Wednesday round-up
on Dec 9, 2020 at 7:00 am
The Supreme Court meets telephonically on Wednesday for its final oral argument of 2020. In Collins v. Mnuchin, the justices will consider a lawsuit by shareholders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who are challenging a 2012 agreement between the Treasury Department and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (which acts as a conservator for Fannie and Freddie). Though the issues related to the 2012 agreement are technical, the case also raises a broader question of presidential power: whether it was unconstitutional for Congress to restrict the ability of the president to fire the director of the FHFA. Earlier this year, in a similar case about removal provisions for the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the court answered yes. Our preview of Collins v. Mnuchin is here.
Here’s a round-up of other Supreme Court-related news and commentary from around the web:
- Supreme Court Rejects Republican Challenge to Pennsylvania Vote (Adam Liptak, The New York Times)
- Trump’s bid to disenfranchise millions by threatening democracy going is nowhere in court (Joan Biskupic, CNN)
- Texas AG asks Supreme Court to overturn Trump’s losses in key states. Don’t hold your breath. (Richard Wolf, USA Today)
- Supreme Court Preview: Collins v. Mnuchin and the Expanding ‘Unitary Executive’ Theory (Martha Kinsella, Just Security)
- Censoring Pro-Life Speech Is Unconstitutional (John Bursch, National Review)
- When Religious Liberty Collides with Public Health (Burt Neuborne, The New York Review of Books)
- Media Ownership Rules, and Perhaps Much More, at Stake in FCC v. Prometheus (Corbin Barthold, The Bulwark)
- Supreme Court Poised to Limit Computer Fraud Statute (Randall Eliason, Sidebars)
- Preview of Collins v. Mnuchin (Emily Van Dyne & Matthew Tinker, Cornell Legal Information Institute)
We rely 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, podcast or op-ed relating to the Supreme Court that you’d like us to consider for inclusion, please send it to roundup@scotusblog.com. Thank you!
