Court releases October argument calendar

Tonight President Donald Trump is expected to announce his nominee to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose retirement takes effect at the end of the month. Meanwhile, it was business as usual at the Supreme Court today, with the justices releasing the calendar for arguments in their October sitting, which begins on Monday, October 1. The justices will hear 10 hours’ worth of oral arguments over five days; the second Monday in October, October 8, is a federal holiday.

The October cases, in the order in which they will be argued, are:

• Weyerhaeuser Co. v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (to be argued Oct. 1, 2018): Whether the Endangered Species Act allows an agency like FWS to designate private land as a critical habitat when it is neither a habitat nor critical; and whether courts can review the agency’s decision not to exclude an area from the designation of a critical habitat because of the economic effects of designation.
• Mount Lemmon Fire District v. Guido (to be argued Oct. 1, 2018): Whether the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, which bars employers from discriminating against employees because of their age, applies to local governments with fewer than 20 employees.

• Gundy v. United States (to be argued Oct. 2, 2018): Whether the federal Sex Offender Notification and Registration Act improperly delegates to the U.S. attorney general the authority to decide whether the act’s requirements should apply to sex offenders who were convicted before the law was passed.
• Madison v. Alabama (to be argued Oct. 2, 2018): Whether the Eighth Amendment’s bar on cruel and unusual punishment prevents the state from executing a 67-year-old inmate who suffers from dementia and says he does not remember the crime he has been convicted of committing.
• Knick v. Township of Scott (to be argued Oct. 3, 2018): Whether the court should overrule its earlier decision holding that, before a property owner can file a lawsuit in federal court seeking compensation for the government’s unconstitutional “taking” of property, he must first pursue all available state-court remedies.
• New Prime v. Oliviera (to be argued Oct. 3, 2018): When two parties to an agreement disagree about whether a dispute between them must go to arbitration, who should resolve that threshold disagreement – an arbitrator or a court?
• Stokeling v. United States (to be argued Oct. 9, 2018): Whether state-law robbery convictions count as “violent felonies” for purposes of an enhanced sentence under the Armed Career Criminal Act when the convictions do not require the use of force.
• United States v. Stitt & United States v. Sims (consolidated for one hour of oral argument on Oct. 9, 2018): Whether the burglary of a “nonpermanent or mobile structure” – such as a mobile home, trailer or tent – that is adapted for someone to stay in it overnight qualifies as a “burglary” for purposes of the ACCA.
• Nielsen v. Preap (to be argued Oct. 10, 2018): Whether a noncitizen is exempt from mandatory detention if, after he is released from criminal custody, the Department of Homeland Security does not take him into immigration custody immediately.
• Air and Liquid Systems Corp. v. Devries (to be argued Oct. 10, 2018): Whether products-liability defendants can be held liable under maritime law for injuries caused by products that they did not make, sell or distribute.

This post was originally published at Howe on the Court.