On Monday, the court will release additional orders from the Nov. 13 conference at 9:30 a.m.
On Friday, the justices will hold their Nov. 20 conference.
This week we highlight cert petitions that ask the Supreme Court to review, among other things, resentencing under the First Step Act, amateurism in college sports under the Sherman Antitrust Act, and an exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement allowing police to detain bystanders.
In Bates v. United States, the justices are presented with the First Step Act, passed in 2018. Section 404 of the First Step Act permits district courts to resentence drug offenders in light of the Fair Sentencing Act. That 2010 law raised the thresholds of crack cocaine needed to trigger mandatory minimum sentences and thereby reduced sentencing disparities between offenses involving crack cocaine and those involving powder cocaine. In 2019, after the First Step Act went into effect, Drew Bates filed for a sentence reduction under the newly retroactive Fair Sentencing Act. Bates also asked that the district court consider a revision to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines for mitigating roles, an amendment that was not in force at the time of his original sentencing. The district court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit ruled that the First Step Act only allowed courts to consider sentencing changes under the Fair Sentencing Act; courts could not also consider changes to the Sentencing Guidelines. Arguing that the First Step Act gives district courts discretion to consider the guidelines and that the circuit courts are split on the matter, Bates asks the justices to review the 10th Circuit’s decision.
The Supreme Court on Friday added one new case to its merits docket for 2020-21 term. In Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, the justices will weigh in on a California regulation that gives union organizers access to the property of agricultural growers up to three hours per day, 120 days each year. The lawsuit was filed by a California strawberry nursery after union organizers relied on the regulation to enter the nursery’s property with bullhorns in an effort to recruit employees. The nursery argued that the regulation amounted to an unconstitutional “taking” of its private property under the Fifth Amendment. A federal district court rejected that argument, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit upheld that ruling. Continue reading »
Justice Samuel Alito told the Federalist Society on Thursday night that two constitutional protections – the First Amendment right to free exercise of religion, and the Second Amendment right to bear arms – are rapidly becoming “second-class” liberties. Alito’s keynote address at the group’s 2020 National Convention was the first public appearance by a Supreme Court justice (aside from the court’s telephonic oral arguments) since the election.
Speaking to a virtual audience over video, Alito began on a lighter note. He urged the attendees, who at previous in-person conventions would have had “a glass of wine, or two” before the keynote, to partake in a beverage of their choice. He also invited any critics to throw “rotten tomatoes” all they like: “You will only mess up your own screen.” Continue reading »
In the latest entry to the Supreme Court’s coronavirus docket, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn filed an emergency request Thursday asking the justices to grant it relief from attendance limits at church services ordered by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D). Amy Howe explains the dispute.
The justices meet Friday for their private weekly conference to decide whether to take up any new cases. Among the noteworthy petitions slated to be discussed are a case involving the Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel and a case asking whether the “community caretaking” exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement extends to the home. Continue reading »
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to block limits imposed on in-person church attendance because of the coronavirus pandemic. The plea renews a dispute over restrictions on worship services while some secular businesses remain open. The Supreme Court rebuffed similar challenges over the summer, but this is the first one to come to the justices since Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation last month, and the diocese could find more success before the now more conservative court.
The order at the center of Thursday’s filing, issued by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) in October, limits in-person attendance at church services to either 10 or 25 people, depending on the number of COVID-19 cases in the areas in which a particular church is located. As a practical matter, the diocese contends, the order “effectively bars in-person worship at affected churches – a ‘devastating’ and ‘spiritually harmful’ burden on the Catholic community.” By contrast, the diocese noted, many secular businesses, including “everything from supermarkets to pet stores,” are allowed to stay open. Continue reading »
Oyez has posted the aligned audio and transcripts from the November 2020 oral arguments at the Supreme Court. The court heard argument this month in:
John Elwood reviews Monday’s relists.
Just like for the rest of the country, it was a pretty quiet week for relists. We have only two items of note.
Last week, the Supreme Court relisted Carr v. Saul, 19-1442, and Davis v. Saul, 20-105, two cases addressing whether claimants seeking disability benefits under the Social Security Act must challenge the constitutionality of their administrative law judge’s appointment during agency proceedings to be able raise them later in court. The Supreme Court relisted both cases to decide which of the two to take. The justices compromised by taking both. I don’t know enough about the issue to make a prediction at this point about the outcome. But I do have a prediction about the argument. Continue reading »
Here’s a round-up of Supreme Court-related news and commentary from around the web: Continue reading »
SCOTUSblog and Goldstein & Russell, P.C. are seeking to hire a full-time employee to serve as firm manager for Goldstein & Russell, P.C., and deputy manager of SCOTUSblog. The position is based in Bethesda, Maryland, and requires occasional in-person work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Continue reading »
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