Tuesday round-up

Briefly:

• For The Wall Street Journal, Brent Kendall reports that although “Donald Trump’s presidency has faced considerable setbacks in the courts, with judges blocking administration actions on immigration, the environment and health care,” “the president’s fortunes have begun to improve with help from the Supreme Court, and a crucial set of proceedings lies ahead.”
• Greg Stohr reports at Bloomberg that “[a]bortion cases are coming to the S. Supreme Court, and they’re only getting harder for the justices to avoid.”
• At CNN, Ariane de Vogue reports that “the Supreme Court will meet behind closed doors this week to consider whether or not to proceed with a case that could impact Second Amendment rights.”
• At AP (via How Appealing), Mark Sherman reports that in R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which asks whether federal employment discrimination law bars discrimination against transgender people, “[t]he Trump administration has reversed course from the Obama administration and has sided with employers who argue that the civil rights law does not protect LGBT people,” putting “Solicitor General Noel Francisco in the odd position of representing the EEOC at the Supreme Court, where he will argue against the EEOC’s stance.” [Disclosure: Goldstein & Russell, P.C., whose attorneys contribute to this blog in various capacities, is counsel on an amicus brief in support of respondent Stephens in this case.]
• At The Guardian, Ed Pilkington writes that “[v]ictims of the 2010 cholera outbreak in Haiti, which killed at least 10,000 people and infected hundreds of thousands more, are petitioning the US supreme court … to hold the UN accountable for having brought the disease to the stricken country.”
• Niina Farah reports at E&E News that “[a]s the court begins its 2019 session, energy experts are watching whether the justices will weigh in on federal permitting, eminent domain and state sovereignty issues around pipeline construction.”
• The women of Strict Scrutiny (podcast) – Melissa Murray, Leah Litman, Kate Shaw and Jaime Santos — “preview some of the cases they are watching for the upcoming term.”
• In the latest episode of SCOTUStalk, Amy Howe chats with Tony Mauro, “who recently retired after nearly four decades covering the Supreme Court, about what he saw on the Supreme Court beat.”
• At Reason’s Volokh Conspiracy blog, Jonathan Adler notes that “[s]everal shareholders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac” who won a lawsuit alleging that “the limitations on the removal of the FHFA’s Director violate[] the separation of powers” have asked the Supreme Court to review the decision because they “are unsatisfied with the remedy” the lower court provided.
• Daniel Cotter remarks at the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (subscription required) that, in recent public remarks, Chief Justice John Roberts “bemoaned the fact that the court was looked to for resolution of matters that the other branches should be covering.”

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