Four days after the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn asked the justices to block enforcement of a New York executive order restricting attendance at houses of worship, two Orthodox Jewish synagogues came to the Supreme Court to make a similar request. Arguing that their neighborhoods and religious institutions had been “targeted,” the challengers – which also included two rabbis and an Orthodox Jewish organization – told the justices that the “guilt-by-religious-association restrictions” imposed by the order “have made it impossible for” them to “exercise their religious faith.” Continue reading »

The Supreme Court on Monday afternoon rejected a request from two inmates at high risk for complications from COVID-19 to reinstate an order by a federal district court that would require Texas prison officials to take basic safety precautions to combat the virus. Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented from that ruling, penning an 11-page opinion – joined by Justice Elena Kagan – in which she worried that Monday’s order “will lead to further, needless suffering” at a prison where 20 inmates have already died as a result of the virus.

The request was filed by Laddy Valentine and Richard King, inmates at the Wallace Pack Unit, a geriatric prison in southeast Texas. Valentine is 69, King is 73, and both suffer from chronic health conditions – such as diabetes and high blood pressure – that put them at a higher risk for serious illness and death from the coronavirus. They went to federal court earlier this year, where they argued that the failure to protect them from the coronavirus violated the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. 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 »

The Supreme Court issued an uneventful order list on Monday morning, the second released from the justices’ private conference on Friday, Nov. 13. On Friday, the justices added one case to their merits docket for the 2020-21 term: Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, a challenge to a California regulation that gives union organizers access to the property of agricultural growers. The justices did not add any new cases to their merits docket on Monday, nor did they ask for the views of the federal government in any new cases.

The justices will meet again on Friday, Nov. 20. We expect orders from that conference on Monday, Nov. 23, although – like last week – grants from the conference could come as early as Friday afternoon.

This post was originally published at Howe on the Court.

After a November argument sitting that featured two of the most significant cases of the term, the Supreme Court begins a two-week break from oral arguments. That break will end immediately after Thanksgiving weekend, when the justices will return to the virtual bench on Nov. 30 to hear yet another high-profile case: the latest dispute involving the U.S. census. Continue reading »

On Monday, the court released additional orders from the November 13 conference. The justices did not add any new cases to their merits docket.

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.

Continue reading »

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 »