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Supreme Court

Supreme Court to hear dispute over FDA rejection of flavored vapes

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Monday in a dispute over the Food and Drug Administration’s rejection of two companies’ applications to sell flavored liquids for use in e-cigarettes. A federal appeals court in Louisiana set aside the FDA’s orders denying applications by Triton Distribution and Vapetasia, complaining that the agency had sent those companies and other makers of e-cigarette products “on a wild goose chase.”

The stakes in the case are high: Medical groups, including the … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Justices to hear challenge to regulation of unserialized ‘ghost guns’

The Supreme Court will hear oral argument next week in a challenge to a 2022 federal rule that seeks to regulate “ghost guns” – firearms without serial numbers that, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives says, almost anyone can quickly assemble with parts that they purchase, often in a kit online or through the mail. Serial numbers are used by law enforcement to track guns used in crime.

Defending the rule, the ATF argues that it is … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Supreme Court to hear case on criminal penalties for homelessness

The Supreme Court will hear oral argument on Monday in a case that one legal expert has called the “most important Supreme Court case about homelessness in at least 40 years.” The issue before the court is the constitutionality of ordinances in an Oregon town that bar people who are homeless from using blankets, pillows, or cardboard boxes for protection from the elements while sleeping within the city limits. Defending the ordinances, the city contends that the laws simply … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Court won’t hear Trump immunity dispute now

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request from Special Counsel Jack Smith to decide, without waiting for a federal appeals court to weigh in, whether former President Donald Trump can be tried on criminal charges that he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Smith had asked the justices to act quickly to resolve the dispute over Trump’s immunity during the 2023-24 term, but the justices turned him down, in a brief unsigned order issued on … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Court agrees to hear Title VII employer discrimination case

The Supreme Court agreed to decide what protections Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 provides to employees who contend they were the victim of a discriminatory transfer. The justices announced on Friday that they had granted review in Muldrow v. St. Louis and six other cases, two of which will be argued together. (I covered one of those cases, United States v. Rahimi, in a separate article.)

The question comes to the court in the … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Justices to hear procedural question in Maryland prison-assault case

Kevin Younger was detained before trial at a state prison in Baltimore, Maryland. While Younger in custody, a prison official, Neil Dupree, directed three prison guards to attack Younger and other inmates. The guards beat Younger viciously, leaving him unconscious and bleeding profusely. Younger suffered permanent injuries to his face, wrist, ribs, hand, and leg.

Younger filed a federal civil rights claim against Dupree, alleging that the use of excessive force against him violated his constitutional rights. In the … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Court will hear affirmative-action challenges separately, allowing Jackson to participate in UNC case

The Supreme Court announced on Friday that it will consider two challenges to the role of race in college admissions separately, rather than – as it had originally planned – together. That news, which came in a brief order from the court, was not unexpected: It allows Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the court’s newest justice, to participate in one of the cases, involving the consideration of race in the University of North Carolina’s undergraduate admissions process, while recusing herself … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Greenhouse gases and “major questions”: Justices to hear argument on EPA’s power to tackle climate change

Three days after President Joe Biden named Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as his nominee to succeed the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, Breyer and his colleagues will return to the bench on Monday morning to hear oral argument in a case involving the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases. Although the case hinges on a highly technical provision of the Clean Air Act, it nonetheless has the potential to be one of the most consequential cases in a … Read the rest