This post also appears on scotusblog.com Expecting that one side or the other will quickly take the dispute on to the Supreme Court, lawyers for abortion doctors and clinics in Texas on Friday asked a federal appeals court to rule by next Friday on the next step in the case. The challengers to new abortion… Read More
UPDATED: Out-of-state abortion access as an alternative
This post, also appearing on scotusblog.com, was updated Wednesday to note the filing of a postponement request to the Fifth Circuit Court by abortion clinics and doctors. With the Supreme Court poised to act soon on the constitutionality of abortion regulations that would mean women must leave the state to have the procedure, a federal appeals court ruled… Read More
Walking on a tightrope on Mideast policy
This post also appears on scotusblog.com Insisting that it was staying out of Mideast politics and that it was not shutting Congress out of foreign policymaking, a divided Supreme Court on Monday struck down a thirteen-year-old law allowing Americans born in the bitterly contested city of Jerusalem to claim that they were born in Israel. It… Read More
UPDATED: Same-sex marriage reaches Guam
UPDATED Monday: The judge’s opinion explaining the decision is now available, here. A federal judge in the U.S. territory of Guam ruled on Friday that its law against same-sex marriage can no longer be enforced, news reports have indicated. U.S. District Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood made her decision from the bench after a hearing on a… Read More
Internet threats still in legal limbo?
This post also appears on scotusblog.com The Supreme Court moved into the new realm of violent speech on the Internet with the aim of clarifying the legal risk. It insisted Monday that it had done so, at least part of the way, but two Justices argued that instead only confusion had resulted. It is not even… Read More
New shield against religious bias
This post also appears on scotusblog.com A job applicant whose faith dictates a personal practice that may contradict a company’s workplace rules now has a better chance of getting hired, even if the management’s rule is entirely neutral about religion, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday. If the management has even an inkling about the applicant’s religious views, it… Read More
No plea now to Supreme Court on immigration
This post also appears on scotusblog.com Taking at least some risk that time will grow too short in President Obama’s term in the White House to carry out his sweeping new policy on immigration, the Justice Department decided Wednesday that it would not now ask the Supreme Court for permission to put the program into effect.
Appeals court keeps immigration policy on hold
This post also appears on scotusblog.com In a decision that seems likely to be challenged in the Supreme Court, a divided federal appeals court refused on Tuesday to permit the Obama administration to put into effect its new policy to temporarily spare more than four million undocumented immigrants from being deported. The government, the U.S. Court of Appeals… Read More
Major test on voter equality set for review
This post also appears on scotusblog.com The Constitution has been understood for the past half-century to require that no individual’s vote count more at election time than anyone else’s. The Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday, for the first time, to clarify how that concept of equality is to be measured, when legislatures are drawing up election… Read More
Cigarette companies win, lose on ad messages
The nation’s major cigarette manufacturers do not have to admit in their own public messaging, such as ads and packaging, that they have deceived the public in the past about the hazards of smoking, but they do have to say that they designed their products to make them more addictive, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday.