Breaking News

Wednesday round-up

The February sitting is now well underway.  Yesterday the Court issued its opinion in the water rights dispute Kansas v. Nebraska.  Jeremy Jacobs reports for Greenwire that “[a] majority of the justices held that Nebraska knowingly violated an interstate compact governing the river, depriving Kansas of water that should have flowed over the states’ border.”

Today the Court will hear oral arguments in EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, in which it will consider whether the retailer discriminated against a Muslim teenager when it refused to hire her because she wore a headscarf.  Lyle Denniston previewed the case for this blog, while I added our coverage in Plain English. Other coverage comes from Richard Wolf of USA Today and Lawrence Hurley of Reuters.

Coverage and commentary continue in anticipation of next week’s oral arguments in King v. Burwell, in which the Court will consider whether tax subsidies are available to individuals who purchase their health insurance on an exchange established by the federal government.  This blog’s Lyle Denniston reports on a letter by Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, responding to a question from a member of Congress, in which she indicates that the federal government “would have no way to fix ‘the massive damage’” if the Court were to strike down the subsidies.  Lawrence Hurley of Reuters focuses on the role of the Chief Justice, reporting that “a review of Roberts’ recent votes and opinions suggest he could again sway the case the government’s way.”  At The Commonwealth Fund Blog, Joel Ario, Michael Kolber, and Deborah Bachrach discuss what a ruling in favor of the challengers might mean for consumers, while in The Washington Post Jason Millman reports that a new Gallup poll” reflecting a drop in the number of people without health insurance “is underscoring the lawsuit’s high stakes.”  And at ACSblog, David Strauss argues that “the textualists are right: This time, at least, the words of the ACA tell you all you need to know about what Congress was trying to accomplish.”

Briefly:

A friendly reminder:  We rely on our readers to send us links for the round-up.  If you have or know of a recent (published in the last two or three days) article, post, or op-ed relating to the Court that you’d like us to consider for inclusion in the round-up, please send it to roundup [at] scotusblog.com.

Recommended Citation: Amy Howe, Wednesday round-up, SCOTUSblog (Feb. 25, 2015, 6:13 AM), https://www.scotusblog.com/2015/02/wednesday-round-up-262/