Today is the final day of #SCOTUS’ term — & the justices have left some of the most important & contentious cases until the end.
They are slated to release 6 opinions, including decisions that will deal with nationwide #injunctions on #Trump’s ban on #BirthrightCitizenship, whether #parents can opt their children out of #school lessons involving #LGBTQ #books, & a #Texas #law that requires age verification to view online #porn.
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There are 6 cases remaining:
#FreeSpeech Coalition v. Paxton — #Texas law that requires #porn sites to verify age.
#FCC v. Consumers’ Research — consumer *protection* group devoted to fighting “#woke” corporations contends that E-Rate phone & internet subsidies for #LowIncome communities violates the #nondelegation doctrine
#SCOTUS #law
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https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/06/remaining-supreme-court-cases/
#Louisiana v. Callais — a 2022 map w/ 1 majority-Black district was ruled to violate the #VotingRightsAct. The new map, drawn w/ 2 majority-Black districts, was challenged by a group describing themselves as “non-African American” who contend it was unconstitutional racial #gerrymandering. The state says it drew the map not due to #race but to protect #Republican incumbents, such as #House Speaker #MikeJohnson & Rep Julia Letlow, who sits on the House #Appropriations Cmte.
#Kennedy v. Braidwood Management — does the #Constitution require members of the Preventive Services Task Force to be #appointed by the president & #confirmed by the #Senate? It concerns the legality of a portion of the #ACA that requires #health plans to provide #free #PreventiveCare such as #cancer screenings, #contraception & #immunizations.
Mahmoud v. Taylor — #Maryland public #schools & #LGBTQ+ subject matter
#Trump v. CASA — #BirthrightCitizenship
Regarding #Trump v. CASA — The case BEGAN as a challenge to Trump’s ban on #BirthrightCitizenship, but #SCOTUS is instead weighing an emergency appeal by the administration on a different question:
Do federal district #courts have the #authority to issue nationwide injunctions?
First opinion is in. It’s #Trump v Casa
#BirthrightCitizenship #judiciary #authority
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a884_8n59.pdf
The government's applications to partially stay the district court's nationwide injunctions in the birthright citizenship cases are GRANTED.
The court says that universal injunctions "likely exceed the equitable authority that Congress has granted to federal courts."
From the opinion of the court: The principal dissent’s analysis of the #ExecutiveOrder is premature because the #BirthrightCitizenship issue is not before us. [excuses excuses]
Justice #Sotomayor dissents, in an opinion joined by #Kagan & #Jackson. Jackson also has a separate dissent.
#Trump #SCOTUS #judiciary #authority #immigration #law
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From near the conclusion of Justice Barrett's opinion for the Court, on behalf of the 6 conservatives:
"#FederalCourts do not exercise general #oversight of the #ExecutiveBranch; they resolve cases & controversies consistent with the authority #Congress has given them. When a court concludes that the Executive Branch has acted unlawfully, the answer is not for the court to exceed its #power, too."
TOTAL BS!
#Trump #SCOTUS #judiciary #authority #BirthrightCitizenship #immigration #law
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There are also separate opinions.
First, #ClarenceThomas has a concurring opinion in which he stresses that #SCOTUS "today puts an end to the 'increasingly common' practice of federal courts issuing universal injunctions."
#Alito too has a concurring opinion in which he notes that the court does not resolve two issues that "potentially threaten the practical significance of today's decision: the availability of third-party standing & class certification."
#Alito says that the "Court does not address the weighty issue whether the state plaintiffs have third-party standing to assert the #Citizenship Clause claims of their individual residents."
#Barrett, in her opinion, specifically goes after Justice #Jackson: "We observe only this: Justice Jackson decries an imperial Executive while embracing an imperial judiciary.”
#Trump #SCOTUS #judiciary #authority #BirthrightCitizenship #immigration #law
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#Alito says next that the ruling "will have very little value if district courts award relief to broadly defined classes without following" the procedural protections for class certification.
District courts are going to have to start certifying classes now [#ClassAction].
