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Appellate Advocacy Blog Weekly Roundup Friday, November 19, 2021

By Catharine Du Bois

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Each week, the Appellate Advocacy Blog Weekly Roundup presents a few tidbits of news and Twitter posts from the past week concerning appellate advocacy. As always, if you see something during the week that you think we should be sure to include, feel free to send a quick note to either (1) Dan Real at DReal@Creighton.edu or on Twitter @Daniel_L_Real or (2) Catharine Du Bois at DuBoisLegalWriting@gmail.com or on Twitter @CLDLegalWriting.

US Supreme Court Opinions and News

  • The Supreme Court announced that the first opinion of the term will be delivered Monday, November 22. Unlike before the pandemic closure, the Court will not take the bench and will release opinions online beginning at 10:00 a.m. The Court does not announce which opinions will be issued on which day.  For more, see Bloomberg.

  • The Presidential Commission on SCOTUS met today (find link to materials and agenda here). On the agenda were items including term limits and the size of the Court. The materials suggest some support for term limits but recognize a “profound disagreement” about altering the size of the Court.  For more, see The New York Times and the ABA Journal.

  • The Washington florist who was found to have violated a state discrimination law after refusing to make flower arrangements for same-sex couples has dropped her Supreme Court appeal. The parties filed a joint stipulation for dismissal, having reached a settlement in the matter.  For more, see CNN and The Hill.

Appellate Court Opinions and News

  • The circuit court lottery system for multidistrict litigation became a hot topic this week when the over 34 challenges to the administration’s workplace vaccine rules were consolidated and assigned to the Sixth Circuit by lottery. The cases challenge the Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules that apply to businesses with 100 or more workers and require those workers to be vaccinated by January 4 or face mask requirements and weekly tests. The consolidation means that the Fifth Circuit, which recently stayed the rules, will cede control of its case to the Sixth Circuit. For more, see the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation order and a sampling of the many reports: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, Reuters, and NPR.

  • The Ninth Circuit has unsealed recordings of the landmark trial that struck California’s ban on same-sex marriage.  The court ruled that the opposition has not shown that the public release of the recordings would cause harm. For more, see the order and reports from Reuters and Courthouse News.

 

Posted in:
Federal Appeals Courts and United States Supreme Court