Petitions of the week
on Aug 17, 2018 at 11:26 am
This week we highlight cert petitions pending before the Supreme Court that address the scope of Title VII’s prohibition on discrimination “because of … sex” with regard to transgender individuals, the attachment of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel in the context of plea negotiations, and the constitutional consequences of waiving a state-law right to have a jury make an advisory sentencing recommendation in a capital case.
The petitions of the week are:
Issues: (1) Whether the Sixth Amendment right to counsel attaches when the prosecutor conducts plea negotiations before the filing of a formal charge; and (2) whether the Sixth Amendment right to counsel attaches when a federal prosecutor conducts plea negotiations before the filing of a formal charge in federal court when the defendant has already been charged with the same offense in state court.
Issues: (1) Whether the word “sex” in Title VII’s prohibition on discrimination “because of … sex,” 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1), meant “gender identity” and included “transgender status” when Congress enacted Title VII in 1964; and (2) whether Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins prohibits employers from applying sex-specific policies according to their employees’ sex rather than their gender identity.
Issue: Whether waiving a state-law right to have a jury make an advisory sentencing recommendation constitutes a knowing and intelligent waiver of the federal constitutional right to have a jury make all requisite findings for the imposition of death, particularly when the latter right did not exist at the time of the waiver.