#Trump #SCOTUS #judiciary #authority #BirthrightCitizenship #immigration #law
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#Kavanaugh's concurring opinion notes that district courts do not have the last word on preliminary #injunction requests -- courts of #appeals & #SCOTUS can also weigh in, & "that order of operations will not change." [which is why they should have the ability to apply nationwide & the power to rule an executive action is illegal. FFS]
#Trump #judiciary #authority #BirthrightCitizenship #immigration #law
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#Sotomayor contends that the #Trump admin DID NOT ASK the court to completely block the lower court orders because it would have to show that the order is probably constitutional, which it can't do, she says. "The gamesmanship in this request is apparent & the Government makes no attempt to hide it. Yet, shamefully, this Court plays along."
This gets at the "merits" of the #BirthrightCitizenship issue (the focus was universal injunctions).
#Barrett writes that "prohibiting enforcement of the #ExecutiveOrder againast the child of an individual pregnant plaintiff will give that plaintiff complete relief. Her child will not be denied citizenship. Extending the injunction to cover all other similarly situated individuals would not render her relief any more complete."
[but it’ll stop the courts from having to hear thousands of cases on the same issue - it’s called upholding an existing #law]
Next case:
Kennedy v. Braidwood
The court holds today that the appointment of the task force members is consistent with the Constitution.
Specifically the court rules that task force members can be removed at will by the Secretary of #HHS, & their recommendations about preventive services are reviewaable by the secretary before they take effect.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24-316_869d.pdf
#SCOTUS #law #Constitution #PreventiveCare #ACA #health
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#Kavanaugh writes majority opinion. #ClarenceThomas dissents. He contends that the majority erroneously relied on a new theory that the government "invented" on appeal.
The next opinion is #FCC v. Consumers' Research [anti-woke folk]
It is by Justice #Kagan, & the vote is 6-3 again. #Gorsuch dissents, joined by #ClarenceThomas & #Alito.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24-354_0861.pdf
It holds that neither #Congress's delegation of #power to the FCC or the FCC's delegation of power to the private corporation violated a theory known as the #nondelegation doctrine.
#law #SCOTUS #ERate #phone #internet #subsidies #LowIncome
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#Kagan writes: "Under our #nondelegation precedents, #Congress sufficiently guided & constrained the discretion that it lodged with the #FCC to implement the universal-service contribution scheme. And the FCC, in turn, has retained all decision-making authority within that sphere, relying on the ‘corporation’ only for nonbinding advice. Nothing in those arrangements, either separately or together, violates the Constitution."
#law #SCOTUS #ERate #phone #internet #subsidies #LowIncome
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Gorsuch writes that the majority's ruling "defies the #Constitution's command that #Congress 'may not transfer to another branch 'powers that are strictly & exclusively legislative.'"
#Gorsuch also contends that "even as the Court swallows a delegation beyond anything yet seen in the U.S. Reports, it also signals, unmistakably, that there are some abdications of congressional authority, including in the very statute before us, that the present majority isn't prepared to stomach."
Next opinion written by #Alito — bad sign — it’s Mahmoud v. Taylor, the #Maryland public #schools & #LGBTQ+ subject matter
Predictably it is a 6 – 3 vote
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24-297_4f14.pdf
Alito holds that the parents in this case are likely to succeed in their challenge to the school board's policies foreclosing the opt-out option.
#Sotomayor dissent joined by #Kagan & #Jackson: “The reverberations of the Court’s error will be felt, I fear, for generations. Unable to condone that grave misjudgment, I dissent.”
#law #SCOTUS #PublicSchool #schools #education #LGBTQ+ #censorship #bigotry
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Alito writes:
"We have long recognized the rights of parents to direct 'the #religious upbringing' of their children. And we have held that those rights are violated by government policies that substantially interfere with the religious development of children."
#law #SCOTUS #PublicSchool #schools #education #LGBTQ+ #censorship #bigotry
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Alito cont:
“Based on the record before us, the Board's introduction of the LGBTQ themed storybooks & the failure to provide notice & opt-out options for parents meets that test: it does interfere with the children's religious development & imposes a burden on #religious exercise.”
#law #SCOTUS #PublicSchool #schools #education #LGBTQ+ #censorship #bigotry
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"Thou Shall Hate" -- Evangelical 11th commandment
Nonilex
Corb_The_Lesser