Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia Inc. v. Comer

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Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia Inc. v. Comer

Opinion analysis: Court gives broad meaning to “confidential” in FOIA exemption for commercial and financial information – Mark Fenster

Opinion analysis: Punitive damages not available under general maritime law in personal-injury unseaworthiness action – Joel Goldstein

Opinion analysis: Long-time prohibition on registration of scandalous and immoral trademarks is struck down – Megan Carpenter

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Docket No.	Op. Below	Argument	Opinion	Vote	Author	Term
15-577	8th Cir.	Apr 19, 2017 Tr.Aud.	Jun 26, 2017	7-2	Roberts	OT 2016

Holding: The Missouri Department of Natural Resources' express policy of denying grants to any applicant owned or controlled by a church, sect or other religious entity violated the rights of Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc., under the free exercise clause of the First Amendment by denying the church an otherwise available public benefit on account of its religious status.

Judgment: Reversed and remanded, 7-2, in an opinion by Chief Justice Roberts on June 26, 2017. Chief Justice Roberts delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court, except as to Footnote 3. Justices Kennedy, Alito and Kagan joined that opinion in full, and Justices Thomas and Gorsuch joined except as to Footnote 3. Justice Thomas filed an opinion concurring in part, in which Justice Gorsuch joined. Justice Gorsuch filed an opinion concurring in part, in which Justice Thomas joined. Justice Breyer filed an opinion concurring in the judgment. Justice Sotomayor filed a dissenting opinion, in which Justice Ginsburg joined.

Symposium: Playground resurfacing case provides soft landing for state "no aid" provisions (Alice O'Brien)
Symposium: The justices reach broad agreement, but on a narrow question (Fred Yarger)
Symposium: The Constitution provides a level playing field for people of faith (Hillary Byrnes)
Symposium: The crumbling wall separating church and state (Erwin Chemerinsky)
Symposium: Trinity Lutheran and Zelman – Saved by footnote 3 or a dream come true for voucher advocates? (Frank Ravitch)
Symposium: Court ruling bolsters religious liberty… beyond the playground (Nathan Diament)
Symposium: Bad news from Trinity Lutheran – Only two justices support the establishment clause (Leslie Griffin)
Symposium: Putting some limits on the "play in the joints" (Erin Morrow Hawley)
A "view" from the courtroom: A day for drama on the bench (Mark Walsh)
Opinion analysis: Church prevails in funding dispute (Amy Howe)
And then there were six – the remaining cases (Amy Howe)
And then there were nine – the remaining decisions (Amy Howe)
Argument analysis: Justices leaning toward a ruling for Trinity Lutheran on the merits (Amy Howe)
Both sides urge court to go ahead in church-state case (Amy Howe)
Missouri reverses course on aid to religious organizations (UPDATED) (Amy Howe)
Argument preview: More than just a playground dispute (Amy Howe)
Court releases April calendar (Amy Howe)
Justices release March calendar (Amy Howe)
Symposium: Gay rights, religious liberty and … tire scraps? The inclusive Fourteenth Amendment path in Trinity Lutheran (Mark Rienzi)
Symposium: Religious freedom, not religious discrimination (Richard B. Katskee)
Symposium: Confronting a nativist past; protecting school-choice’s future (Rick Garnett)
Symposium: Not on the taxpayers’ dime (Daniel Mach)
Symposium: Ban on state funding of churches protects independence (K. Hollyn Hollman)
Symposium: A soft landing at the Supreme Court (Hannah Smith and Luke Goodrich)
Introduction: More than just a playground dispute (Amy Howe)

