Every post published in December 2012, most recent first.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., saying the federal courts are setting “a good example” on cutting costs, noted on Monday that the Supreme Court itself will be asking Congress for less money in its budget for the year that begins next October 1 — fiscal year 2014.
In the most significant federal appeals court ruling so far on the new federal health care law’s contraceptives mandate, the Seventh Circuit Court on Friday night temporarily barred the federal government from enforcing that requirement against an Illinois construction company whose Roman Catholic owners see it as a threat to their religious freedom.
Briefly: In The New Republic, Jeffrey Rosen argues that, “[d]espite its turn to the right on gun control, the Supreme Court should almost certainly uphold any of the new regulations that have a chance of being enacted, according to the logic of its decisions in District of Columbia v. Heller and
Justice Sotomayor yesterday refused to block the enforcement of the Affordable Care Act’s contraception coverage mandate. Lyle has coverage for this blog, with further coverage coming from Pete Williams of NBC News, Cara Maresca of MSNBC, Reuters (via The New York Times), the Associated Press (via Salon), Fox News, and Ruthann Robson of Constitutional Law Prof Blog.
Briefly: At Constitution Daily, Lyle Denniston looks at the Court’s constitutional law dockets for 2012 and 2013 and concludes that, “[a]s the New Year unfolds, the [Court] switches its center of attention from constitutional architecture to constitutional rights.” C-SPAN previews an upcoming “Book
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor refused on Wednesday afternoon to block enforcement of the new federal health care law’s mandate that profit-making companies begin providing free birth-control drugs and methods for their women workers, beginning next week.
No oral arguments are scheduled until the January sitting begins on January 7. The next Conference is scheduled for January 4. Our list of “Petitions to watch” for that Conference is here.
Two profit-making companies run by religious families who have strong anti-abortion views have asked the Supreme Court for an emergency order to protect them from the new federal mandate requiring employers to provide free health insurance for emergency contraceptives for their workers.
Yesterday’s coverage continued to focus on Judge Robert Bork, who passed away on Wednesday. In addition to the coverage collected in yesterday’s round-up, other coverage comes from Akhil Amar at Slate, Dylan Matthews at The Washington Post’s Wonkblog, David Greenberg in an op-ed for The New York Times, Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy, and Christopher Schmidt at the Legal History Blog.
Ruling that the courts have no power to do anything about it, a federal judge on Friday threw out a claim that Senate filibusters are an unconstitutional denial of majority rule.