Author Topic: Tuesday round-up  (Read 732 times)

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Offline Elderberry

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Tuesday round-up
« on: October 08, 2019, 11:32:17 am »
SCOTUSblog by Edith Roberts 10/8/2019

Today the justices will hear oral argument in a trio of high-profile employment-discrimination cases. The first two cases, Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia and Altitude Express, Inc. v. Zarda, are consolidated for one hour of oral argument and ask whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination “because of … sex,” covers discrimination based on sexual orientation. This morning’s second argument is in R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in which the court will decide whether Title VII bars discrimination against transgender people based either on their status as transgender or on sex stereotyping. [Disclosure: Goldstein & Russell, P.C., whose attorneys contribute to this blog in various capacities, is counsel on an amicus brief in support of respondent Stephens in Harris.] Amy Howe previewed both cases for this blog. Subscript Law has a graphic explainer. Zora Franicevic and Soo Min Ko preview Bostock for Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute. Cornell’s preview of Harris comes from Julia Canzoneri and Robert Reese Oñate.

Yesterday, the court issued additional orders from its conference last Friday; the justices denied New York City’s request that New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. City of New York, New York, a challenge to New York City’s limits on transporting personal firearms, be dismissed as moot, directing the parties to be prepared to discuss the mootness question at oral argument on December 2. Amy Howe covers the order list for this blog, in a post that first appeared at Howe on the Court. Tucker Higgins reports for CNBC that the court “denied a petition from pizza giant Domino’s … to hear whether its website is required to be accessible to the disabled, leaving in place a lower court decision against the company.”

Yesterday the justices began their term by hearing oral argument in Kahler v. Kansas, which asks whether the Constitution allows states to abolish the insanity defense. Amy Howe has this blog’s argument analysis, which first appeared at Howe on the Court. For USA Today, Richard Wolf reports that the argument featured “a debate about what it means to be insane.”

The court also heard argument yesterday in Peter v. NantKwest, which asks whether a federal law allowing a patent applicant to seek review of a patent denial in district court but requiring the applicant to pay “all the expenses of the proceeding” includes expenses for Patent Office personnel, including attorneys. Ronald Mann analyzes the argument for this blog.

Yesterday’s third argument was in Ramos v. Louisiana, in which the court considered whether the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of a unanimous jury applies to the states. Amy Howe analyzes the argument for this blog, in a post that first appeared at Howe on the Court. At Bloomberg Law, Jordan Rubin reports that “Evangelisto Ramos may well go on to win his argument that his 10-2 murder conviction in Louisiana violates the Constitution, but to do so, a majority of the court needs to grapple with how to get past a 1972 decision that condoned non-unanimous convictions at the state level.” Jess Bravin reports for The Wall Street Journal that in both Ramos and Kahler, “the court appeared inclined to buttress the rights of criminal defendants against states that had reduced historic protections for the accused, with only Justice Samuel Alito, a former U.S. attorney who generally sides with law enforcement, expressing clear sympathy for prosecution positions.” At the Daily Caller, Kevin Daley reports that both cases “presented interesting problems without obvious solutions.”

More: https://www.scotusblog.com/2019/10/tuesday-round-up-499/#more-289550