DECISION DAY AT SCOTUS | Justices Could Make History With New Gerrymandering Case | Slants, Redskins To Keep Their Names
June 19, 2017
DECISION DAY AT SCOTUS
|Among several important decisions coming down from the Supreme Court today was a ruling that Muslim men detained after the Sept. 11 attacks can’t sue top U.S. law enforcement officials. The justices ruled 4-2, ending a long-running lawsuit against former Attorney General JOHN ASHCROFT, former FBI Director ROBERT MUELLER, and other top Bush administration officials. Only six justices weighed in on the case, and JUSTICE ANTHONY KENNEDY wrote the court’s lead opinion.
IT'S CALLED CIVIL RIGHTS, THIS IS THE 90'S
|The Supreme Court ruled unanimously today that the 71-year-old trademark law that prohibits the government from registering trademarks that “disparage” others violates the First Amendment, a decision that could impact the Washington Redskins’ efforts to hang on to its controversial name. The decision comes as a victory for Asian-American rock band, The Slants, which brought the case forward. JUSTICE SAMUEL ALITO delivered the opinion for the court, although four justices peeled off from parts of his opinion where they say he opined on more that was needed to make the decision.
BRING ON YOUR WRECKING BALL
|The Supreme Court decided today that it’s ready to make some history. The justices announced this morning that it will consider whether gerrymandered election maps favoring one political party over another violate the Constitution. This could fundamentally change the way American elections are conducted. It would be the first time in American history that the Supreme Court finds an electoral map to be constitutional because of partisan gerrymandering. The case comes to SCOTUS from Wisconsin, and it will be argued in the next Supreme Court term which begins in October.
FIND ME ON FACEBOOK
|The justices struck down a North Carolina law this morning that bars sex offenders from Facebook, Twitter and other popular social media sites. Their decision was unanimous with JUSTICE ANTHONY KENNEDY writing, “To foreclose access to social media altogether is to prevent the user from engaging in the legitimate exercise of First Amendment rights. Even convicted criminals — and in some instances, especially convicted criminals — might receive legitimate benefits from these means for access to the world of ideas, in particular if they seek to reform and to pursue lawful and rewarding lives.”
C'MON CALIFORNIA
|Justices today ruled 8-1 in favor of Bristol-Myers Squibb — a drug company that was coming up against the state of California — which would have broad implications for where manufacturers can be sued. The high court found that the California Supreme Court was wrong to let almost 600 non-Californians join 86 state residents in claiming the company misrepresented the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
GERRYMANDERING 101
|The Associated Press offers us a little introduction to political gerrymandering following the court’s decision to decide whether Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin drew electoral districts so out of whack with the state’s political breakdown that they violated the constitutional rights of Democratic voters.
GO REDSKINS?
|The Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of Asian-American rock band, The Slants, just made it all the more likely that the Washington Redskins will not have to change their name. For HuffPost, Travis Waldron explains that today’s SCOTUS ruling will “certainly lead to a reversal of the trademark board’s ruling, saving the team’s six trademark protections it had canceled.” The NFL team released a statement this morning celebrating the ruling saying, “The Supreme Court vindicated the Team’s position that the First Amendment blocks the government from denying or cancelling a trademark registration based on the government’s opinion.”
IT TAKES TWO, BABY
|Alex Strauss with The New York Times tells us what it means to be married since the Supreme Court’s historic ruling making same-sex marriage a nationwide right on June 26, 2015. The day after that decision, NYT featured 12 same-sex couples, many of whom were the first in their cities to get married on that day. Two years later, The Times catches up with ten of those couples to see what marriage meant to them.
TODAY IN HISTORY
|On this day in 1987, the United States Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law requiring any public school teaching the theory of evolution to teach creationism as well.
OTHER NEWS
U.S. Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Alabama Death Row Inmate
Reuters“The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday sided with a convicted murderer in Alabama who argued that he was entitled to an expert independent from prosecutors to gauge his mental health and possibly help him avoid execution.”
Democrats Just Got Some Very Good News From the Supreme Court on Gerrymandering
The Washington Post“Democrats should be cautiously very happy with this. No, it doesn’t mean that the Supreme Court will suddenly strike down the practice altogether, but it does mean that the court could deliver what would be basically an unprecedented rebuke of a practice that has, according to a recent study, prevented Democrats from controlling the U.S. House for potentially four of the past six years.”
U.S. Top Court Turns Away 'Dancing Baby' Copyright Case
Reuters“The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a closely watched copyright dispute known as the ‘dancing baby’ case over a company’s move to take down a home video posted online showing a toddler joyfully bouncing to the late pop star Prince’s song ‘Let’s Go Crazy.'”
Get Ready to Start Hearing About the Travel Ban Again
Buzzfeed“For just a little more than five minutes this past Thursday, about two dozen of the key players who will shape the story of America in the coming months gathered together in an untelevised moment of tradition and pomp and circumstance. The setting was the Supreme Court, the ceremony was the investiture of Neil M. Gorsuch as an associate justice of the high court, and — for six brief minutes — everything took on a veneer of normalcy.”