Lyle Denniston

Mar 5 2015

Marriage case hearings April 28; audio out quickly

The Supreme Court on Thursday set the hearing date for the same-sex marriage cases for Tuesday, April 28, and announced that the audiotape recording of the session will be released by no later than 2 p.m. that day.

Here is the full calendar of hearings for the April sitting — the final one of the current Court Term:

Monday, April 20:

Johnson v. U.S. — Possession of a sawed-off shotgun as a violent felony, leading to a longer prison term as a career criminal.  This case was heard on November 5 but is being reargued on a new question about potential vagueness of a part of the Armed Career Criminal Act.

Tuesday, April 21:

McFadden v. U.S. — A federal prosecutor’s duty to prove that a suspect knew that a substance was an illegal substitute for a banned drug.

Wednesday, April 22:

Horne v. U.S. Department of Agriculture — The federal government’s duty to pay raisin growers for an order requiring removal of part of a year’s crop from the market to stabilize prices.

Monday, April 27:

Kingsley v. Hendrickson — The proof needed to show police use of excessive force toward a detained person awaiting trial.

Tuesday, April 28:

Obergefell v. Hodges and three other cases — The constitutionality of state bans on same-sex marriage and state refusals to recognize existing same-sex marriages.  The cases are consolidated for two-and-a-half hours of argument.

Wednesday, April 29:

Glossip v. Gross — The constitutionality under the Eighth Amendment of using a sedative as the first drug in a death penalty protocol.   (The executions of the three Oklahoma inmates have been stayed.)

Mata v. Holder — The authority of a federal appeals court to extend the time to seek a reopening of an immigration case because of an ineffective attorney.

Lyle Denniston has been covering the Supreme Court for fifty-eight years. In that time, he has covered one-quarter of all of the Justices ever to sit, and he has reported on the entire careers on the bench of ten of the Justices. He has been a journalist of the law for sixty-eight years, beginning that career at the Otoe County Courthouse in Nebraska City, Nebraska, in the fall of 1948.

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