Amy Howe

Jun 16 2016

Reading the tea leaves — again

The Court issued three opinions today, but those opinions don’t shed much additional light on which Justices might be writing in which cases.

We have been waiting on two cases from the December sitting: Dollar General Stores v. Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin. Chief Justice John Roberts is the only member of the Court who has not yet written for December, so he is almost certainly writing at least one of those opinions. Either Roberts or one of the other Justices – but probably not Justice Stephen Breyer, who has already written two opinions from December – could be writing the other opinion.

There are four cases left from the February sitting: Utah v. Strieff, Taylor v. United States, Voisine v. United States, and Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt. Justices Breyer and Kagan are the only Justices who have not yet written in February, so they are each likely to write at least one of those opinions. No one has written twice in February yet, so it’s hard to say who else might be writing.

Only one case is left from the March sitting: RJR Nabisco v. European Community. Justice Samuel Alito is the only Justice who hasn’t written for March yet, so he is almost certainly the author of the Court’s opinion.

There are six cases left from April: United States v. Texas, Birchfield v. North Dakota, Encino Motorcars v. Navarro, Cuozzo Speed Technologies v. Lee, Mathis v. United States, and McDonnell v. United States. Justices Thomas, Ginsburg, and Sotomayor have already written in April, but someone will have to write twice for April.
[Disclosure: My husband, Tom Goldstein, is among the counsel to the petitioners in Dollar General.]

Amy L Howe
Until September 2016, Amy served as the editor and reporter for SCOTUSblog, a blog devoted to coverage of the Supreme Court of the United States; she continues to serve as an independent contractor and reporter for SCOTUSblog. Before turning to full-time blogging, she served as counsel in over two dozen merits cases at the Supreme Court and argued two cases there. From 2004 until 2011, she co-taught Supreme Court litigation at Stanford Law School; from 2005 until 2013, she co-taught a similar class at Harvard Law School. She has also served as an adjunct professor at American University’s Washington College of Law and Vanderbilt Law School. Amy is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds a master’s degree in Arab Studies and a law degree from Georgetown University.
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