Before returning to the bench this morning, the justices issued orders from last week’s private conference. They did not add any new cases to their merits docket for next term, and they asked the U.S. solicitor general to weigh in on an appeal filed by Arkansas attorney general Leslie Rutledge. Rutledge has requested review of a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, which held that an Arkansas law regulating prescription-drug reimbursement practices is pre-empted by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.

The justices did not act on several of the high-profile cases that they considered at last week’s conference, including a challenge to an Indiana law that banned abortion based on (among other things) the sex or disability of the fetus and required fetal remains to be buried or cremated; a group of cases asking the justices to weigh in on whether federal employment discrimination laws protect LGBTQ employees; and a petition for review filed by an Oregon couple who refused to make a custom cake for a same-sex wedding.

The justices will meet for their next conference on Thursday, April 18; orders from that conference are likely next Monday, April 22, at 9:30 a.m.

This post was also published on SCOTUSblog.