMANIST ASSOCIATION (17-1717)

3rd & 7 37yd

Good morning, everyone! Welcome to our live blog. We are delighted to be back here for what could be the final live blog of the Term.

by Amy Howe 6/29/2015 1:11:20 PM

Comment ()
This is the one day in which I can say, with a fair amount of confidence, that we *do* know which opinions we are getting today. We expect decisions in Glossip v. Gross (the challenge to Oklahoma's lethal injection procedure and in particular its use of midazolam, a sedative); Utility Air Group v. EPA (Clean Air Act and when EPA must consider costs); and Arizona Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (whether Arizona voters can transfer power over federal congressional districting to an independent commission).

by Amy Howe 6/29/2015 1:13:26 PM

Comment ()
Hi Amy! Why/how could there be an additional live blog? Today = final orders and opinions, no?

by David 6/29/2015 1:13:30 PM

Comment ()
As someone who is relatively new to this court watching stuff, and is not a Lawyer, could you explain the significance of the 'orders' this morning?

by Tom 6/29/2015 1:14:53 PM

Comment ()
How is SCOTUSblog able to report decisions from inside the Court's press office, but major cable stations are required to have their interns run hard copies of the decisions to reporters outside SCOTUS?

by JC 6/29/2015 1:16:41 PM

Comment ()
Question: I believe you have indicated in the past the Court has released either audio or a transcript of the oral announcement of decisions. Has this been done for the Thursday and Friday cases from last week? (In particular, Burwell and Obergefell.) If so, could you provide a link. If not, but the Court will do this in the future, where should I look to find this information? Thank you.

by Duns Scotus 6/29/2015 1:17:14 PM

Comment ()
Are there particular circuit courts that have much better or much worse chances of getting upheld by the supreme court?

by Mavend 6/29/2015 1:17:49 PM

Comment ()
Good morning from the press office at the Court. Why is there no crowd here today?

by lylden 6/29/2015 1:18:42 PM

Comment ()
Any ideas on the chances of a rehearing of Obergefell? I assume it's basically the same as with any other case (essentially zero) but that seems to be what Louisiana is waiting for when it comes to marriage licenses.

by Swiggan 6/29/2015 1:19:09 PM

Comment ()
As a reminder, or for your information if you're just joining us, the answers to many frequently asked questions can be found here.

by Kali Borkoski 6/29/2015 1:19:09 PM

Comment ()
Hello! So I know that Texas and Mississippi's AGs having indicated that they may allow state workers to not grant marriage licenses to homosexual couples . Could one of the Court orders deal with this today? Could they order the AGs to not obstruct the ruling?

by Anthony 6/29/2015 1:19:16 PM

Comment ()
What is the point of having a chief justice? Why aren't all nine justices equal to each other?

by LGSW74 6/29/2015 1:19:24 PM

Comment ()
Closely following Friedrichs petition.

by In Berkeley 6/29/2015 1:20:03 PM

Comment ()
What prompted the Court to begin the practice of re-listing petitions at least once before issuing an order?

by Sarah 6/29/2015 1:21:21 PM

Comment ()
Friedrichs is an extremely important case for public employee unions. It could completely alter the landscape of public sector labor relations in 24 states. Not enough attention, in my view, has been devoted to this case by the press.

by Ryan1258 6/29/2015 1:22:23 PM

Comment ()
Does the Court have to dispatch with all outstanding petitions before they go on vacation? Or could we see Fisher, Friedrichs, and others held over until the fall?

by Gabe 6/29/2015 1:22:26 PM

Comment ()
I'm curious to see how much lighter the traffic on the blog is today now that the biggest/most anticipated decisions have already come down. How many hits did you get up to on Friday?

by Beth 6/29/2015 1:23:54 PM

Comment ()
Just wanted to say thanks to the whole SCOTUSBlog live blog team. I've been tuning in for every session for the last couple of months, waiting on Texas DHCA v Inclusive Communities (business interest) and Obergefell (personal interest). Coverage has been really helpful in quickly cutting to the heart of the matter and divining some of the more inscrutable aspects of the Court. Not to mention, it's been an enjoyable and at times hilarious read! ;-)

by jenva 6/29/2015 1:25:02 PM

Comment ()
Do dissents have any legal standing or set any precedence? Or are they simply statements of why the justices disagree with the majority?

