Details on today’s orders and opinions
on Jan 23, 2012 at 11:06 am
The Court did not grant any new cases this morning, nor did it call for the views of the Solicitor General in any new cases. The full order list is here. The Court did issue a per curiam opinion in Ryburn v. Huff, summarily reversing the decision of the Ninth Circuit and remanding the case for the entry of judgment in the petitioners’ favor. The Court did not act on the affirmative action case, Fisher v. University of Texas.
Following orders, the Court announced opinions in three argued cases.
The first opinion, in National Meat Association v. Harris, was announced for a unanimous Court by Justice Kagan. The Court reversed the Ninth Circuit, holding that the Federal Meat Inspection Act expressly preempts a California law regulating the treatment of non-ambulatory pigs at federally inspected slaughterhouses.
The second opinion, in Reynolds v. United States, was written for the Court by Justice Breyer. By a vote of seven to two, the Court reversed the Third Circuit, holding that the Sex Offender Registration Act does not require pre-Act offenders to register before the Attorney General validly specifies that the Act’s registration provisions apply to them. Justice Scalia filed a dissenting opinion, which was joined by Justice Ginsburg.
The third and final opinion of the day was in United States v. Jones. In an opinion by Justice Scalia, the Court affirmed the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. It held that attaching a GPS device to a vehicle and then using the device to monitor the vehicle’s movements constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment. Justice Sotomayor filed a concurring opinion. Justice Alito also filed a concurring opinion, which was joined by Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, and Kagan. The five concurring members of the Court do not resolve the question of whether the search was reasonable in this case.
