WHAT WE'RE READING

The morning read for Friday, April 9

Each weekday, we select a short list of news articles, commentary, and other noteworthy links related to the Supreme Court. To suggest a piece for us to consider, email us at roundup@scotusblog.com.

Here’s the Friday morning read:

• Is the Supreme Court too partisan? Here’s what 3 reform proposals would do (Taylor Mooney, CBS News)
• This Is What Judicial Activism Looks Like on the Supreme Court (Linda Greenhouse, The New York Times)
• Justice Thomas’ Thought Experiment on Novel Issues With Social Media, Free Speech (GianCarlo Canaparo, The Daily Signal)
• Gender War: A challenge to male-only draft registration lands at America’s Supreme Court (Steven Mazie, The Economist)
• Last Hurrah for the Minimalist Court? (Donald Daugherty, The Federalist Society)

WHAT WE'RE READING

The morning read for Thursday, April 8

Each weekday, we select a short list of news articles, commentary, and other noteworthy links related to the Supreme Court. To suggest a piece for us to consider, email us at roundup@scotusblog.com.

Here’s the Thursday morning read:

• Stephen Breyer worries about Supreme Court’s public standing in current political era (Joan Biskupic, CNN)
• Justice Breyer Speaks on Court Authority and the ‘Peril of Politics’ in Annual HLS Scalia Lecture (Emmy Cho, The Harvard Crimson)
• Supreme Court Decision Affirms Open-Source’s Role in Modern Software Development (Angus Loten, The Wall Street Journal)
• On the court and online, Justice Clarence and Virginia Thomas hit Big Tech (Dylan Byers, NBC News)

Upcoming Event

What Next for Court Reform?

On Thursday, April 8, at 4 p.m. EDT, the American Constitution Society will continue the debate over whether and how to restructure both the Supreme Court and the lower federal courts, in light of the Biden administration’s formation of a commission to study the issue and a forthcoming legislative response in the House of Representatives. Jennifer Bendery from HuffPost will moderate the panel, which will feature Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.), Chris Kang of Demand Justice, Leah Litman of Michigan Law and former Leadership Conference Executive VP Nancy Zirkin.

Click here for more info and to register.

WHAT WE'RE READING

The morning read for Wednesday, April 7

Each weekday, we select a short list of news articles, commentary, and other noteworthy links related to the Supreme Court. To suggest a piece for us to consider, email us at roundup@scotusblog.com.

Here’s the Wednesday morning read:

• Justice Breyer Rejects ‘Conservative’ Tag for U.S. Supreme Court (Greg Stohr, Bloomberg)
• Justice Breyer says expanding the Supreme Court could erode trust (Robert Barnes, The Washington Post)
• Why Is the Supreme Court Hesitating on Abortion? (Ed Kilgore, New York magazine)
• SCOTUS vacates Knight Foundation, Thomas has things to say (Howard Wasserman, PrawfsBlawg)
• In Terry v. United States, SCOTUS Grants The SG’s Motion For Leave To File A Brief Out Of Time For First Time In Four Decades (Josh Blackman, The Volokh Conspiracy)

Opinion Analysis

Justices validate Google’s use of Java platform in Android software code

Monday’s decision in Google v. Oracle reminds us that occasionally the Supreme Court can take a big case and actually decide it! So many of the intellectual-property cases that reach the justices reflect minor circuit conflicts of largely technical interest or end up with a decision so narrow as to contribute little to the development of the law. Google is not that kind of decision. Justice Stephen Breyer’s opinion for a 6-2 majority decisively rejects Oracle’s challenge to Google’s use of computer code from the Java SE platform in its Android operating system, and the reasons he offers to justify that decision will have ramifications echoing into the future for the owners, developers and users of commercial software.