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Open Thread: End of 2024-2025 Term, The Last Decisions

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[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]

We are finally at the end of this torturous SCOTUS term with six decisions expected today.

The most important in my opinion is Trump v. CASA, regarding the reach of a lower court order with regard to Trump’s ban on birthright citizenship.

Today’s decisions follow below and will be added to this post as released; any shadow docket decisions released today will follow in an update at the bottom of this post.

~ ~ ~

Trump v. CASA Inc. — Justice Barrett wrote the 6-3 decision, with the court breaking along ideological lines. Justice Sotomayor wrote a dissent for her, Kagan, and Jackson; Jackson also wrote a dissent.
See: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a884_8n59.pdf

This case centered on district court decisions in Maryland, Massachusetts, and Washington blocking enforcement of Trump’s executive order banning birthright citizenship to persons born in the US depending on the status of their parents’ citizenship. SCOTUS in essence said district courts can only write orders narrowed to the case though birthright citizenship has been recognized since the passage of the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment in 1868.

Kennedy v. Braidwood Management — Justice Kavanaugh delivered this 6-3 decision; Thomas wrote the dissent which Alito and Gorsuch joined.
See: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24-316_869d.pdf

This case arose from right-wing Christianist attacks on preventative health care under ACA like PrEP intended to prevent HIV infection; they claimed it infringed on their religious rights “by making them complicit in facilitating homosexual behavior, drug use, and sexual activity outside of marriage between one man and one woman.” (Never mind any first responders who might be on PrEP to protect themselves from incidental exposure.) The attack focused on the Appointment Clause attempting to sever the relationship between subordinate officers empaneled by HHS and policy execution; the case has had enormous repercussions affecting other preventative care under ACA.

Federal Communications Commission v. Consumers’ Research — Justice Kagan has the 6-3 decision; Gorsuch filed the dissent which Thomas and Alito joined.
See: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24-354_0861.pdf

summary TK

Mahmoud v. Taylor— Justice Alito wrote the 6-3 decision; Thomas wrote a concurring opinion. Justice Sotomayor filed the dissent, joined by Kagan and Jackson.

See: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24-297_4f14.pdf

summary TK

Free Speech Coalition Inc. v. Paxton — Justice Thomas has the 6-3 decision; Justice Kagan filed a dissent joined by Sotomayor and Jackson.
See: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/23-1122_3e04.pdf

summary TK – though I must add RTFN:

Held: H. B. 1181 triggers, and survives, review under intermediate scrutiny because it only incidentally burdens the protected speech of
adults. Pp. 5–36.

Fuck any Free Speech rights minors may have, or the school district’s rights to determine PUBLIC SCHOOL curriculum because of right-wing Christianist freaks.

Louisiana v. Callais — This case was rescheduled for re-argument. Justice Thomas disagrees with this rescheduling and issued a dissent documenting his rationale.
See: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24-109_l53m.pdf

summary TK

Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic — This case appears to have been pushed out to next week.

summary TK

I assume we’ll get any shadow docket cases next week as well, but I could be wrong; the last decisions weren’t all released today after all and I thought incorrectly they would be.

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Open Thread: SCOTUS Decisions, End of Term Ahead

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[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]

This is the last week of the 2024-2025 term for the Supreme Court. SCOTUS is expected to release multiple decisions at least twice this week; what follows is the first batch.

As mentioned last week, the big decision we are waiting for with the end of this term is Trump v. CASA Inc. regarding nationwide injunctions blocking executive orders, in this particular case related to birthright citizenship.

Decisions released (these summaries from Marcy — Rayne is busy):

Hewitt v. US: 5-4 Jackson decision upholds First Step Act sentencing.

Medina v. Planned Parenthood: 6-3 Republican opinion rules that private plaintiffs can’t enforce Medicaid provision.

Guttierrez v. Saenz: 6-3 Sotomayor opinion, fascists in dissent, rules for death row inmate on DNA testing procedures.

