Petitions of the week
on Jul 16, 2018 at 5:30 pm
This week, the Supreme Court has been presented with petitions involving issues such as whether the establishment clause requires the removal or destruction of a 93-year-old memorial to American servicemen who died in World War I solely because the memorial bears the shape of a cross; and whether public school teachers and coaches retain any First Amendment rights when at work and “in the general presence of” students.
The petitions of the week are:
Issue: Whether, under the “safe alternatives policy” of Section 612 of the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency lacks authority to prohibit the use of a less-safe substitute for an ozone-depleting substance in favor of a safer alternative, just because a company has already begun using the less-safe substitute.
Issue: Whether the Environmental Protection Agency has authority under Section 612 of the Clean Air Act to prohibit the use of dangerous but non-ozone-depleting substitutes by any person, including by product manufacturers who began using such substitutes before the EPA placed them on the prohibited list.
Issue: Whether the establishment clause requires the removal or destruction of a 93-year-old memorial to American servicemen who died in World War I solely because the memorial bears the shape of a cross.
Issues: (1) Whether a 93-year-old memorial to the fallen of World War I is unconstitutional merely because it is shaped like a cross; (2) whether the constitutionality of a passive display incorporating religious symbolism should be assessed under the tests articulated in Lemon v. Kurtzman, Van Orden v. Perry, Town of Greece v. Galloway or some other test; and (3) whether, if the test from Lemon v. Kurtzman applies, the expenditure of funds for the routine upkeep and maintenance of a cross-shaped war memorial, without more, amounts to an excessive entanglement with religion in violation of the First Amendment.
Issues: (1) Whether Section 302(e) of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 186(e), provides for a private right of action; and (2) whether a labor organization violates its duty of fair representation by refusing to honor, at the end of the next applicable irrevocability period, employees’ check-off authorization revocations that are not sent during an annual, 15-day window period and by certified mail.
Issue: Whether public school teachers and coaches retain any First Amendment rights when at work and “in the general presence of” students.
