RELIST WATCH
The Relist Watch column examines cert petitions that the Supreme Court has “relisted” for its upcoming conference. A short explanation of relists is available here.
The end of the Supreme Court’s term is in sight – the court is down to its last undecided merits cases and its last regularly scheduled conference will be held next week. While there is usually one impromptu mop-up conference after that to resolve all the unfinished cert-stage business, we’re close to the end. And the court is doing its part by clearing out all the unresolved relists before the term draws to a close. This week, the court cleared out two returning relists by granting review for next term. We had eight-time relist First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, Inc. v. Platkin, previewed here, involving whether a group of faith-based pregnancy centers can go to federal court to resolve their claim that their First Amendment rights were chilled by a state’s civil investigative demand into their fundraising practices, or rather if they must address their claim through ongoing state proceedings. I suspect that one of the justices was writing an opinion dissenting from denial of cert and it was persuasive enough to dislodge enough votes to grant review. And the court also granted review in two-time relist Chevron USA Inc. v. Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, previewed here, addressing whether state-court suits Louisiana parishes brought against oil companies for coastal restoration belong in federal court because some of the damage from oil exploration was done at the request of federal officials during World War II. With those cases cleared out, now just two returning relists remain.
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