Tuesday round-up

By Amy Howe
on Mar 18, 2014 at 8:50 am

At Slate, Adam Winkler previews next week’s oral arguments in the challenges to the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate.  Winkler urges the Court to hold that one of the challengers in the case, the craft chain Hobby Lobby, “does not have religious rights precisely because the corporation is a legal person.”  In an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times, David H. Gans takes a similar position on the case, arguing that, “[i]n its 225-year history, the Supreme Court has never held that secular, for-profit corporations are entitled to the free exercise of religion. It should not start now.”

Briefly:

• At The New Yorker, Jeffrey Toobin looks at the “farm team of appellate judges” – including former Supreme Court advocates Sri Srinivasan and Patricia Millett – who could be nominated to the Court if another vacancy were to occur during the Obama administration.
• At NPR, Kirk Siegler reports on a recent decision by the Ninth Circuit striking down San Diego County’s concealed carry laws and the prospect that the Supreme Court could take up the issue to resolve a conflict with the Second Circuit.