Petitions of the week
This week we highlight cert petitions pending before the Supreme Court that address the scope of Title VII’s prohibition on discrimination “because of … sex” with regard to transgender individuals, the attachment of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel in the context of plea negotiations, and the constitutional consequences of waiving a state-law right to have a jury make an advisory sentencing recommendation in a capital case.
The petitions of the week are:
Issues: (1) Whether the Sixth Amendment right to counsel attaches when the prosecutor conducts plea negotiations before the filing of a formal charge; and (2) whether the Sixth Amendment right to counsel attaches when a federal prosecutor conducts plea negotiations before the filing of a formal charge in federal court when the defendant has already been charged with the same offense in state court.
Issues: (1) Whether the word “sex” in Title VII’s prohibition on discrimination “because of … sex,” 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1), meant “gender identity” and included “transgender status” when Congress enacted Title VII in 1964; and (2) whether Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins prohibits employers from applying sex-specific policies according to their employees’ sex rather than their gender identity.
Issue: Whether waiving a state-law right to have a jury make an advisory sentencing recommendation constitutes a knowing and intelligent waiver of the federal constitutional right to have a jury make all requisite findings for the imposition of death, particularly when the latter right did not exist at the time of the waiver.
Posted in Cases in the Pipeline
Cases: Turner v. United States, R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Rodgers v. Florida