Montana, detainee cases set
on May 29, 2012 at 1:16 pm
The Supreme Court will consider the major sequel to its controversial ruling on campaign finance at the Justices’ private Conference on June 14, the Court’s electronic docket showed Tuesday. The case is American Tradition Partnership, et al., v. Bullock (11-1179). The Court will be considering a request to overturn, without briefing or argument, a Montana Supreme Court ruling that upheld a state law curbing the campaign spending of corporations in that state — a ruling that is said to conflict directly with the Justices’ 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, allowing such spending.
If the Justices choose not to reverse that state decision summarily, they are likely to grant review and put the case over to the new Term starting October 1, with a decision likely after this year’s election. The state court ruling, in the meantime, is on hold, thus allowing corporations to spend freely in Montana in this year’s election cycle.
The Court has also indicated on its electronic docket that it will take up, at its Conference on Thursday of this week, seven separate cases seeking to draw the Justices back into overseeing the handling of Guantanamo Bay detainee cases by the D.C. Circuit. The Court has several times scheduled some or all of those cases, but has put them off each time. If it acts this time on one or more of them, the orders presumably would be issued next Monday.