Date	Proceedings and Orders (key to color coding)
Nov 04 2015	Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due December 7, 2015)
Dec 03 2015	Consent to the filing of amicus curiae briefs, in support of either party or of neither party, received from counsel for petitioner.
Dec 07 2015	Brief amici curiae of Association of Christian Schools International, and Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod filed.
Dec 07 2015	Brief amicus curiae of The American Center for Law & Justice filed.
Dec 07 2015	Brief amici curiae of Nevada, et al. filed.
Dec 07 2015	Brief of respondent Sara Parker Pauley, Director, Missouri Department of Natural Resources in opposition filed.
Dec 07 2015	Brief amicus curiae of Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission filed.
Dec 07 2015	Brief amicus curiae of Foundation for Moral Law filed. (Distributed)
Dec 18 2015	Reply of petitioner Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. filed.
Dec 22 2015	DISTRIBUTED for Conference of January 8, 2016.
Jan 11 2016	DISTRIBUTED for Conference of January 15, 2016.
Jan 15 2016	Petition GRANTED.
Feb 09 2016	The time to file the joint appendix and petitioner's brief on the merits is extended to and including April 14, 2016.
Feb 09 2016	The time to file respondent's brief on the merits is extended to and including June 28, 2016.
Mar 17 2016	Consent to the filing of amicus curiae briefs, in support of either party or of neither party, received from counsel for the petitioner.
Apr 14 2016	Joint appendix filed. (Statement of costs filed.)
Apr 14 2016	Brief of petitioner Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. filed.
Apr 18 2016	Brief amicus curiae of World Vision, Inc. filed.
Apr 19 2016	Brief amicus curiae of The American Center for Law & Justice filed.
Apr 20 2016	Brief amicus curiae of The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America filed.
Apr 20 2016	Brief amicus curiae of Justice and Freedom Fund filed.
Apr 21 2016	Brief amicus curiae of American Jewish Committee in support of neither party filed.
Apr 21 2016	Brief amicus curiae of The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty filed.
Apr 21 2016	Brief amicus curiae of Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission filed.
Apr 21 2016	Brief amici curiae of Association of Christian Schools International, and Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod filed.
Apr 21 2016	Brief amicus curiae of The Bronx Household of Faith filed.
Apr 21 2016	Brief amicus curiae of Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance filed.
Apr 21 2016	Brief amicus curiae of American Association of Christian Schools filed.
Apr 21 2016	Brief amici curiae of Members of Congress filed.
Apr 21 2016	Brief amici curiae of Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, et al. filed.
Apr 21 2016	Brief amicus curiae of Institute for Justice filed.
Apr 21 2016	Brief amici curiae of Douglas County School District, et al. filed.
Apr 21 2016	Brief amicus curiae of National Association of Evangelicals filed.
Apr 21 2016	Brief amicus curiae of Pacific Legal Foundation filed.
Apr 21 2016	Brief amici curiae of Nevada, et al. filed.
Apr 21 2016	Brief amicus curiae of The General Council of the Assemblies of God filed.
Apr 21 2016	Brief amicus curiae of Belmont Abbey College filed.
Apr 21 2016	Brief amici curiae of Law and Religion Practitioners filed.
Apr 21 2016	Brief amicus curiae of The Cato Institute filed.
Apr 21 2016	Brief amici curiae of Christian Legal Society, et al. filed.
Apr 21 2016	Brief amicus curiae of Colorado filed.
Apr 21 2016	Brief amici curiae of United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, et al. filed.
Apr 21 2016	Brief amici curiae of Liberty Counsel, et al. filed.
Apr 21 2016	Brief amicus curiae of WallBuilders, Inc. filed.
Jun 28 2016	Brief of respondent Sara Parker Pauley, Director, Missouri Department of Natural Resources filed.
Jul 05 2016	Brief amici curiae of American Civil Liberties Union, et al. filed.
Jul 05 2016	Brief amici curiae of Religious and Civil Rights Organizations filed.
Jul 05 2016	Brief amici curiae of Legal and Religious Historians filed.
Jul 05 2016	Brief amici curiae of Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and General Synod of The United Church of Christ filed.
Jul 05 2016	Brief amicus curiae of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. filed.
Jul 05 2016	Brief amicus curiae of The National Education Association filed.
Jul 22 2016	Application (16A78) to extend the time to file a reply brief from July 28, 2016 to August 12, 2016, submitted to Justice Alito.
Jul 25 2016	Application (16A78) granted by Justice Alito extending the time to file until August 12, 2016.
Aug 12 2016	Reply of petitioner Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. filed.
Feb 17 2017	SET FOR ARGUMENT ON Wednesday, April 19, 2017.
Feb 24 2017	Record requested from the U.S.C.A. 8th Circuit.
Mar 02 2017	Record received from the U.S.C.A. 8th Circuit (1 box).
Mar 02 2017	CIRCULATED.
Apr 14 2017	Request from the Clerk that the parties submit their views on whether this case is affected by the press release relating to access to Missouri grant programs issued by Governor Greitens on April 13, 2017. The parties' views should be in the form of a letter delivered to the Court and served upon counsel by noon on Tuesday, April 18, 2017.
Apr 18 2017	Letter of petitioner pursuant to April 14, 2017 request of Clerk filed. (Distributed)
Apr 18 2017	Letter of respondent pursuant to April 14, 2017 request of Clerk filed. (Distributed)
Apr 19 2017	Argued. For petitioner: David A. Cortman, Lawrenceville, Ga. For respondent: James R. Layton, Jefferson City, Mo.
Jun 26 2017	Judgment REVERSED and case REMANDED. Roberts, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court, except as to footnote 3. Kennedy, Alito, and Kagan, JJ., joined that opinion in full, and Thomas and Gorsuch, JJ., joined except as to footnote 3. Thomas, J., filed an opinion concurring in part, in which Gorsuch, J., joined. Gorsuch, J., filed an opinion concurring in part, in which Thomas, J., joined. Breyer, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment. Sotomayor, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Ginsburg, J., joined.
Jul 28 2017	JUDGMENT ISSUED.
Aug 07 2017	Record from the U.S.C.A. for the Eight Circuit has been returned.

Featured Posts

Opinion analysis: Court gives broad meaning to “confidential” in FOIA exemption for commercial and financial information – Mark Fenster

Opinion analysis: Punitive damages not available under general maritime law in personal-injury unseaworthiness action – Joel Goldstein

Opinion analysis: Long-time prohibition on registration of scandalous and immoral trademarks is struck down – Megan Carpenter
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On Monday, the Supreme Court released orders from the June 20 conference; the justices granted eight new cases, for a total of five hours of oral argument next term: Guerrero-Lasprilla v. Barr, Ovalles v. Barr, Dex Media Inc. v. Click-To-Call Technologies, LP, Maine Community Health Options v. United States, Moda Health Plan Inc. v. United States, Land of Lincoln Mutual Health Insurance Co. v. United States, Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org Inc. and Banister v. Davis.
Also on Monday, the justices released their opinions in four argued cases: United States v. Davis, Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media, Iancu v. Brunetti and The Dutra Group v. Batterton.
The Supreme Court will release opinions in one or more argued cases on Wednesday at 10 a.m.
Major Cases
- Department of Commerce v. New York
  (1) Whether the district court erred in enjoining the secretary of the Department of Commerce from reinstating a question about citizenship to the 2020 decennial census on the ground that the secretary’s decision violated the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. 701 et seq; (2) whether, in an action seeking to set aside agency action under the APA, a district court may order discovery outside the administrative record to probe the mental processes of the agency decisionmaker -- including by compelling the testimony of high-ranking executive branch officials -- without a strong showing that the decisionmaker disbelieved the objective reasons in the administrative record, irreversibly prejudged the issue, or acted on a legally forbidden basis; and (3) whether the secretary’s decision to add a citizenship question to the decennial census violated the enumeration clause of the U.S. Constitution.
- Lamone v. Benisek
  In case in which the plaintiffs allege that a Maryland congressional district was gerrymandered to retaliate against them for their political views: (1) whether the various legal claims articulated by the three-judge district court are unmanageable; (2) whether the three-judge district court erred when, in granting plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment, it resolved disputes of material fact as to multiple elements of plaintiffs’ claims, failed to view the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, and treated as “undisputed” evidence that is the subject of still-unresolved hearsay and other evidentiary objections; and (3) whether the three-judge district court abused its discretion in entering an injunction despite the plaintiffs’ years-long delay in seeking injunctive relief, rendering the remedy applicable to at most one election before the next decennial census necessitates another redistricting.
- Kisor v. Wilkie
  Whether the Supreme Court should overrule Auer v. Robbins and Bowles v. Seminole Rock & Sand Co., which direct courts to defer to an agency’s reasonable interpretation of its own ambiguous regulation.
- Rucho v. Common Cause
  (1) Whether plaintiffs have standing to press their partisan gerrymandering claims; (2) whether plaintiffs’ partisan gerrymandering claims are justiciable; and (3) whether North Carolina’s 2016 congressional map is, in fact, an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.
- The American Legion v. American Humanist Association
- Gamble v. United States
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Recent Decisions
- Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media Where commercial or financial information is both customarily and actually treated as private by its owner and provided to the government under an assurance of privacy, the information is “confidential” within the meaning of 5 U. S. C. §552(b)(4), the Freedom of Information Act’s Exemption 4.
- Iancu v. Brunetti The Lanham Act prohibition on the registration of “immoral” or “scandalous” trademarks infringes the First Amendment.
- The Dutra Group v. Batterton A plaintiff may not recover punitive damages on a maritime claim of unseaworthiness.
- United States v. Davis Title 18 U. S. C. §924(c)(3)(B), which provides enhanced penalties for using a firearm during a “crime of violence,” is unconstitutionally vague.
see all this term’s cases »
Current Relists
- Atlanta Gas Light Co. v. Bennett Regulator Guards Inc. (1) Whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit erred in concluding that it had jurisdiction to review the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s decision to institute inter partes review of respondent’s patent over respondent’s objection that it was time-barred; and (2) whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit erred when it rejected the longstanding principle that a dismissal without prejudice leaves the parties as if a suit had never been brought, splitting the circuits.
- Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California (1) Whether the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to wind down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy is judicially reviewable; and (2) whether DHS’s decision to wind down the DACA policy is lawful.
- Kelly v. United States Whether a public official “defraud[s]” the government of its property by advancing a “public policy reason” for an official decision that is not her subjective “real reason” for making the decision.
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Cases argued	69
Cases decided	61
Summary reversals	5
Merits cases granted to date	74

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