The Court is in recess until April 19. That day, it will issue orders on petitions considered at the April 15 Conference.
The government has two petitions for certiorari pending on that Conference. Most petitions filed by the Solicitor General present clear conflicts or questions of great national importance, and are therefore overwhelmingly likely to be granted. Neither of these petitions fits that description, although both do raise important issues and, because the government filed them, they will no doubt get serious attention. The first petition is No. 04-929, United States v. Shoshone Indian Tribe (the petition is here and the reply is here) involving the federal government’s Indian trust liability. The second petition is No. 04-1084, Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao Do Vegetal (the petition is here and the reply is here) involving the lawfulness of certain drug use under RFRA.
Among the other pending petitions is No. 04-1099, Stavropoulos v. Firestone, which we did with our Harvard Winter Term class. Stavropoulos raises the proper standard for proving retaliation claims under Title VII and 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
The Court will almost certainly issue one or more opinions on the 19th. The three highest-profile cases that might be decided are:
(i) the Raich case addressing the Commerce Clause challenge to the application of the federal drug laws to marijuana use legalized by the California medical marijuana statute (argued Nov. 29);
(ii) the cases (Swedenburg, etc.) addressing the Commerce Clause challenge to state laws prohibiting the direct importation of wine (argued Dec. 7); and
(iii) the Livestock Marketing Association case addressing the First Amendment challenge to the federal beef promotion program (argued Dec. 8) [disclosure: Goldstein & Howe represents the respondents].
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