Every post published in January 2016, most recent first.
The Court is now in recess. The next sitting will begin on February 22. The calendar for that sitting is available here. The Justices will not meet Friday for their February 19 Conference because of the ceremony at the Court in honor of the late Justice Antonin Scalia; our list of “petitions to watch” that had been scheduled for that Conference is available here.
The Supreme Court released on Friday the argument calendar for its March sitting, showing that the seven cases challenging the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate are set for a ninety-minute hearing on March 23. There will be one more argument sitting, in April.
Briefly: At In A Crowded Theater, Erica Goldberg urges the Court to grant review in Electronic Arts v. Davis, “a Ninth Circuit case involving whether a football video game manufacturer is liable for using the numbers and likenesses of retired football players.” In The Washington Post, Juliet
John Elwood reviews Monday’s relisted cases. With the Iowa caucuses just days away, you’re probably wondering if Relist Watch is endorsing a primary candidate. And having surveyed the field and studied the candidates’ positions on the issues in detail, our answer is: What’s a caucus? Sounds NSFW.
In a recent essay, William Baude attempts to articulate a unifying theory for the Court’s sovereign-immunity jurisprudence, building on a theory first proposed by Stephen Sachs.
At Verdict, Michael Dorf echoes Justice Elena Kagan’s skepticism in the recent oral argument in Heffernan v. City of Paterson about the possibility of sharply distinguishing (for First Amendment purposes) between rules and reasons.
UPDATED 5:15 p.m. The Chief Justice has called for a response from EPA, due by 3 p.m. next Thursday, February 4. Meanwhile, a group of sixty utility companies or energy industry trade groups have filed a second application for a stay of the Clean Power Plan, also submitted to the Chief Justice.
There is more commentary on Monday’s opinion in Montgomery v. Louisiana, holding that Miller v. Alabama – the Court’s 2012 decision prohibiting mandatory sentences of life without parole for juvenile offenders – applies retroactively to cases on state collateral review.
SCOTUSblog is – as we explain in more detail elsewhere on the site – an impartial, journalistic entity that seeks to provide readers with objective information about the Supreme Court and its cases.
As seemed clear to me from the oral argument, the Court yesterday unanimously ruled for the government on two questions of federal criminal law. Justice Clarence Thomas’s crisp fourteen-page opinion for the Court carefully avoids controversy.