FLORIDA EDGES AHEAD IN WATER WARS | Voting Rights At SCOTUS Tomorrow
January 9, 2018
ON DECK
|Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will hear an important voting rights case involving Ohio’s process for purging voter rolls — a process that is the strictest in the nation. Richard Wolf with USA Today reports on how the ruling in this case stands to impact people in Ohio and in other states using similar procedures of purging. “Several other states that use the failure to vote as a trigger in efforts to cleanse their registration rolls could be affected by the high court’s decision in the Ohio case, including Georgia, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and West Virginia. But according to the League of Women Voters, ‘no other state … has a practice as ham-handed and draconian as Ohio’s.'”
THE WATER WARS
|Yesterday the justices heard a case over a water fight in Florida and Georgia, and they seemed sympathetic to Team Florida. Monday’s hearing was a culmination of Florida’s decades-long fight with Georgia for more water, and the justices appeared sympathetic to the Sunshine State hoping to rescue its oyster industry. JUSTICE ELENA KAGAN noted that Florida has “common sense” on its side and JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR noted there’s “plenty of evidence on the benefits of additional water.”
BIRDS OF A FEATHER
|ICYMI, the Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge to a Mississippi state law that allows merchants to refuse service to gay people. Jess Bravin with The Wall Street Journal notes that this decision comes as the “latest example of legal fallout” following 2015 SCOTUS decision legalizing same-sex marriage. And if alarms bells are going off in your head as you recall the Colorado cake case justices will decide on later this term, then you’re right on target. However, while some of the same issues are brought up in both the Colorado and Mississippi challenges, there’s a bit of a difference between the two. Bravin notes, “In contrast to Colorado, where lawmakers sought to protect gay people from discrimination, Mississippi acted to buttress the ability to deny them service. It is unclear, however, how the 2016 state statute, the Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act, adds to Mississippians’ existing freedom to treat gay people differently; like most states and the federal government, Mississippi law doesn’t specifically protect gay people from discrimination.”
BE AGGRESSIVE, B-E AGGRESSIVE
|If it hasn’t yet been made clear to you, Wednesday’s voter case could help define one of our country’s most critical features — the right to vote. Sam Levine with HuffPost previews the case for us and underscores its import. The outcome of the justices’ decision will likely determine how aggressive states can be in their withdrawal of their citizens’ right to vote. At the center of the case is one of America’s most important voting laws — the 1993 National Voter Registration Act — which says that states must administer a reasonable effort to take ineligible people off its rolls. However, as Levine points out, that program must be “uniform, nondiscriminatory and in compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965,” and it can’t remove people from the rolls just because they don’t vote. The case is known as Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute.
OTHER NEWS
SCOTUS To Hear Case Disputing Warrantless Motorcycle Search
The Associated Press“Do police have the right to go on private property — uninvited and without a warrant — to search a vehicle? That’s the question the U.S. Supreme Court will be asked to answer when the court takes up the case of a Virginia man who was arrested after a police officer walked onto his driveway and pulled back a tarp covering a stolen motorcycle.”
Nominee Would Be First Openly Gay State Chief Justice
The Associated Press“Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s nominee for state chief justice would be the first openly gay leader of a state Supreme Court. The Democratic governor announced Monday that longtime friend and current Associate Supreme Court Justice Andrew McDonald was his nominee for the court’s highest post. Chief Justice Chase Rogers is retiring next month after more than 10 years on the job. While McDonald would be the first openly gay state chief justice, Puerto Rico Chief Justice Maite Oronoz Rodriguez became the first openly gay Supreme Court leader in U.S. history in February 2016.”
The Supreme Court May Let The Police Into Your Garage Without A Warrant
VICE News“If the state of Virginia gets its way at the Supreme Court, police across the country would have the authority to search someone’s car, even if it’s parked inside a private property, without a warrant. Traditionally, cops haven’t been allowed to search inside a house or its “curtilage” — the legal name for the structures that surround a house, such as a porch — without a warrant. But in 2013, Virginia cops did just that to a man named Ryan Collins. Now, the Supreme Court will decide whether the police violated Collins’ Fourth Amendment rights by searching his motorcycle without a warrant.”