The court has agreed to hear several controversial cases this term, including a Mississippi ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy that could overturn or undermine the landmark Roe v. Wade case
Read More at USA Today
SCOTUS has struck down the CDC eviction moratorium in an opinion published today (8-26-2021).
"The Alabama Association of Realtors (along with other plaintiffs) obtained a judgment from the U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia vacating the moratorium on the ground that it is unlawful. But the District Court stayed its judgment while the Government pursued an appeal. We vacate that stay, rendering the judgment enforceable. The District Court produced a comprehensive opinion concluding that the statute on which the CDC relies does not grant it the authority it claims. The case has been thoroughly briefed before us— twice. And careful review of that record makes clear that the applicants are virtually certain to succeed on the merits of their argument that the CDC has exceeded its authority. It would be one thing if Congress had specifically authorized the action that the CDC has taken. But that has not happened. Instead, the CDC has imposed a nationwide moratorium on evictions in reliance on a decades-old statute that authorizes it to implement measures like fumigation and pest extermination. It strains credulity to believe that this statute grants the CDC the sweeping authority that it asserts."
See the decision here
Crack cocaine offenders are only eligible for reduced sentences under the First Step Act if they were convicted of a drug possession charge that came with a mandatory minimum sentence, the Supreme Court ruled
Read more at Courthouse News
With as many as seven in 10 Americans saying they will work from home at least part of the time going forward - which state gets to tax that income is a thorny question
Read more at Forbes
Case coming before the U.S. Supreme Court touching on unreasonable searches and seizures. I *hope* they act to protect privacy and liberty against an ever expanding power of government to intrude. If they do not act to protect individual liberties...
"Thanks to overcriminalization, prosecutors could potentially file far more criminal charges over “a staggering array of everyday conduct,” including “doodling on a dollar bill, selling snacks without a license, spitting in public, eavesdropping, littering (including on your own property), jaywalking, and possession of a felt tip marker by a person under twenty-one.” As a result, “millions of Americans unwittingly commit a misdemeanor every day.”
“Uncontrolled search and seizure is one of the first and most effective weapons in the arsenal of every arbitrary government,” Justice Robert H. Jackson warned more than seven decades ago. “Among deprivations of rights, none is so effective in cowing a population, crushing the spirit of the individual and putting terror in every heart...the human personality deteriorates and dignity and self-reliance disappear where homes, persons and possessions are subject at any hour to unheralded search and seizure by the police.”
Read more at Forbes
Nearly 200 inmates are waiting for a judicial review.
Three years after SCOTUS ruled that juvenile lifers should have the chance to come home, 55% in Michigan are still waiting to go before a judge.
Read more at Detroit Free Press
A divided Supreme Court ruled Monday that a federal law requiring longer prison sentences for using a gun during a "crime of violence" is unconstitutionally vague.
The court voted 5-4 stating the law "provides no reliable way" to determine which offenses qualify as crimes of violence.
The case presented to the Supreme Court involved two men -- Maurice Davis and Andre Glover -- who were convicted of several robbery charges and another federal statute that required increased mandatory minimum sentences for a "crime of violence."
Read more at UPI
In a 6-3 ruling decided Monday, the Supreme Court struck down the Patent and Trademark Office’s (PTO) ban on “immoral” or “scandalous” trademarks, calling it a violation of free speech
The ruling was decided by a mix of liberal and conservative justices. Kagan, Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Neil Gorsuch and Justice Brett Kavanaugh all voted in favor.
Read more at Time.com
In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled to drastically curb the powers that states and cities have to levy fines and seize property.
The high court’s ruling could now limit the ability for states and cities to carry out what critics – on both sides of the political divide – say is an increasingly common practice of imposing steep fines and seizing property.
Read More at Fox News