Riley v. Bondi: 5-4 Alito ruling narrowing review in immigration case.

All remaining opinions will be released tomorrow.

 

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Open Thread: SCOTUS Decisions, Friday Edition

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[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]

We’re still in the end-of-term desk clearing zone at the Supreme Court. SCOTUS released a whopping six decisions today.

Decisions released:

FDA v. R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co.
Justice Barrett lead the 7-2 decision.
See: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/23-1187_olp1.pdf

Esteras v. United States
Justice Barrett also lead this 7-2 decision with Justice Alito and Gorsuch dissenting.
See: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/23-7483_6k4c.pdf

McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates, Inc. v. McKesson Corporation
Justice Kavanaugh wrote the 6-3 decision.
See: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/23-1226_1a72.pdf

Diamond Alternative Energy LLC v. Environmental Protection Agency
Surprisingly, Justice Kavanaugh wrote this 7-2 decision and not Thomas who wrote Wednesday’s two decisions related to the EPA.
See: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24-7_8m58.pdf

Stanley v. City of Sanford, Florida
Justice Gorsuch lead this 7-2 decision, although concurrence and dissent are a bit of a mish-mash:

GORSUCH, J., delivered the opinion of the Court with respect to Parts I and II, in which ROBERTS, C. J., and THOMAS, ALITO, KAGAN, KAVANAUGH, and BARRETT, JJ., joined, and an opinion with respect to Part III, in which ALITO, SOTOMAYOR, and KAGAN, JJ., joined. THOMAS, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and concurring in the judgment, in which BARRETT, J., joined. SOTOMAYOR, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part. JACKSON, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which SOTOMAYOR, J., joined as to Parts III and IV, except for n. 12.

See: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/23-997_6579.pdf — you might want to read this one closely as it pertains to disability rights and nearly all of us at some point in our lives has been employed and been/will be disabled.

Fuld v. Palestine Liberation Organization
Chief Justice Roberts wrote the opinion.
See: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24-20_f2bh.pdf

Of these six decisions I note that Justice Kagan wrote one dissent joined by Justices Sotomayor and Jackson in the matter of McLaughlin Chiropractic. She’s otherwise joined the conservatives. Hmm.

In my opinion, the big decision we are waiting for with the end of the term is Trump v. CASA Inc. regarding nationwide injunctions blocking executive orders, in this particular case related to birthright citizenship.

That this decision has not already been released disturbs me; it feels like Roberts is holding it off until SCOTUS can make a clean getaway at the very end of the term next week. But is Roberts preparing to flee the wrath of Trump and his Wormtongue Miller, or the wrath of the people?

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Open Thread: SCOTUS Decisions

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[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]

It’s desk clearing time at the Supreme Court with the end of its annual term looming ahead. SCOTUS will dump a bunch of decisions in a short time frame beginning today.

Decisions released today:

Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. Texas
Justice Brett Kavanaugh has 6-3 decision. See: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/23-1300_b97c.pdf
With this decision SCOTUS overturned the Fifth Circuit which had vacated a license granted to a private waste handler that wanted to build a nuclear waste facility in Texas, permitted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. This decision is contrary to Texas state law but hinged on challenge by a nonparty.

Environmental Protection Agency v. Calumet Shreveport Refining
Justice Clarence Thomas has the decision. See: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/23-1229_c0ne.pdf
summary to follow

Oklahoma v. Environmental Protection Agency
Justice Clarence Thomas has the decision. See: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/23-1067_6j36.pdf
summary to follow

United States v. Skrmetti, Attorney General and Reporter for Tennessee, et al.
Chief Justice John Roberts has the decision. See: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/23-477_2cp3.pdf
This is revolting, allowing Tennessee to continue to undermine bodily autonomy of a small group of persons because they weren’t born into a false binary. The decision upholds the state of Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors because of wretched twistiness regarding “sex” versus “gender” identity.

