This post also appears on scotusblog.com In the state where the law of same-sex marriage remains the most confused, an Alabama judge has asked the state’s highest court to get ready to promptly allow such marriages if the Supreme Court rules in their favor, avoiding “foot-dragging or other forms of resistance.”
Mar 16 2015
Judge: No conflict yet on Alabama same-sex marriage
A federal judge in Mobile, holding fast to her view that Alabama’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, refused on Monday to put her ruling to that effect on hold. As of now, District Judge Callie V. S. Granade ruled, a state judge in Mobile is not caught between conflicting rulings between the federal and… Read More
Mar 13 2015
U.S. seeks to put immigration policy into effect
Deciding not to wait any longer for a federal judge in Texas to act, the Obama administration on Thursday asked a federal appeals court to clear the way for the government to put into effect its broad new immigration policy. That policy has been on hold under the Texas judge’s order, but that judge has… Read More
Mar 9 2015
U.S. foiled again on immigration policy
Ignoring a deadline that the Obama administration attempted to impose, the federal judge handling the twenty-six states’ challenge to the new government immigration policy said he would not rule for the time being on the plea to let that policy go into effect. Instead, District Judge Andrew S. Hanen of Brownsville said, he wants to… Read More
Mar 6 2015
Federal-state struggle on same-sex marriage widens
Raising the stakes on the conflicting views of federal and state courts in Alabama over same-sex marriage, lawyers for seven couples on Friday asked a federal judge in Mobile to allow such marriages across the entire state. That runs directly contrary to a ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court, enforcing a statewide ban
Mar 6 2015
Nebraska same-sex marriages on hold
The chances that Nebraska would become the thirty-seventh state where same-sex marriages are legal were interrupted Thursday when a federal appeals court put on hold a federal judge’s ruling against the state’s ban. That case will now be linked with three others already pending at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Mar 4 2015
New US plea for speed on immigration dispute
The Justice Department told a federal judge in Texas on Wednesday that it may go to a higher court in an effort to put its new immigration policy into effect, if the judge does not act by Monday.
Mar 4 2015
Setting the stage for private debate on health care
This post also appears on scotusblog.com One of the most important functions of oral argument in the Supreme Court is that it can strongly shape the next round: the private deliberations among the nine Justices as they start work on a decision. The much-awaited hearing Wednesday on the stiff new challenge to the Affordable Care Act… Read More
Mar 3 2015
States want immigration policy kept on hold
Twenty-six states that had persuaded a federal judge last month to delay the Obama administration’s new policy on deferring deportation of more than four million undocumented immigrants argued on Tuesday that there was no emergency, so no need to let the policy go into effect.
Mar 1 2015
Now, the third leg of the health-care stool
A version of this post appears on scotusblog.com Five years ago, when Congress finished writing nearly a thousand pages that would become the new national health-care law, it was well aware that the finished product would be subject to strong challenges. The Affordable Care Act was passed in both houses with not one Republican lawmaker voting for it. … Read More
