EVENT

Constitutional Priorities in the First 100 Days

On Wednesday, Jan. 27, at 2 p.m. EST, Georgetown’s Supreme Court Institute will host a conversation between Supreme Court litigators Paul Clement and Neal Katyal, who each led the Office of the Solicitor General during a recent presidential transition. In addition to discussing how the Biden administration may change positions in pending Supreme Court cases and how the transition could impact the court itself, Clement and Katyal will analyze Donald Trump’s expected impeachment defense that a post-presidency Senate impeachment trial is unconstitutional.

Click here for more info.

WHAT WE'RE READING

The morning read for Tuesday, Jan. 26

Each weekday, we select a few noteworthy news articles, pieces of commentary, and other interesting links related to the Supreme Court. Got a suggestion for a piece you’d like us to consider? Email us at roundup@scotusblog.com.

Here’s what we’re reading on Jan. 26:

• Biden’s Solicitor General Faces Tough Choices On Trump Supreme Court Positions (Nina Totenberg, NPR)
• Supreme Court Seeks Biden DOJ Views on Work-From-Home Taxes (Greg Stohr, Bloomberg)
• Why the Supreme Court didn’t want to hear the Trump emoluments cases and what it means going forward (Ariane de Vogue, CNN)
• Unions just got a rare bit of good news from the Supreme Court (Ian Millhiser, Vox)
• Is SCOTUS Done with Emergency COVID-19 Free Exercise Litigation? (Josh Blackman, The Volokh Conspiracy)
• Marriage Equality and the Sex Discrimination Argument for LGBTQ+ Rights: The Legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg (William Eskridge Jr. & Christopher Riano, Balkinization)

WHAT WE'RE READING

The morning read for Monday, Jan. 25

Each weekday, we select a few noteworthy news articles, pieces of commentary, and other interesting links related to the Supreme Court. Got a suggestion for a piece you’d like us to consider? Email us at roundup@scotusblog.com.

Here’s what we’re reading on Jan. 25:

• Trump Pressed Justice Department to Go Directly to Supreme Court to Overturn Election Results (Jess Bravin & Sadie Gurman)
• The Supreme Court’s run out of excuses to avoid controversial issues (Ariane de Vogue, CNN)
• Nevada church presses US Supreme Court on COVID-19 limits (Scott Sonner, Associated Press)
• Why work? It’s a question the Supreme Court will answer (Daniel Kelly, The Hill)

Live

Announcement of orders and opinions for Monday, Jan. 25 (completed)

We live-blogged as the court released orders from the Jan. 22 conference and an unsigned opinion in Henry Schein v. Archer and White Sales. SCOTUSblog is sponsored by Casetext: Making litigation more efficient with A.I. and machine learning technology.

Petitions of the week

Two cases on the state-secrets privilege

This week we highlight cert petitions that ask the Supreme Court to consider, among other things, the federal government’s state-secrets privilege to protect classified information from disclosure.

In United States v. Zubaydah, respondent Zayn Husayn, also known as Abu Zubaydah, is a former associate of Osama bin Laden who was detained abroad after his capture in Pakistan and who is now being held at the U.S. government’s Guantanamo Bay detention facility. Zubaydah alleges that, before being transferred to Guantanamo, he was held at a CIA “dark site” in Poland, where two former CIA contractors used “enhanced interrogation techniques” against him. Zubaydah, through his attorneys, intervened in a Polish criminal investigation into the CIA’s conduct in that country, and he sought to compel the U.S. government to hand over evidence connected with that investigation. Though the government has declassified some information about Zubaydah’s treatment in CIA custody, it has protected other information as privileged state secrets. Rejecting the government’s argument, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit allowed discovery in the case to proceed.