Supreme Court adds two new cases for next term

Each weekday, we select a short list of news articles and commentary related to the Supreme Court. Here’s the Monday morning read:

• Justice Barrett: In Her Own Words (Jodi Kantor, The New York Times)
• Americans don’t see Supreme Court as politically neutral, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds (Andrew Goudsward, John Kruzel, and Jason Lange, Reuters)
• Supreme Court justices get snippy as key decisions loom (Joan Biskupic, CNN)
• What to Make of the Unusual Unanimity Towards the End of this SCOTUS Term (Adam Feldman, Legalytics)
• Why two conservative justices want courts to reconsider disability discrimination suits (Maureen Groppe, USA Today)

Coming up: On Wednesday, June 18, the court expects to issue one or more opinions from the current term. We’ll be live at 9:30 a.m. EDT that day for the opinion(s).

Yesterday, June 12, the court issued opinions in Rivers v. Guerrero, Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Zuch, Martin v. United States, Parrish v. United States, Soto v. United States, and A.J.T. v. Osseo Area Schools, Independent School District No. 279.  

Each weekday, we select a short list of news articles and commentary related to the Supreme Court. Here’s the Friday morning read:

• A Supreme Court Win for Special-Needs Kids’ Lawsuits Against Schools (Dan McLaughlin, National Review)
• Gorsuch warns Supreme Court decision gives IRS ‘powerful new tool to avoid accountability’ (Stephen Sorace, Fox News)
• The Supreme Court’s Inconsistency Is Very Revealing (Paul Rosenzweig, The Atlantic)
• The Supreme Court Could Cut Off Classroom Internet Connections (Peter Greene, Forbes)
• Peak absurdity on campaign finance reform heads to the Supreme Court (George F. Will, The Washington Post)

On Thursday, June 12, the Supreme Court also released the following opinions:

— In Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Zuch, the court considered whether a tax court has jurisdiction to hear a taxpayer’s appeal of a proposed levy to collect unpaid taxes once imposing a levy is no longer an option because the taxes have been paid in full.

In an 8-1 decision by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the court held that tax courts no longer have jurisdiction under these circumstances. Specifically, Barrett wrote that “[b]ecause there was no longer a proposed levy, the Tax Court properly concluded that it lacked jurisdiction to resolve questions about Zuch’s disputed tax liability.”

The Supreme Court on Thursday turned down an effort by a Texas inmate to invalidate his convictions using new evidence that he says could clear him. In a unanimous decision by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the court ruled that a filing by Danny Rivers raising claims relating to that new evidence was a prohibited “second or successive” petition even though it was made while the district court’s decision denying his first petition was still pending on appeal.

Rivers was convicted in Texas in 2012 of child sex abuse, indecency with a child, and possession of child pornography. After his efforts to overturn his convictions in state court were unsuccessful, Rivers filed a petition for federal post-conviction relief in 2017 in which he alleged (among other things) that his lawyers had been deficient and that prosecutors had engaged in misconduct.

The Supreme Court on Thursday revived a lawsuit filed by an inmate who alleges that he was wrongfully placed in segregated confinement for nearly two years. In an 8-1 decision by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the court ruled that when Donte Parrish missed the original deadline to file his notice that he was appealing the trial court’s dismissal of his case, he did not need to file a second notice of appeal after the trial court reopened the case. Sotomayor explained that “imperfections in noticing an appeal should not be fatal where no genuine doubt exists about who is appealing, from what judgment, to which appellate court.”