WHAT WE'RE READING

The morning read for Friday, Jan. 17

We are expecting one or more opinions from the court this morning at 10 a.m. EST. Join us for our live blog. 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 Could Rule On TikTok Ban Today—What To Know As Justices Signal They May Uphold Law (Alison Durkee, Forbes)
• Will TikTok be banned this weekend? What to know as Supreme Court decision looms (Greta Cross, USA Today)
• TikTok Makes Last-Minute Push as Supreme Court Is Poised to Rule on Ban (David McCabeAdam Liptak, & Sapna Maheshwari, The New York Times)
• Biden administration will leave it to Trump to implement TikTok ban (Elizabeth Schulze, Devin Dwyer, & Steven Portnoy, ABC News)
• Texas urges Supreme Court to block nuclear waste site (Niina H. Farah, E&E News)

RELIST WATCH

In a slew of new cases, the justices take in closer look

The Relist Watch column examines cert petitions that the Supreme Court has “relisted” for its upcoming conference. A short explanation of relists is available here.

The Supreme Court’s upcoming conference – the second January conference — is ordinarily the justices’ last opportunity to add new cases to the docket in time for them to review and decide the disputes by the summer recess. That cutoff may have something to do with the large number of new relists this week. While just one of the 420 cases considered at last week’s conference was a new relist, 27 of the 90 cases slated for this conference – nearly one-third of all cases – are new relists. That is nearly twice as many relists as we had after the end-of-summer long conference. The volume is so great that I’ll only be able to discuss a few in detail.

WHAT WE'RE READING

The morning read for Thursday, Jan. 16

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 seems open to age checks for online porn, though some free-speech questions remain (Lindsay Whitehurst, The Associated Press)
• Cookies, Cocktails and Mushrooms on the Menu as Justices Hear Bank Fraud Case (Adam Liptak, The New York Times)
• Jack Smith’s subtle indictment of the Supreme Court (Aaron Blake, The Washington Post)
• TikTok prepares to shut down app in US on Sunday, sources say (David Shepardson & Krystal Hu, Reuters) 
• Opinions vs. Judgments (Steve Vladeck, One First)

ARGUMENT ANALYSIS

Supreme Court divided on Texas age-verification law for porn sites

The Supreme Court on Wednesday was divided over a challenge to a Texas law that requires pornography sites to verify the age of their users before providing access. Last year a federal appeals court in New Orleans allowed the state to enforce the law, holding that it was rationally related to the government’s interest in preventing young people from viewing porn.

After more than two hours of debate on Wednesday, it was not clear whether a majority of the justices were ready to uphold the lower court’s ruling. Some justices seemed to agree with the challengers, led by a trade group for the adult entertainment industry, that a federal appeals court in New Orleans should have applied a more stringent test to determine whether the law violates the First Amendment. But even that ruling might prove to be only a limited victory for the challengers in the short term.

The law at the center of the case is known as H.B. 1181. A federal judge in Austin, Tex., issued an order shortly before H.B. 1181 was slated to go into effect in 2023 that temporarily barred the state from enforcing it. Senior U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra concluded that the law is likely unconstitutional.

WHAT WE'RE READING

The morning read for Wednesday, Jan. 15

We are expecting one or more opinions from the court this morning at 10 a.m. EST. Join us for the live blog or follow along with Katie Barlow on TikTok.

The court will then hear oral arguments in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, a First Amendment challenge to a Texas law requiring pornography sites to identify the age of their users before granting access. Listen to the argument live shortly after 10 a.m. EST. 

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 to hear arguments on Texas porn law (Jaclyn Diaz, KERA News)
• Supreme Court Could Rule On TikTok Ban Today—After Signaling It May Uphold Law (Alison Durkee, Forbes)
• Texas law requiring age verification for online porn goes before U.S. Supreme Court (Joseph Morton, The Dallas Morning News)
• Justice Department asks Supreme Court to rule narrowly on whether the ADA protects retirees (Maureen Groppe, USA TODAY)
• The Anti-Abortion Movement’s Backup Plan Won’t Work Without Trump (Mary Ziegler, Slate)