Mike and Chantell Sackett just wanted to build their dream home in the Idaho panhandle. Instead, they’re headed to the U.S. Supreme Court in a long-running dispute with the Environmental Protection Agency, which claims their property is wetlands. The case is among the most watched before the court this year. Justices will hear the Sacketts’ case Monday. At issue is whether citizens like the Sacketts have recourse to challenge the EPA’s actions in a court of law. Lower courts have said they don’t, but Supreme Court justices want to settle …
Today’s Supreme Court decision in which it struck down California’s law restricting the sale or rental of violent video games to minors (PDF) is an important First Amendment decision that is not subject to a simple liberal/conservative breakdown, but the more interesting contrast may be between the votes in this case and another decision today and last Thursday. Seven justices voted to strike down California’s violent video game law, but the seven justices split into two camps. Justice Scalia wrote the majority opinion, which was joined by Justices Kennedy, Ginsburg, …
Just as it did last year in the Citizens United decision, the Supreme Court today upheld the First Amendment in a virtually unanimous opinion in a very difficult case. In Snyder v. Phelps, the Court held that the First Amendment shields the Westboro Baptist Church from a state tort claim. Albert Snyder filed a lawsuit in Maryland against the founder and members of the church for intentional infliction of emotional distress, intrusion upon seclusion, and civil conspiracy after they picketed the funeral of Snyder’s son, Matthew Snyder, a Marine Lance …
On February 23, Attorney General Eric Holder announced in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner that President Obama had instructed him to no longer defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), but that he would notify the courts of DOJ’s “interest in providing Congress a full and fair opportunity to participate in the litigation,” i.e., to defend DOMA. The president’s decision seems driven by politics and violates his law enforcement duty, calling into question the integrity of our justice system. It contravenes long-standing Justice Department policy …
Today the U.S. Supreme Court will consider the connection between an international convention to eliminate chemical weapons and a suburban Philadelphia love triangle. Remarkably, the first and apparently only person prosecuted under the United States’ implementation of the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention is Carol Anne Bond, a Lansdale, Pennsylvania, woman who used chemical irritants to cause a slight burn on the thumb of Bond’s formerly close friend after the friend bore Bond’s husband’s love-child. Today the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in the case (Bond v. United States). Neither Bond …
The U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to hear an appeal of a lower court ruling that has had the effect of blocking an initiative or referendum vote on same-sex marriage in the District of Columbia. The high court’s action brings to an end this judicial phase of the effort to rescind a same-sex marriage law enacted by the D.C. city council in 2009. The law took effect in March 2010 and has never been enjoined by a court of law. As a result, same-sex marriages have been taking place …
Twenty five years ago, President Reagan’s Attorney General Ed Meese sparked a national debate about the meaning of the Constitution that set the stage for the revival of constitutionalism in this country. On July 9, 1985, speaking before the American Bar Association, Meese issued a stinging critique of the Supreme Court’s recent decisions in the areas of federalism, criminal law, and religion in the public square. The Court, he argued, rejects the idea that the Constitution has a fixed meaning, thereby leaving the justices free to concoct mock constitutional principles …
Tuesday’s election results aren’t the only outcomes this week likely to impact the future of school choice across the country. Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn to determine whether the Grand Canyon State’s scholarship tax credit program violates the establishment clause. The Wall Street Journal writes today: As ever, the American Civil Liberties Union and other rigid secularists argue that this is unconstitutional support for religion because most parents seek out religiously affiliated programs. A three-judge panel on …
Today is “first Monday,” the beginning of the Supreme Court’s 2010 term. With the beginning of the term comes a flurry of cases added to the docket for the year. These additions form a significant portion of the select few cases that the Court chooses to hear during the course of the term: less than 100 out of more than 10,000 vying for review. Among the cases that the Court added to the docket late last week is Stern v. Marshall—the unending case of Anna Nicole Smith (actually her estate) …
It’s an unfortunate truth about Washington: Those who decide the great issues of the day seldom see the practical results of their legislative or judicial handiwork. Court decisions almost always involve lofty discussions of constitutional rights, legal theory, and precedent. So it was last year when the Supreme Court upheld the racial discrimination claims filed by 20 white and Hispanic firefighters in Ricci v. Stefano. These firefighters had outscored black firefighters in lieutenant and captain examinations, which prompted the City of New Haven, Conn., to throw out the results and …