by Rookie 6/29/2015 1:25:05 PM

Comment ()
When the court issues a merits opinion in an unargued case (e.g. seems to be the trend in AEDPA reversals), does a Justice read the result from the bench as is done in cases in which the Court heard oral argument?

by BNG 6/29/2015 1:25:21 PM

Comment ()
Any bets on how the last three cases will get decided? I am guessing not much sympathy for Glossip, not much more for the cost arguments in the EPA case and something amounting to a non-justiciability of the Arizona issues.

by L 6/29/2015 1:25:47 PM

Comment ()
Instead of having those poor (in more ways than one) interns run across the plaza to everyone's amusement, why can't those lazy television reporters pull up the opinion on the court's website on a tablet?

by Pedro 6/29/2015 1:26:29 PM

Comment ()
How soon will the SCT issue the mandate in the marriage cases? Can it issue the mandate any sooner than the allowed time? Texas and Louisiana seem to be waiting for the mandate before doing anything.

by Mandate query 6/29/2015 1:26:40 PM

Comment ()
what you guys do during the summer?! I hope something fun

by #lyleforever 6/29/2015 1:27:48 PM

Comment ()
Will the GVRs in recently decided cases (I am thinking of Johnson, which will have a lot) be issued today? If not, then when?

by Eric 6/29/2015 1:28:34 PM

Comment ()
Friday's Obergefell had 5 opinions filed. Has there ever been a case with more? Ever been a case where each Justice filed their own opinion?

by Kane 6/29/2015 1:28:52 PM

Comment ()
What is the SCOTUSblog guess for the author of Glossip? Alito, Ginsburg and Sotomayor haven't written yet...

by AMBSpartan 6/29/2015 1:29:43 PM

Comment ()
Is Johnson v. US retroactive?

by Cam 6/29/2015 1:30:10 PM

Comment ()
#waitingforlyle, Part 1.

by Amy Howe 6/29/2015 1:30:39 PM

Comment ()
Here he is.

by Amy Howe 6/29/2015 1:30:44 PM

Comment ()
Does anyone know how the outcome of 'Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission' will affect the rest of the nation on the matter of gerrymandering? Will states like Texas be forced to stop partisan redistricting if SCOTUS rules in favor of the Commission? Or will it simply say the people have the power to vote to end gerrymandering and establish a commission?

by bmb 6/29/2015 1:30:51 PM

Comment ()
We have four grants, including Fisher. Justice Kagan is recused.

by Amy Howe 6/29/2015 1:31:24 PM

Comment ()
gobeille v. Liberty Mutual also granted.

by Amy Howe 6/29/2015 1:31:40 PM

Comment ()
Musacchio v. United States.

by Amy Howe 6/29/2015 1:31:48 PM

Comment ()
Torres v. Lynch.

by Amy Howe 6/29/2015 1:31:53 PM

Comment ()
Court has granted Mississippi's motion to file its original case against Tennessee.

by Amy Howe 6/29/2015 1:32:26 PM

Comment ()
what happens when one justice recuse him/herself, and the opinion is 4-4?

by Kevin 6/29/2015 1:32:40 PM

Comment ()
In Joyner, 14-395, petition is denied. Thomas, joined by Alito, dissents from the denial with a quite lengthy opinion.

by Amy Howe 6/29/2015 1:32:51 PM

Comment ()
The order list is here.

by Kali Borkoski 6/29/2015 1:32:52 PM

Comment ()
Jordan v. Fisher: Petition is denied, over a dissent from Sotomayor joined by Justice Kagan and Ginsburg.

by Amy Howe 6/29/2015 1:33:10 PM

Comment ()
Jordan v. Fisher was a Goldstein & Russell case.

by Amy Howe 6/29/2015 1:33:19 PM

Comment ()
Several GVRs for already-decided cases, including the NC "choose life" license plate case.

by Amy Howe 6/29/2015 1:33:35 PM

Comment ()
Court has denied two new petitions: one by BP and one by Anadarco Petroleum arising out of Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

by Amy Howe 6/29/2015 1:34:39 PM

Comment ()
Court denies Google v. Oracle America, with Alito recused.