Updates will follow as summaries are completed and additional information becomes available.

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Open Thread: Last Batch of SCOTUS Decisions

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[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]

The last batch of decisions will drop shortly — I think. Last week the Supreme Court didn’t deliver all of the remaining decisions it had on its plate and pushed them into a new month.

I hope these outstanding cases will be decided today:

NetChoice, LLC v. Paxton and Moody v. NetChoice, LLC (these are both about social media and may come as one or two decisions)

Corner Post, Inc. v. Board of Governors Of The Federal Rsrv. Sys.

Trump v. United States

Decisions released today follow in an update at the bottom of this post.

~ ~ ~

First decision: Corner Post, Inc. v. Board of Governors Of The Federal Rsrv. Sys.

Justice Barrett wrote the 6-3 decision; Justice Brown Jackson wrote the dissent joined by Sotomayor and Kagan.

This one could cause a lot of problems forcing reassessment of past rules and decisions by the Fed Reserve’s Board based on the dates used — the date an injury occurred due to a new Fed rule versus the date the new rule was first in force.

Second decision: NetChoice, LLC v. Paxton and Moody v. NetChoice, LLC

Justice Kagan wrote the unanimous decision on these consolidated cases, though there are concurrences:

KAGAN, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS, C. J.,
and SOTOMAYOR, KAVANAUGH, and BARRETT, JJ., joined in full, and in
which JACKSON, J., joined as to Parts I, II and III–A. BARRETT, J., filed a
concurring opinion. JACKSON, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and
concurring in the judgment. THOMAS, J., filed an opinion concurring in
the judgment. ALITO, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, in
which THOMAS and GORSUCH, JJ., joined.

Whew. I don’t see the word “dissent” in this, do you? It’s another smackdown of the Fifth Circuit as well.

Third decision: Trump v. United States

Justice Roberts wrote the 6-3 court decision; Justice Sotomayor wrote a dissent joined by Kagan and Brown Jackson. Justice Brown Jackson also wrote a dissent.

From SCOTUSBlog’s thread:

The court holds that a former president has absolute immunity for his core constitutional powers.

Former presidents are also entitled to at least a presumption of immunity for their official acts.

There is no immunity, the court holds, for unofficial acts.

The core constitutional powers are things like appointing ambassadors and foreign governments.

This is not all of the decision – Roberts was still reading his decision at 10:37 a.m. ET. It looks like this is being handed back to lower courts because of the lack of distinction between official and unofficial acts. It also looks like the rightwing of SCOTUS has extended immunity to Trump for his discussions with Department of Justice, which I assume means if he made any false statements to FBI or other DOJ personnel, those charges will be dropped.

~ ~ ~

This is an open thread. Any further updates related to these cases will appear at the bottom of this post.

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Open Thread: SCOTUS Decisions, Final Day* of Term Edition

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It’s the last day* Supreme Court’s term, and the last batch of decisions will drop shortly

Decisions released today follow in an update at the bottom of this post.

*–No, it’s not the final day after all, but this post was written as a pre-scheduled draft back on June 25 and my psychic powers predicting how many cases would drop on which dates was at an ebb.

~ ~ ~

Time-killing observations:

One of the great tragedies of the red states’ push to ban abortion as reproductive care has been the threats to and loss of doctors and other health care workers who provide reproductive health services. If health care professionals are at risk of prosecution in red states for providing what may be essential lifesaving care, they are often electing to leave and practice elsewhere. With the loss of health care professionals due to the COVID pandemic, they won’t have difficulty finding a new place to practice even if it may not feel like the home they leave behind.

Health care professional Rory Cole wrote an op-ed about Idaho which was affected by SCOTUS’s handling of the Moyle v. Idaho case. Worth a read because her opinion is surely shared by other health care professionals in states like Texas and Florida.

