Every post published in August 2013, most recent first.
Briefly: Relying on United States v. Windsor, in which the Court struck down a provision of the federal Defense of Marriage Act that defined marriage – for purposes of over a thousand federal laws and programs – as a union between a man and a woman, a federal district court in California yesterday
This morning the Court issued a new (and routine) order list. It did not grant any new cases. Among other things, it denied petitions for rehearing and (as it often does) granted the Solicitor General’s motion for divided argument in several cases scheduled for oral argument in October.
Briefly: In the ABA Journal, Mark Walsh looks back at the “seemingly unprecedented rate” at which amicus briefs were filed last Term, as well as the role played by amicus briefs in some of the major cases.
Justice Ginsburg’s recent interviews (which I covered in Monday’s round-up) continue to generate coverage and commentary.
Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth beside his statue in front of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (Wayne Taylor / Creative Commons) This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Birmingham civil rights protests, which led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and gave rise to two little-known Supreme Court cases.
Justice Ginsburg’s remarks in her most recent interviews (which I covered in yesterday’s round-up) have prompted a new round of coverage and commentary. At Slate, Dahlia Lithwick compares those remarks with Justice Scalia’s comments last week in Montana (which I covered in Tuesday’s round-up).
Both Greg Stohr of Bloomberg News and Adam Liptak of The New York Times interviewed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who – among other things — rebuffed calls for her to resign to allow President Obama to appoint her successor, described the current Court as “one of the most activist . . . in history,”
Reflecting on a long career of arguing before the Supreme Court: John Marshall Harlan II, at the end of his career; Thurgood Marshall, William O. Douglas and the constitutionality of the Vietnam War; losing Byron R. White, and so the case, at oral argument; blessing Stephen G. Breyer’s desire to
The Court has dismissed one of the cases on its merits docket for the upcoming Term.
Analysis With the Supreme Court already committed to rule on a major new test of the constitutional roles of religion and government, the prospect of additional cases reaching the Court now suggests that the next Term will be a significant one for the First Amendment’s two religion clauses.