Thursday round-up

AMY HOWE JUL 10, 2014 9:34 AM

Commentary on the Court’s June 30 decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby continues with an op-ed in The New York Times from Linda Greenhouse, who contends that, “[t]o grasp the full implications of the . . . Hobby Lobby decision, it helps to read it not in isolation but alongside the court’s other major religion case of the term,” Town of Greece v. Galloway, in which the Court upheld a New York town’s practice of beginning its town council meetings with a prayer.  Ralph Behr weighs in on the case at the South Florida Criminal Defense Blog, observing that “[t]he decision is seen as an end run to, in effect, backdoor reproductive and privacy rights by framing the issue as a question that can be decided under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993.” 
Briefly:

• In Education Week, Mark Walsh reports on last week’s decision in Harris v. Quinn, in which a divided Court held that the First Amendment precludes the collection of an agency fee from home health care providers who do not want to join or support a union.
• In another post at Education Week, Mark Walsh reviews the cases from the October Term 2013 that may be important to educators.
• In The National Law Journal’s Supreme Court Brief (subscription required), Tony Mauro looks at the role of environmental and Supreme Court lawyer Sean Donahue in two “significant victories before the U.S. Supreme Court” in environmental cases this Term.
• At the Maryland Appellate Blog, Steve Klepper discusses the possibility that Justice Clarence Thomas could be questioning whether the Court’s decision in Citizens United applies to the states.
• At noon Pacific today, the UC Irvine School of Law will host an end-of-Term review; the panel will also be live-streamed here.

Disclosure:  Kevin Russell of Goldstein & Russell, P.C., whose attorneys contribute to this blog in various capacities, was among the counsel on an amicus brief in support of the respondent in Harris.

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