WHAT WE'RE READING

The morning read for Friday, April 4

Each weekday, we select a short list of news articles and commentary related to the Supreme Court. Here’s the Friday morning read:

• Supreme Court sides with truck driver who said CBD got him fired (Maureen Groppe, USA Today)
• Trump Lawyer Dean John Sauer Confirmed as Solicitor General (John Crawley, Bloomberg Law)
• Trump’s Pick to Argue at Supreme Court Made His Career in Culture Wars (Abbie VanSickle, The New York Times)
• Karen Read’s lawyers ask US Supreme Court to step in her case, arguing ‘double jeopardy’ (Alex Svenson & Emily Maher, WCVB5)
• The Supreme Court Precedent That Should Free Mahmoud Khalil (Brad Snyder, Slate)

WHAT WE'RE READING

The morning read for Thursday, April 3

Each weekday, we select a short list of news articles and commentary related to the Supreme Court. Here’s the Thursday morning read:

• Supreme Court appears divided over whether states can cut off Planned Parenthood funding (Lindsay Whitehurst, The Associated Press)
• Supreme Court hears case that could see more Planned Parenthood clinics closed (Nina Totenberg, NPR)
• Supreme Court seems to back Planned Parenthood in patient rights case (Ann E. Marimow, The Washington Post)
• Supreme Court Laments ‘Mini Epidemic’ of Shifting Arguments (Kimberly Strawbridge Robinson, Bloomberg Law)
• Man to plead guilty to attempted assassination of US Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh (Andrew Goudsward, Reuters) 

OPINION ANALYSIS

Divided court approves civil RICO liability for injuries from CBD product

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act provides for federal criminal and civil penalties for harms from “racketeering.” Wednesday’s ruling in Medical Marijuana, Inc v. Horn, like so many of the court’s RICO decisions, involves the civil penalties.

Douglas Horn was fired from his commercial truck driving job after he ingested a product marketed as including only CBD (cannabidiol, which is completely legal) rather than THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, which continues to be illegal in many contexts) and failed a drug test. Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s opinion for a sharply divided court on Wednesday upheld liability for damages to a business or property that flow from personal injury, a win for Horn at this stage. The case now will return to the lower court.

WHAT WE'RE READING

The morning read for Wednesday, April 2

We are expecting one or more opinions from the court this morning. Join us for the live blog starting at 9:45 a.m. EDT. Following the opinion announcements, the court will hear oral arguments in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic. The case is a dispute over South Carolina’s attempt to exclude all Planned Parenthood services from the state’s Medicaid program because it provides abortions — specifically, whether Planned Parenthood and one of its clients even have a legal right to sue to enforce the Medicaid Act.

Each weekday, we select a short list of news articles and commentary related to the Supreme Court. Here’s the Wednesday morning read:

• Supreme Court hears South Carolina dispute over attempt to defund Planned Parenthood (Lawrence Hurley, NBC News)
• Venezuelan Migrants Ask Supreme Court to Block Deportations (Abbie VanSickle, The New York Times)
• Supreme Court to decide if states can strip Planned Parenthood of Medicaid funds (Nina Totenberg, NPR)
• Trump Is Asking the Supreme Court To Let Him Have Black Sites (Mark Joseph Stern, Slate)
• ‘Only this Court’: How Trump is begging the Supreme Court to approve his agenda (Joan Biskupic, CNN)

EMERGENCY DOCKET

Detainees under Alien Enemies Act urge justices to leave judge’s bar on removal in place

Lawyers for alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua urged the Supreme Court on Tuesday to leave in place an order by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., that prohibits the federal government from removing them, or anyone else, from the United States under the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century law that until now has only been invoked during wartime.

In a 39-page filing, the plaintiffs noted that “it is becoming increasingly clear that many (perhaps most) of the men” who were sent to El Salvador on March 15 “were not actually members of” TdA, “and were instead erroneously listed” as TdA members largely because of their tattoos. The order by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, the plaintiffs say, “is thus essential to ensure that more individuals who have no affiliation with the gang will not be sent to a notorious foreign prison.”

President Donald Trump issued the executive order at the center of the case on March 15. It targets Tren de Aragua, a large Venezuelan gang that began in that country’s prisons and then expanded into other parts of Latin America. The order directs government officials to quickly remove, without a hearing, noncitizens who are designated as members of TdA.