The Supreme Court on Monday ruled 6-3 in a landmark decision that gay and transgender employees are protected by civil rights laws against employer discrimination.
A set of cases that came before the court had asked the justices to decide whether Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which forbids discrimination on the basis of “sex,” applies to gay and transgender people.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, who wrote the opinion for the six-member majority, said that it does. Continue reading.
The Supreme Court on Monday sidestepped two hot-button issues by declining to take up cases next term involving Second Amendment rights and legal protections for police officers.
The justices chose not to add nearly a dozen new gun-rights disputes, including over the right to carry a firearm in public, and declined opportunities to revisit the legal doctrine of qualified immunity, which generally shields government employees from being held liable for alleged wrongdoing.
The results mean fewer than four justices agreed to take up the cases next term, which begins in October. Continue reading.
Just months before Election Day, the question of whether President Trumpwill get to select a third Supreme Court justice hangs over the final weeks of the court’s term.
Speculation over a possible vacancy has focused in recent years on the prospect of Justice Clarence Thomas exiting while Republicans control the White House and Senate, and alternatively on the health of the court’s aging liberal bloc.
Top Senate Republicans drew fresh attention to the bench recently when they said they would confirm a new justice if given the chance despite 2020 being an election year, in an apparent reversal of their rationale for blocking President Obama’s nominee late in his second term. Continue reading.
Ginsburg underwent nonsurgical treatment for a benign gallbladder condition that was causing an infection.The Notorious R.B.G. appears to be A-OK.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was released from the hospital on Wednesday after being treated for gallstones, the court said in a statement.
Ginsburg underwent nonsurgical treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore on Tuesday for a benign gallbladder condition that was causing an infection. The condition was detected Monday after the court’s historic telephone session for oral arguments. Tests confirmed that a gallstone had migrated to her cystic duct, causing a blockage and infection. Continue reading.
The Supreme Court on Thursday threw out the convictions of two government officials implicated in the 2013 Bridgegate scandal, in which then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie‘s (R) allies schemed to create a traffic jam to punish a local mayor.
The justices said in their unanimous decision that while the scheme involved deception and corruption, it did not violate federal law.
“The question presented is whether the defendants committed property fraud,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in the court’s opinion. “The evidence the jury heard no doubt shows wrongdoing — deception, corruption, abuse of power. But the federal fraud statutes at issue do not criminalize all such conduct. Under settled precedent, the officials could violate those laws only if an object of their dishonesty was to obtain the Port Authority’s money or property.” Continue reading.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg blasted the Trump administration for a rule that allows additional businesses to opt-out of providing no-cost birth control for women.
Ginsburg made the remarks during a telephone hearing that was streamed live due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The justice reportedly joined the hearing from her hospital bed where she is being treated for a gallstone infection.
“What the government has done in expanding this exemption is to toss to the wind entirely Congress’ instruction that women need and shall have seamless, no-cost comprehensive coverage,” Ginsburg told Solicitor General Noel Francisco. “They can get contraception coverage by paying out of their own pocket which is exactly what Congress did not want to happen.” Continue reading.
The nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court are often left out of regular partisan sniping, but they’re absolutely crucial to determining policy in America. Even with coronavirus disrupting the usual procedures of the court, with oral arguments moved to the virtual realm for the first time after several cases were postponed, the justices are still poised to rule on some of the biggest issues of the day this spring, including three seminal cases on immigration, women’s rights, and financial reform. Because there’s no schedule for when decisions may come, court-watchers will just have to wait by their computers — but in the meantime, we’ve got a rundown of what to expect.
Three cases were consolidated and presented during one session of oral arguments that concerned the future of participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects immigrants who arrived in the United States as children from deportation. The three cases are: Trump v. NAACP, McAleenan v. Vidal, and Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California.
At issue is the announcement President Trump made 2017 stating that his administration would be dissolving the DACA program, which was established in 2012 by the Obama administration to protect young immigrants. The program, established by executive order, allowed these people to work legally and live without fear of deportation for renewable two-year periods. Continue reading.
In an 8-to-1 decision, the court said the government must shield insurers from losses under the Affordable Care Act.WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Monday that the federal government must live up to its promise to shield insurance companies from some of the risks they took in participating in the exchanges established by President Barack Obama’s health care law, the Affordable Care Act.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing for the majority in the 8-to-1 ruling, said the court’s decision vindicated “a principle as old as the nation itself: The government should honor its obligations.”
The health care law had promised the insurers that they would be protected, she wrote, and it did not matter that Congress later failed to appropriate money to cover the insurers’ shortfalls. Continue reading.
On May 12, after a six-week delay caused by the pandemic, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in the epic battle by congressional committees and New York prosecutors to pry loose eight years of President Donald Trump’s tax returns.