Friday round-up

AMY HOWE APR 15, 2016 9:22 AM

On Monday the Court will hear oral arguments in the challenge to the Obama administration’s deferred-action policy for some immigrants.  Greg Stohr previewed the case for Bloomberg Politics, while Mark Sherman did the same for the Associated Press.  Commentary comes from Howard Berman and Elizabeth Wydra, who at Medium emphasize that, although one of the lawyers at Monday’s argument “will claim to represent the House of Representatives, she does not represent every member of the House of Representatives.”  And at Balkinization, Marty Lederman looks at standing and Texas’s argument that it will have to bear the costs associated with issuing driver’s licenses to immigrants in Texas who would be eligible for deferred action under the policy, focusing on “two aspects of the ‘licensing costs’ theory of standing that warrant greater attention.”

Commentary related to the death of Justice Antonin Scalia and the nomination of Chief Judge Merrick Garland to succeed him comes from Kenneth Jost, who at Jost on Justice looks at the suggestion “that the White House may be behind the widely criticized suggestion that the president could install federal judge Merrick Garland on the Supreme Court without any action by the Senate” and concludes that “[n]ot since Shakespeare has there been more ado about so little.”  And at Hosts of Error, Will Rosenzweig weighs in on criticism of Chief Justice John Roberts by Senator Chuck Grassley, arguing that “this really comes down to is Grassley’s frustration that conservative justices aren’t all playing by the same rules as Republican legislators.”

Briefly:

• Commentary on this week’s supplemental briefs in Zubik v. Burwell, the challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s birth-control mandate and the accommodation offered to religious non-profits that object to the mandate, comes from Marty Lederman, who at Balkinization looks at what both sides “have to say about ‘insured’ plans and ‘self-insured’ plans,” as well as at the “26 petitioners who do not fall in either category, because they offer (or are otherwise involved with) employee ‘church plans.’”
• John Koblin of The New York Times reviews the new HBO movie, scheduled to air Saturday, about the battle over the confirmation of Justice Clarence Thomas.
• At Appellate Practice Blog, Lisa Soronen previews next week’s oral argument in Universal Health Services v. Escobar from a state and local government perspective.

Remember, we rely exclusively on our readers to send us links for our round-up.  If you have or know of a recent (published in the last two or three days) article, post, or op-ed relating to the Court that you’d like us to consider for inclusion in the round-up, please send it to roundup [at] scotusblog.com.

 [Disclosure: Goldstein & Russell, P.C., whose attorneys contribute to this blog in various capacities, is among the counsel on amicus briefs filed in support of the respondents in Zubik.  However, I am not affiliated with the firm.]

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