Less than three months after allowing the Biden administration to temporarily reinstate a rule by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives regulating “ghost guns,” the Supreme Court blocked a ruling by a federal judge in Texas that would have prevented the government from enforcing the rule against two manufacturers of gun parts. Appealing… Read More
Court will not hear PETA undercover recording case
The Supreme Court will not weigh in on the constitutionality of a North Carolina law that allows employers to sue employees who make undercover video or audio recordings. The denial of review in North Carolina Farm Bureau v. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Stein v. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals… Read More
Justices grant four new cases, including Chevron companion case
The Supreme Court has added a second case asking it to overrule its landmark 1984 decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council to its docket for the 2023-24 term. The announcement came on a list of orders released on Friday afternoon from the justices’ private conference earlier in the day. The court will hear… Read More
Purdue Pharma, tax cases headline December argument session
The Supreme Court will hear oral argument on Dec. 4 in the challenge to the legality of the bankruptcy plan for Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of the highly addictive opioid painkiller OxyContin. The argument in the Purdue Pharma case is one of eight cases scheduled for seven hours of oral argument in the court’s December… Read More
Justices question finding that S.C. district was unconstitutional racial gerrymander
The Supreme Court on Wednesday was skeptical of a lower court’s decision that a congressional district on the South Carolina coast was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. After over two hours of oral argument, a majority of the court seemed inclined to rule for the state in a dispute that centers on the often close correlation… Read More
Court to hear argument in racial gerrymandering challenge to S.C. congressional district
The Supreme Court will hear oral argument on Wednesday in a dispute over the congressional map that South Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature enacted in the wake of the 2020 census. A federal court threw out the map earlier this year, holding that one district on the South Carolina coast was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander – that… Read More
Court won’t hear case seeking to overrule NYT v. Sullivan
The Supreme Court did not add any new cases to its docket on Tuesday morning. In a list of orders from the justices’ private conference last week, the justices denied review in approximately 180 cases – including one asking the court to overrule one of its landmark decisions on freedom of the press. In Blankenship… Read More
Justices consider civil rights tester’s right to sue
The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard oral argument in the case of a civil rights tester who searches the internet to find hotels whose websites do not provide information about the accessibility of their facilities, as required under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The owner of a Maine hotel argued that because the tester, Deborah… Read More
Civil rights tester case heads to high court
Deborah Laufer is a self-appointed civil rights tester. From her home in Florida, Laufer – who has multiple sclerosis and uses a wheelchair or a cane to move around – combs the internet to look for hotels whose websites do not provide information about the accessibility of the hotel’s facilities. Since 2018, Laufer has sued… Read More
Court divided over funding mechanism for consumer watchdog
The justices were divided at oral argument on Tuesday in a challenge to the constitutionality of Congress’s decision to provide funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau through the Federal Reserve, rather than the normal annual appropriations process. A federal appeals court in Texas ruled earlier this year that the CFPB’s funding structure violates Article… Read More