Announcement of opinions for Wednesday, January 14

The Supreme Court will hear oral argument on Wednesday in a pair of disputes stemming from accidents in Philadelphia and New York City involving buses operated by the New Jersey Transit Corporation, which describes itself as the state’s “public transportation corporation.” The issue at the center of both cases is not whether New Jersey Transit is responsible for the plaintiffs’ injuries, but instead, whether it can be sued in state courts in Pennsylvania and New York.

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide whether two federal laws that allow lawsuits in U.S. courts for torture and serious violations of international law permit private lawsuits for aiding and abetting such conduct. That case, Cisco Systems, Inc. v. Doe I, was one of five cases in which the justices granted review on Friday afternoon. Two of the other cases that were granted – Federal Communications Commission v. AT&T and Verizon Communications Inc.  v. Federal Communications Commission – will be argued together. The court released a brief list of orders announcing those grants; it is expected to issue a longer list of orders from its Jan. 9 conference at 9:30 a.m. EST on Monday, Jan. 12.

“These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.”

A couple of years ago, the Supreme Court shifted the one “non-argument day” it holds for almost every argument session sitting to the Friday before the session starts, instead of the Monday after the two weeks of arguments. Such days often just involve the justices taking the bench for a few minutes to admit new lawyers to the Supreme Court bar. But when opinions in argued cases are ready, those non-argument days can become opinion days.

We were live as the court released its opinion in Bowe v. United States.

We will also be live blogging the court’s possible announcement of opinions on Wednesday, Jan. 14, starting at 9:30 a.m. EST.

Who are the challengers in the cases?

There are two challengers – both transgender women – in two separate cases, Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. B.P.J., which will be argued on the same day, Tuesday, Jan. 13. One challenger is Lindsay Hecox, now 24 years old, who filed this lawsuit when seeking to try out for the women’s track and cross-country teams at Boise State University in Idaho. Hecox did not make the NCAA teams at BSU but competes at the club level.

The other challenger is B.P.J., a 15-year-old high school student who has publicly identified as female since the third grade. B.P.J. takes medicine to stave off the onset of male puberty and has also begun to receive hormone therapy with estrogen. B.P.J’s mother, Heather Jackson, went to court on her child’s behalf when she learned that the West Virginia law would bar B.P.J. from participating on the girls’ middle school sports teams.