Petitions of the week

This week we highlight petitions pending before the Supreme Court that address the constitutionality of denying retroactive application of the Hurst decisions based on an arbitrary cut-off point and other arbitrary factors, and whether a state agency’s policy of refusing to accept advertisements that promote or oppose religion violates the First Amendment or the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The petitions of the week are:

18-1449

Issue: Whether the Florida Supreme Court’s decision denying retroactive application of the Hurst decisions to the petitioner violates the Eighth and 14th Amendments because it uses an arbitrary cut-off point and other arbitrary factors—such as the timing of judicial decisions—to determine whether similarly situated death row prisoners will receive retroactive application of constitutional rights.

18-1455

Issues: (1) Whether the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority’s policy of refusing to accept advertisements that promote or oppose religion or reflect a religious perspective violates the First Amendment; and (2) whether that discrimination against religious speech violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Posted in: Cases in the Pipeline

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