I’m staying in Idaho to practice medicine after the U.S. Supreme Court’s EMTALA decision

~ ~ ~

Today’s decisions —

First decision: City of Grants Pass v. Johnson

Justice Gorsuch wrote the 6-3 decision; Justice Sotomayor wrote the dissent which she opened by noting, “Sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime.”

Grants Pass banned public camping — which really banned homeless persons from sleeping in public. What a piece of shit decision relying on the Eighth Amendment to punish the homeless.

As noted all too often about the so-called conservatives: the cruelty is the point.

Second decision: Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo

Justice Roberts wrote the 6-3 decision; Justice Kagan wrote the dissent. The court split along ideological lines as expected.

This case essentially undermines the unanimous Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. (1984) decision upon which federal agencies have relied for decades.

This is yet another swipe at the administrative state by the Roberts court and yet more evidence each of the recent GOP-appointed justices lied during their nomination hearings if they affirmed stare decisis. They are writing law from the bench.

Third decision: Fischer v. United States

Justice Roberts wrote the 6-3 decision; oddly, Justice Brown Jackson concurred. Justice Coney Barrett wrote the dissent joined by justices Sotomayor and Kagan.

This is the January 6 case in which accused insurrectionists were charged with 18 USC 1512(c); the majority narrowed the scope of the charge to impairment of record, document, or other objects in official proceedings. Aggravatingly, this appears to place focus on 18 USC 1512(c)(1) and not 18 USC 1512(c)(2) as you can see from the code itself:

(c) Whoever corruptly—

(1) alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a record, document, or other object, or attempts to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding; or
(2) otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.

IANAL but this makes no sense to me because the entire point of the attack on the capitol was to obstruct the counting of votes and alter the outcome of the election’s certification.

~ ~ ~

This is an open thread. Any further updates related to these cases will appear at the bottom of this post.

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Open Thread: SCOTUS Decisions, Thursday Edition [UPDATE-1]

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This is the penultimate day of the Supreme Court’s term ending on June 28; a few more decisions today with the remainder tomorrow Friday, the last day of the term.

Decisions released today will follow below. Unfortunately I need to be away from my desk for a while this morning; I may not post the decisions promptly after 10:00 a.m. ET but I will do so as soon as I can get to my desk.

~ ~ ~

Time-killing observations:

SCOTUS taking up gender-affirming care of transgender children:

The court agreed Monday to hear the Biden administration’s challenge to a Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming medical treatment for minors, an increasingly potent political issue that has divided lower courts and emerged as a leading front in the battle over LGBTQ issues.

This is going to be as messy as other decisions like those about gun and reproductive rights.

This one will likely go 5-4 with conservatives in majority, none of whom will give a shit about the children’s sentiments.

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UPDATE-1 — 10:40 A.M. — Today’s decisions —

First decision: Ohio v. EPA

Justice Gorsuch wrote the 5-4 decision; Justice Barrett wrote the dissent, siding with the liberals on this case related to the EPA’s “Good Neighbor” rule.

Second decision: Harrington v. Purdue Pharma L.P.

Justice Gorsuch also wrote this 5-4 decision; Justice Kavanaugh wrote the dissent with what seems an odd combination of Kagan, Roberts, and Sotomayor.

This was about the bankrupt maker of prescription pain-killer Oxycontin and the release of claims.

Third decision: Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy

Chief Justice Roberts wrote the 6-3 decision; Justice Sotomayor wrote the dissent. The case centered on a hedge fund manager’s fraud and their Seventh Amendment right to a trial.

Fourth decision: Moyle v. United States and Idaho v. United States (consolidated)

As expected after yesterday’s accidental leak of the decision, SCOTUS dismissed the emergency abortion case.

~ ~ ~

Updates with news related to the SCOTUS decisions today will appear at the bottom of this post. This is an open thread.

