The Week Ahead

The Court is in recess for the summer. The opening conference for next term will take place September 29. Oral arguments will resume October 6.

On Friday, the Solicitor General’s response is due in Lucas v. United States, 07-1512, a major test case on the scope of government power to regulate wetlands under the Clean Water Act and, in particular, on the proper way to interpret the Court’s divided opinion in 2006 in Rapanos v. United States.  The Solicitor General last Thursday filed the government’s own appeal on the scope of Rapanos in U.S. v. McWane, Inc., et al. (08-223), an Eleventh Circuit case.

The petitioner’s merits brief is due Thursday in Pacific Bell Telephone Co. v. linkLine Communications (07-512) and Friday in Ashcroft v. Iqbal (07-1015) and Arizona v. Johnson (07-1122). The respondent’s merits brief is due Monday in United States v. Hayes (07-608) and Friday in Van de Kamp v. Goldstein (07-854).

(Links above direct to case pages on SCOTUSwiki.)