Every post published in November 2015, most recent first.
One of the constitutional puzzles that never seems to get decided once and for all is how much sovereignty the states kept when they became part of the Union. One of the true hallmarks of a sovereign is that it cannot be sued without its consent.
Today is the first day of the December sitting, and the Court will hear oral arguments in two cases. The George Washington Law Review’s “On the Docket” previews all of the December cases.
The Supreme Court on Monday sought the federal government’s views on a plea by the Mexican parents of a fifteen-year-old boy who was killed by a U.S. border agent shooting across the boundary between the two countries.
The transcript in Musacchio v. United States is here; the transcript in Green v. Brennan is here.
The Court issued additional orders from the November 24 Conference on Monday. On Tuesday the Court released its opinion in OBB Personenverkehr AG v. Sachs. The Court also heard oral arguments on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. The hearing list for the December sitting is here.
In its Conference of December 4, 2015, the Court will consider petitions seeking review of issues such as whether disability payments are “earnings” and whether Texas’s standard for determining whether a capital defendant meets the definition of “intellectual disability” violates the Eighth Amendment.
The following is a series of questions posed by Ronald Collins on the occasion of the publication of Earl Warren and the Struggle for Justice (Lexington Books, 2015, pp. 360), by Wilmington College political science professor Paul Moke.
Showing some skepticism that an election now taking place in Hawaii is a purely private matter, Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy on Friday temporarily blocked the ballot-counting after all the votes are in on Monday.
Happy Thanksgiving to our readers! We’re grateful for you and all of the links that you send us. (Yes, I know it’s tomorrow, but we’ll be off tomorrow.)
Gobeille v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company will never get the press scrutiny of King v. Burwell, but at heart it considers much the same policy question: to what extent does federal law facilitate the centralized management of health care?