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Open Thread: SCOTUS Decisions, Wednesday Edition [UPDATE-2]

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[NB: check the byline, thanks. Updates appear at the bottom of this post. /~Rayne]

Yet again a week later we’re still counting down to the Supreme Court’s term ending on June 28; SCOTUS delivers a few more decisions today with the remainder spread across tomorrow Thursday, and Friday the last day of the term.

Once more we ask: will SCOTUS finally decide the question of presidential immunity posed in Trump v. United States? Or will we not see a decision until tomorrow or Friday?

Decisions released today follow in an update at the bottom of this post.

~ ~ ~

Time-killing observations:

Trump’s case for presidential immunity was the first sub-topic when I searched Google News for “supreme court.” Apparently corporate news media is concerned about this and willing to invest a little human capital about it.

This, however, is just plain disturbing. Who knew House Speaker Mike Johnson would be a minion for that dirtbag Bannon after Bannon refused to comply with a Congressional subpoena? Doesn’t Johnson expect persons his Congress might subpoena to comply?

~ ~ ~

Today’s decisions —

First decision: Murthy v. Missouri

Justice Coney Barrett wrote the 6-3 decision; Justice Alito wrote the dissent.

This is the First Amendment case about the Biden administration’s efforts to stem disinformation on social media. The states and individual plaintiffs were found to lack standing and the Fifth Circuit erred in lumping the states and the plaintiffs together. The Fifth Circuit’s decision is reversed.

A little statistical analysis:

“Vaccine” and “vaccines” appear (65) times in total in the decision and dissent.

“Misinformation” appears (91) times.

“Disinformation” appears (3) times and not at all in the dissent.

“Ivermectin” does not appear at all.

Second decision: Snyder v. United States

Justice Kavanaugh wrote the 6-3 decision; Justice Brown Jackson wrote the dissent.

In essence this was a case about public corruption; is an amount of money paid to a public official after goods/services have been rendered a bribe or a gratuity if there’s no quid pro quo?

You’ll be shocked, SHOCKED at which way the GOP-appointed jurists went.

Third decision: That’s it, there isn’t a third one today, and definitely not a presidential immunity decision.

~ ~ ~

Updates with news related to the SCOTUS decisions today will appear at the bottom of this post. This is an open thread.

~ ~ ~

UPDATE-1 — 1:15 P.M. —

Bloomberg got the scoop on a decision which wasn’t released today: Supreme Court Poised to Allow Emergency Abortions in Idaho

Kimberly Robinson who is on Bloomberg’s byline, posted this on the dead bird app:

Kimberly Robinson @KimberlyRobinsn

BREAKING: #SCOTUS inadvertently released its opinion in EMTALA abortion case earlier this morning. The Justices are poised to allow emergency abortions in Idaho, suggesting the Court shouldn’t have gotten involved in the early litigation.

12:49 PM · Jun 26, 2024

Bloomberg’s article is paywalled; you can read similar coverage at The Guardian: US supreme court set to allow emergency abortions in Idaho – report

So…is this accidental leak a head fake of some sort? A means to relieve pressure? Will it come up in the presidential debate if the decision isn’t formally released until Friday?

(h/t community member c-i-v-i-l for the heads up)

~ ~ ~

UPDATE-2 — 6:10 P.M. —

The Washington Post has a story now about the briefly posted decision in Moyle v. United States and Idaho v. United States. The decision was accidentally published ahead of schedule and quickly removed from SCOTUS’s website, but not before a copy was obtained.

I’m not going to elaborate on this now because it’s not formally a decision until it is published. When it finally is, it’s going to be a must-read based on the concurrences — the tea leaves to be read ahead of future cases about reproductive health care.

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Open Thread: SCOTUS Decisions, Friday Edition [UPDATE-1]

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[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]

We’re still counting down to the Supreme Court’s term ending on June 28; SCOTUS delivers a few more decisions today of the remaining 18 cases they’ve heard. Looks like there will be more than four issued.

