Tuesday round-up

AMY HOWE MAY 5, 2015 6:45 AM

Yesterday the Court issued orders from last week’s Conference. It granted review in and consolidated two cases involving the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s policy of seeking to provide incentives for the reduced use of electricity, especially during peak demand times.  Lyle Denniston covered the orders for this blog, with other coverage coming from Jeremy Jacobs of Greenwire and Bradley McAllister for JURIST.

The Court also asked the Solicitor General to file a brief expressing the views of the United States in Nebraska v. Colorado, an original action challenging Colorado’s new marijuana sales policy.  Coverage comes from Tony Mauro for the Supreme Court Brief (subscription required) and Jess Bravin of The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), while Bradley McAllister of JURIST covers yesterday’s decision in Bullard v. Blue Hill Bank, holding that a debtor cannot immediately appeal a bankruptcy court’s order denying approval of his proposed repayment plan.

Other coverage and commentary continue to focus on last week’s oral arguments in the challenges to state bans on same-sex marriage.  In The National Law Journal (subscription required), Tony Mauro and Marcia Coyle list “five issues that dominated the arguments,” while in The Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire Patrick O’Connor reports on a recent poll indicating that a “majority of Americans want the U.S. Supreme Court to recognize a right to same-sex marriage across the country.”  At the Williams Institute Data Blog, Gary Gates introduces new blog LGBTstats, with a post on the use of Williams Institute data in the same-sex marriage cases.  At Forbes, Michael Bobelian suggests that “one thing was clear” after the arguments: “win or lose, the gay rights movement has made huge inroads within the law over the past twenty years.”

This blog’s symposium on Williams-Yulee v. Florida Bar, in which the Court upheld a Florida rule that prohibits candidates for judgeships from personally soliciting campaign contributions, continues with posts from Ilya Shapiro, Robert Durham, Robert Corn-Revere, and Joshua Wheeler.  And at Guernica, Ciara Torres-Spelliscy weighs in on the decision, suggesting that “the fact that the Supreme Court is recognizing that there are problems created by fundraising judges is a step in the right direction.”

Briefly:

• At his eponymous blog, Lyle Denniston covers a recent speech by retired Justice John Paul Stevens, in which Stevens suggested that the U.S. government should “pay something akin to ‘reparations’” to individuals “mistreated or abused by anti-terrorist policies.”
• In The American Prospect, Lincoln Caplan profiles Justice Elena Kagan, describing her as “already expanding the role of Court opinions and, in doing that, of a Supreme Court justice.”
• In The Washington Post, Robert Barnes discusses the Chief Justice’s role as “not only the public face of the court but also its most scrutinized player.”
• In the Supreme Court Brief (subscription required), Marcia Coyle reports on the petition in Shapiro v. Mack, which the Court is being asked to consider when a three-judge panel must hear a case involving issues like redistricting or campaign finance.
• At Dorf on Law, Michael Dorf discusses questions by Justices Samuel Alito and Antonin Scalia at last week’s argument in Glossip v. Gross, the challenge to Oklahoma’s lethal injection protocol, that in his view draw an analogy between death penalty opponents and terrorists.
• At Discourse, the UCLA Law Review’s online publication, Senator Orrin Hatch weighs in on the ACA subsidies case, King v. Burwell, arguing that “a ruling striking down the president’s actions is crucial to ensure the continued vitality of the rule of law.”

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