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Petitions of the week

This week, the Supreme Court has been presented with petitions involving issues such as whether the establishment clause requires the removal or destruction of a 93-year-old memorial to American servicemen who died in World War I solely because the memorial bears the shape of a cross; and whether public school teachers and coaches retain any First Amendment rights when at work and “in the general presence of” students.

The petitions of the week are:

17-1703

Issue: Whether, under the “safe alternatives policy” of Section 612 of the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency lacks authority to prohibit the use of a less-safe substitute for an ozone-depleting substance in favor of a safer alternative, just because a company has already begun using the less-safe substitute.

18-2

Issue: Whether the Environmental Protection Agency has authority under Section 612 of the Clean Air Act to prohibit the use of dangerous but non-ozone-depleting substitutes by any person, including by product manufacturers who began using such substitutes before the EPA placed them on the prohibited list.

18-18

Issue: Whether the establishment clause requires the removal or destruction of a 93-year-old memorial to American servicemen who died in World War I solely because the memorial bears the shape of a cross.

17-1717

Issues: (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. KurtzmanVan Orden v. PerryTown 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.

18-3

Issues: (1) Whether Section 302(e) of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 186(e), provides for a private right of action; and (2) whether a labor organization violates its duty of fair representation by refusing to honor, at the end of the next applicable irrevocability period, employees’ check-off authorization revocations that are not sent during an annual, 15-day window period and by certified mail.

18-12

Issue: Whether public school teachers and coaches retain any First Amendment rights when at work and “in the general presence of” students.

Recommended Citation: Aurora Barnes, Petitions of the week, SCOTUSblog (Jul. 16, 2018, 5:30 PM), https://www.scotusblog.com/2018/07/petitions-of-the-week/