by Amy Howe 6/29/2015 1:34:50 PM

Comment ()
Nothing about Mississippi abortion, Currier.

by Amy Howe 6/29/2015 1:35:07 PM

Comment ()

Featured Posts

Court will review census citizenship dispute this term – Amy Howe

Argument preview: Justices to examine rejection of contracts in bankruptcy – Ronald Mann

Argument preview: Justices to consider ability of government to challenge patents in administrative process – Ronald Mann
Email Digest Sign-Up
Receive a daily email digest from Feedburner by entering your email.
Merits Case Pages and Archives

Archives

or

This Week at the Court
On Friday, the justices met for their February 15 conference and agreed to hear oral argument in Department of Commerce v. New York during the second week of the April sitting.
The calendar for the February sitting, which will begin on Tuesday, February 19, is available on the Supreme Court's website.
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.
- 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.
- New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. City of New York, New York
  Whether New York City’s ban on transporting a licensed, locked and unloaded handgun to a home or shooting range outside city limits is consistent with the Second Amendment, the commerce clause and the constitutional right to travel.
- 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 »
Recent Decisions
- Helsinn Healthcare S.A. v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. The sale of an invention to a third party who is obligated to keep the invention confidential may place the invention “on sale” for purposes of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, which bars a person from receiving a patent on an invention that was “in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention,” 35 U. S. C. §102(a)(1).
- 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.
see all this term’s cases »
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.
- Baxter v. United States (1) Whether a conviction for robbery under Florida law qualifies as a “violent felony” within the Armed Career Criminal Act’s elements clause simply because it requires overcoming victim resistance, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit has held, or whether such a conviction fails to qualify as an ACCA “violent felony” because Florida caselaw confirms that overcoming victim resistance does not invariably requires the use of “violent force” as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has held; and (2) whether a conviction for any state robbery offense that includes “as an element” the common law requirement of overcoming “victim resistance” is categorically a “violent felony” within the ACCA’s elements clause if the offense has been specifically interpreted by state appellate courts to require only slight force to overcome resistance.
- 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.
More Petitions »
Recent Special Features
Statistical Snapshot

Cases argued 43

Cases decided 10

Summary reversals 2

Merits cases granted to date 73

see all »
Live Blog Archives
See all
Twitter Feed

Tweets by @SCOTUSblog

Full Calendar Submit Event

Orders/Opinions
Arguments
Conferences

Events
Holidays
Multiple

Download our App in the Apple Store
First Mondays see all
Videos see all

Chief Justice Roberts at Belmont University

On February 6, Chief Justice John Roberts spoke at Belmont University College of Law with Alberto Gonzales, dean of the law school and former U.S. attorney general.

Peabody Award
Awarded the Peabody Award for excellence in electronic media.
Sigma Delta Chi
Awarded the Sigma Delta Chi deadline reporting award for online coverage of the Affordable Care Act decision.
National Press Club Award
Awarded the National Press Club's Breaking News Award for coverage of the Affordable Care Act decision.
Silver Gavel Award
Awarded the Silver Gavel Award by the American Bar Association for fostering the American public’s understanding of the law and the legal system.
American Gavel Award
Awarded the American Gavel Award for Distinguished Reporting About the Judiciary to recognize the highest standards of reporting about courts and the justice system.
Webby Award
Awarded the Webby Award for excellence on the internet.

15
Conference

19
Orders
RETURN MAIL INC. V. U.S. POSTAL SERVICE (17-1594)

20
MISSION PRODUCT HOLDINGS INC. V. TEMPNOLOGY INC. (17-1657)
Opinions

22
Conference

25
Orders
MANHATTAN COMMUNITY ACCESS CORP. V. HALLECK (17-1702)

26
UNITED STATES V. HAYMOND (17-1672)
MONT V. UNITED STATES (17-8995)

27
THE AMERICAN LEGION V. AMERICAN HUMANIST ASSOCIATION (17-1717)

Cases argued	43
Cases decided	10
Summary reversals	2
Merits cases granted to date	73