Yet again we ask: will SCOTUS finally decide the question of presidential immunity posed in Trump v. United States? Perhaps it’s not even a question of whether today or not we’ll see a decision.

What’s your Magic 8-Ball say: YES the court will decide this month, or NO the court’s conservatives are going to drag this into the next term to give Trump an assist.

Decisions released today follow in an update at the bottom of this post.

~ ~ ~

Time-killing observations:

Leah Litman’s op-ed in the NYT which I linked yesterday must have hit a nerve. There are more op-eds about the challenges the Roberts’ Supreme Court poses, undermining its legitimacy through acceptance of corrupt behavior and the appearance of partisanship.

This one from The Daily Beast neatly encapsulates the problems: Supreme Court Sends Out an Ominous Sign

And this one in the Los Angeles Times suggests conservatives are worried about the public’s perception, so worried they need to assure us things aren’t as bad as the appear: Column: The Supreme Court’s role in our partisan polarization has been greatly exaggerated

As we should give the columnist, Jonah fucking Goldberg, the time of day. Contrast and compare his Wikipedia and Sourcewatch entries if you’re not familiar with his work.

I’d rather take the word of a conservative former Supreme Court clerk about this problematic Supreme Court.

~ ~ ~

UPDATE-1 — Today’s decisions:
First decision: Texas v. New Mexico and Colorado

Justice Jackson wrote the 5-4 decision; Justice Gorsuch dissented. In this case regarding a dispute over water rights to the Rio Grande and Elephant Butte between states Colorado, Texas, and New Mexico, Roberts and Kavanaugh sided with Jackson, Sotomayor, and Kagan.

Second decision: Department of State v. Muñoz

Justice Barrett wrote the 6-3 decision with a concurrence by Gorsuch. Justice Sotomayor wrote the dissent. In question was denial of a visa to the non-citizen spouse of a U.S. citizen.

Third decision: Erlinger v. United States

Justice Gorsuch wrote the 6-3 decision, with Roberts and Thomas offering concurring opinions. Kavanaugh wrote a dissent joined by Alito; Jackson also joined excepting Part III. Jackson filed a dissenting opinion.

This case was about the Armed Career Criminal Act and how a court determines the mandatory sentencing to be applied. It’s worth reading Jackson’s dissent given her background as the only SCOTUS jurist who served as a public defender.

Fourth decision: Smith v. Arizona

Justice Kagan wrote the court’s opinion. There were no dissents, but:

KAGAN, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which SOTOMAYOR,
KAVANAUGH, BARRETT, and JACKSON, JJ., joined, and in which THOMAS
and GORSUCH, JJ., joined as to Parts I, II, and IV. THOMAS, J., and GORSUCH, J., filed opinions concurring in part. ALITO, J., filed an opinion
concurring in the judgment, in which ROBERTS, C. J., joined.

Okay, then.

This was about a drugs and paraphernalia possession case and the Sixth Amendment’s Confrontation Clause. IIRC it’s also the third case in the last two days in which expert(s) testimony was key; this issue might be worth watching more closely as it may be an evolving topic.

Fifth decision: United States v. Rahimi

Chief Justice Roberts offered the 8-1 decision; there were multiple concurrences. Thomas wrote the dissent.

Of course Thomas did.

This was a Second Amendment case regarding a federal law prohibiting possession of firearms by those under domestic-violence restraining orders. Thomas apparently believes an abuser’s right to bear arms is more important than a domestic partner’s right to life.

Sure would like to know if there are any financial links between the gun lobby and Thomas considering his consistency on guns.

~ ~ ~

A big gun rights case but still no presidential immunity decision. Will SCOTUS dump all the biggest cases at once in order to dampen the effect of each individual case, including Trump v. United States?

The next batch of SCOTUS decisions will be handed down next Wednesday, June 26.

Updates regarding today’s decisions and other SCOTUS-related news will follow at the bottom of this post. This is an open thread.

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