CITIES CAN SUE BANKS, THERAPISTS CAN’T CONVERT KIDS & CAMERAS ARE COMING INTO THE COURTROOM
May 1, 2017
TODAY AT SCOTUS
|The Supreme Court ruled today that cities can sue banks for discriminatory mortgage lending practices, but they must prove that predatory loans led to damages such as lost tax revenue and higher spending on municipal services. The justices ruled 5-3 and partly validated a novel approach the city of Miami and others used to try and hold banks accountable under the federal Fair Housing Act for the wave of foreclosures during the housing crisis a decade ago.
FREE TO BE
|Bloomberg’s Greg Stohr reports, “The U.S. Supreme Court let stand a California law that bans licensed therapists from working with children to change their sexual orientation from gay to straight, rejecting an appeal that said the measure violates religious rights. The rebuff leaves intact a federal appeals court decision upholding California’s 2012 first-of-its-kind law. The measure prohibits the form of counseling known as ‘conversion therapy.’”
DRILL BABY DRILL
|“The Supreme Court is giving Venezuela another chance to fend off a lawsuit alleging the country illegally seized 11 oil drilling rigs from an Oklahoma-based company in 2010. The justice ruled unanimously on Monday that a judge had set the bar too low in allowing the lawsuit brought by Helmerich & Payne International Drilling Company to move forward. Foreign countries are generally immune from lawsuits in the U.S., but a federal statute makes an exception in certain cases when private property is seized.”
ONLY TIME WILL TELL
|For CNN, Ariane de Vogue and Joan Biskupic cover the persisting rumors of JUSTICE ANTHONY KENNEDY’S impending retirement. They note that friends and associates believe the justice is seriously considering retirement adding, “The question appears not to be whether Kennedy will retire soon, but when — at the end of this June, or next?”
ALL EYES ON ME IN THE CENTER OF THE RING
|Cristian Farias with The Huffington Post reports all eyes an ears will be on DONALD TRUMP’S travel ban fight thanks for C-SPAN, which will provide live access to courtrooms where judges will consider whether or not to lift a pair of injunctions that stopped the ban dead in its tracks. Farias writes, “Terry Murphy, C-SPAN’s vice president of programming, said in an interview that scoring that kind of access in a high-profile case ‘is great for the media and great for transparency.’”
THE CASE AGAINST 8
|Of all the cases that led up to the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of same-sex marriage, only one was a real trial with testimony from witnesses. It was the famous case against Proposition 8, testing the constitutionality of California’s ban on gay marriages. The only people who saw the trial were those actually in the San Francisco courtroom, but Lyle Denniston for Constitution Daily reports that video footage of the trial may soon be made available to the public. He reports, “On Friday, a San Francisco radio and TV station, KQED, filed a formal request in that same courthouse to allow the release of the trial tape. The broadcaster claims, among other points, that the Constitution’s First Amendment supports public access to that video record. The filing relies partly on a recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit broadening the public right of access to records of civil trials.”
OTHER NEWS
A POTUS-SCOTUS Get-Together? Past Decisions, Current Cases Could Make It a Little Awkward
The Washington Post“If President Trump is really going to have the Supreme Court over for supper, it might be a good idea to lock down a date before things get awkward. Or is it already too late for that?”
Supreme Court's Newest Justice Sticks to 'Plain Language'
USA Today“If two weeks can offer a window into what might be three or four decades on the Supreme Court, Justice Neil Gorsuch comes as advertised. Heralded by President Trump and conservative backers as a jurist who opposes judicial activism, Gorsuch showed during oral arguments in 13 cases that he sticks to the letter of the law.”
Justice Neil Gorsuch's Early Days Hint at an Energetic Role
The Wall Street Journal“Several early patterns have emerged from Justice Gorsuch’s participation in the court’s April sitting, which comprised the final 13 oral arguments scheduled until the court’s next term begins in October. His questions tended to confirm some attributes his conservative backers had touted—a legal method that focuses on the text of a law rather than the legislative purpose behind it, and an overarching confidence in his own approach.”
The Supreme Court Justices Finally Found an Issue That Unites Them. It's a Good One.
Slate“Fortunately, though, the court appears to have found a new issue on which to find common ground and attempt to rebuild public confidence: curbing civil forfeiture abuses and other property seizures by police. That may not sound like the sexiest topic, but it’s one that is at the heart of one of the most controversial areas of law enforcement.”