WHAT WE'RE READING

The morning read for Tuesday, Dec. 17

Each weekday, we select a short list of news articles and commentary related to the Supreme Court. Here’s the Tuesday morning read:

• The Supreme Court just took up its first religion case of the year. It could add 6 more. (Kelsey Dallas, The Deseret News)
• Supreme Court declines to hear challenge to California’s strict vehicle emissions rules (John Fritze & Ella Nilsen, CNN)
• Supreme Court stays out of Peter Navarro’s fight to keep emails from first Trump administration (Maureen Groppe, USA Today)
• TikTok asks Supreme Court to block law that could ban popular app (Lawrence Hurley, NBC News)
• ‘A Sword and a Shield’: How the Supreme Court Supercharged Trump’s Power (The Ezra Klein Show, The New York Times)

TikTok asks justices to temporarily block federal ban

UPDATED: A group of TikTok users filed a separate application on Monday afternoon, also asking the court to block enforcement of the law.

Social media giant TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, on Monday asked the justices to block a federal law that would require TikTok to shut down in the United States unless ByteDance can sell off the U.S. company by Jan. 19. Unless the justices intervene, the companies argued in a 41-page filing, the law will “shutter one of America’s most popular speech platforms the day before a presidential inauguration.”

The request came three days after a federal appeals court in Washington turned down a request to put the law on hold to give TikTok time to seek review in the Supreme Court. A panel made up of judges appointed by Presidents Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Ronald Reagan explained that the companies were effectively seeking to delay “the date selected by Congress to put its chosen policies into effect” –particularly when Congress and the president had made the “deliberate choice” to “set a firm 270-day clock,” with the possibility of only one 90-day extension.

Court won’t take New York broadband case or states’ EPA challenge

The Supreme Court on Monday morning declined to take up a challenge to New York’s caps on the price that its low-income residents pay for broadband internet access. The denial of review in New York State Telecommunications Association v. James came on a list of orders released from the justices’ private conference on Friday.

After adding two new cases to their docket for the 2024-25 term on Friday, the justices did not grant any new cases on Monday. Friday’s grants included Diamond Alternative Energy v. Environmental Protection Agency, in which the court will consider whether a group of fuel producers have a legal right to challenge the EPA’s consent to a waiver for California that will allow the state to adopt its own emissions standards for greenhouse gas emissions. On Monday the justices denied review in Ohio v. Environmental Protection Agency, in which a group of states had argued more broadly that Congress violated the Constitution when it created the waiver mechanism for California because it treats California differently from the other states. Justice Clarence Thomas indicated that he would have granted the states’ petition for review.

The justices did not act on several high-profile cases that they considered at Friday’s conference, including a pair of petitions asking them to reconsider a 2000 decision upholding a Colorado law intended to protect patients and staff at abortion clinics from demonstrators and a challenge by Native Americans to the transfer of federal land in Arizona to a mining company, on the ground that it violates their religious rights.

Last Friday’s conference was the final regularly scheduled conference of 2024. The justices will meet again on Friday, Jan. 10, 2025.

WHAT WE'RE READING

The morning read for Monday, Dec. 16

Each weekday, we select a short list of news articles and commentary related to the Supreme Court. Here’s the Monday morning read:

• US Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson makes Broadway debut in ‘& Juliet’ (Kaanita Iyer (CNN), via ABC7 News)
• Idaho AG asks U.S. Supreme Court to hear state’s gender care coverage ban case (Ken Pfannenstiel, Idaho Capital Sun)
• Charitable groups linked to Catholic church will get Supreme Court review for tax exemption status (Kelsey Reichmann, Courthouse News)
• Supreme Court to hear challenge to California’s authority to set vehicle emissions standards (Nina Totenberg, NPR)
• Trump’s plan to end birthright citizenship could be decided by the Supreme Court (Myah Ward & Betsy Woodruff Swan, Politico)

WHAT WE'RE READING

The morning read for Friday, Dec. 13

Each weekday, we select a short list of news articles and commentary related to the Supreme Court. Here’s the Friday morning read:

• US Supreme Court should avoid climate change cases, Biden administration says (Nate Raymond, Reuters)
• Supreme Court begins online lottery for seating, upending D.C. ritual (Justin Jouvenal, The Washington Post)
• Biden is on track to appoint more federal judges of color than any other president (Char Adams, NBC News)
• Don’t want to spend days waiting in line to attend a Supreme Court case? Now you may not have to. (Maureen Groppe, USA Today)
• Rule of 3 #1: All About United States v. Skrmetti (Adam Feldman, Legalytics)