RELIST WATCH

Nondelegation doctrine, abortion clinic protest, and transgender student athletes

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.

It’s been two weeks since our last installment without any new grants. The Supreme Court cleared out some old relists in the last few order lists. The court denied review in Smith v. Stillie, the case challenging Alaska’s disclosure requirement statute for political contributions. The court also denied review of two cases challenging New York City’s rent-regulation laws, with Justice Neil Gorsuch noting that he would have granted the petitions.

It’s good the court has cleared out a bit, because there are eight new relists this week addressing three basic subjects. If any of the issues is granted, it would be a noteworthy addition to a fairly humdrum docket. If all are added, it will make the term significantly more interesting.

WHAT WE'RE READING

The morning read for Friday, Nov. 22

Today is the first opinion day of the 2024-25 term. At 10 a.m. EST, the court expects to issue one or more opinions in argued cases from the current term. Each weekday, we select a short list of news articles and commentary related to the Supreme Court. Here’s the Friday morning read:

• A 129-Year-Old San Francisco Lawsuit Could Stop Trump From Ending Birthright Citizenship (Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí, KQED)
• President-elect set to shape ‘Trump judiciary’ for next generation (Carrie Johnson, NPR)
• From champagne to speeches, would-be Trump Supreme Court justices draw conservative buzz (John Fritze, CNN)
• The Final Five? Trump’s Next Potential Nominees to the Supreme Court (Adam Feldman, Empirical SCOTUS)
• Trump Tests the Constitution’s Limits (William A. Galston, The Wall Street Journal)

Petitions of the week

Western Apache group calls on court to block approval of copper mine on sacred site

The Petitions of the Week column highlights some of the cert petitions recently filed in the Supreme Court. A list of all petitions we’re watching is available here.

Federal law limits the government’s ability to place a substantial burden on the free exercise of religion. Yet as long as Congress does not intentionally discriminate against a particular faith, the Supreme Court has permitted the legislative branch to manage internal government operations — for example, by allowing private development on public lands — even when it affects religious worship. This week, we highlight petitions that ask the court to consider, among other things, whether Congress can hand over part of a national forest in Arizona that is sacred to the San Carlos Apache Tribe to a private company seeking to mine the land for copper.

WHAT WE'RE READING

The morning read for Thursday, Nov. 21

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 rejects RFK Jr. group’s attempt to protect anti-Covid-vaccine doctors from investigations (Lawrence Hurley, NBC News)
• Revealed: trans rights case at US supreme court features doctors previously discredited by judges (Sam Levin , The Guardian) 
• The DOGE Plan to Reform Government (Elon Musk & Vivek Ramaswamy, The Wall Street Journal)
• Musk, Ramaswamy vow ‘mass head-count reductions’ in U.S. government (Jeff Stein, Jacob Bogage, & Lisa Rein, The Washington Post)
• Supreme Court can keep government out of church (Jeremy Dys, The Washington Times))

Coming up: On Friday, Nov. 22, the court expects to issue its first opinion(s) from argued cases this term. 

WHAT WE'RE READING

The morning read for Wednesday, Nov. 20

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

• This Missouri lawyer pushed to limit abortion. Now he’s Trump’s solicitor general pick (Kacen Bayless & Daniel Desrochers, The Kansas City Star)
• High Court 401(k) Suit Bid Targets Key Arbitration Exception (Austin R. Ramsey, Bloomberg Law)
• Judge strikes down Wyoming abortion laws, including an explicit ban on pills to end pregnancy (Mead Gruver, The Associated Press)
• Trump Is Gunning for Birthright Citizenship—and Testing the High Court (Matt Ford, The New Republic) 
• The New Anti-Abortion Argument Takes Us Back to the 19th Century (Linda Greenhouse, The New York Times)

Coming up: On Friday, Nov. 22, the court expects to issue its first opinion(s) from argued cases this term.