SCOTUStoday for Tuesday, November 11

The Supreme Court Building is closed for Veterans Day, and the justices are not hearing oral arguments. In recognition of the holiday, we are sending an abridged version of this newsletter.

SCOTUS Quick Hits

• On Monday, the Supreme Court’s order list revealed that the justices declined to hear Davis v. Ermold, on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage, and agreed to hear Watson v. Republican National Committee, on whether federal law requires ballots to be received by election officials on or before Election Day to be counted. For more on these cases, see the On Site section below.
• On Friday, the Trump administration urged the court to pause a district court ruling requiring the administration to fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in November. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson then issued an administrative stay putting the ruling on hold. After a federal court of appeals left the district court ruling in place on Sunday, Jackson on Monday asked the Trump administration to clarify whether it would continue to seek a stay, and, if so, to file a supplemental brief by 4 p.m. EST. The administration did so, and the response brief was due this morning.
• Also on Monday, the Trump administration and the state of Illinois and city of Chicago filed additional briefs in Trump v. Illinois, a dispute over President Donald Trump’s authority to federalize and deploy the National Guard in Illinois. The court had asked them to address one aspect of the law on which Trump relied in his Oct. 4 memorandum calling up the National Guard.
• Monday was also the deadline for the response brief in Blanche v. Perlmutter, on whether the Supreme Court should pause an order that temporarily reinstated the top U.S. copyright official after her firing earlier this year.
• The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Monday asked the court to pause enforcement of California laws requiring companies to file reports with the state on climate-related issues, including financial risks to their global operations created by weather changes and emissions generated by those operations. The chamber contends that California’s reporting rules violate the First Amendment by requiring companies to embrace its views on climate change.

Morning Reads

• Chief Justice Roberts Faces Career-Defining Decision on Trump (Jess Bravin, The Wall Street Journal)(Paywall) — Earlier this fall, Chief Justice John Roberts marked 20 years since he became chief justice. At the start of his third decade at the head of the court, he’s facing a “defining challenge” on executive power (the tariffs case) and growing tension within the judicial branch, according to The Wall Street Journal. “In addition to pressure from the president, the chief is navigating colleagues who have clashing visions of what the court should be. And he is under scrutiny from judges and court watchers who still aren’t sure what to make of him after 20 years.”
• Ohio man at center of landmark gay marriage case says Supreme Court ‘did the right thing’ (Laura A. Bischoff, The Columbus Dispatch)(Paywall) — Jim Obergefell, the named petitioner in Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 case that established the constitutionality of same-sex marriage, applauded the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear Kim Davis’ challenge to that ruling in a statement released Monday, according to The Columbus Dispatch. “Perhaps other opponents of marriage equality will realize that everyone deserves the right to say ‘I do’ to the person they love, and our civil and human rights should not be at the mercy of another person’s faith,” Obergefell said. “Exercising our rights does not prevent another person from following the faith they choose at home or in their place of worship. But no one should assume marriage equality is safe – there will be continued efforts to bring another case before the Supreme Court.”
• Trump floats giving Americans cash for health care and tariff dividends (Alexandra Marquez, NBC News) — As the court weighs whether President Donald Trump had the authority to impose his signature tariffs, Trump is floating the idea of sending dividends from tariff revenue to Americans across the country. In a Truth Social post on Sunday, the president wrote, “We are taking in Trillions of Dollars and will soon begin paying down our ENORMOUS DEBT, $37 Trillion. Record Investment in the USA, plants and factories going up all over the place. A dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone.” Administration officials later said this idea hasn’t yet been formalized into a proposal for the Senate, according to NBC News.
• Gorsuch, Thomas Want to ‘Correct’ 139-Year-Old Supreme Court Ruling (Jenna Sundel, Newsweek) — Justice Neil Gorsuch, in an opinion joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, dissented from the court’s denial of review in Veneno v. United States, which presented an opportunity to overrule an “1886 decision giving the federal government power over internal affairs in Native American tribes,” according to Newsweek. That theory of government power “should make this Court blush. Not only does that notion lack any foundation in the Constitution; its roots lie instead only in archaic prejudices,” Gorsuch wrote.
• The Supreme Court Should Affirm That Schools Cannot Usurp Parental Rights (Lathan Watts, National Review) — In a column for the National Review’s Bench Memos blog, Lathan Watts called on the Supreme Court to take up Foote v. Ludlow School Committee, a case that asks whether public schools violate parents’ constitutional right to direct the upbringing of their children when they counsel a student on gender identity or encourage a student to begin identifying as a different gender without the parents’ consent. The petition is set to be considered at the justices’ Nov. 21 conference. “Whether or not the Court decides to hear the Foote case, it will likely have to deal with rogue school districts’ attempts to usurp parental rights eventually. For the sake of preventing irreparable harm to vulnerable and confused children, it should do so sooner rather than later,” Watts wrote.

On Site

From Amy Howe

Trump Administration Again Asks Court to Block SNAP Order

The Trump administration on Monday afternoon once again asked the Supreme Court to block an order by a federal judge in Rhode Island that would require the government to fully fund the federal food-stamp program for November despite the government shutdown. U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote that the ruling by U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. “inject[s] the federal courts into the political branches’ closing efforts to end this shutdown.” Read Amy’s analysis to learn more.

Court Declines to Hear Case on Constitutionality of Same-Sex Marriage

The Supreme Court on Monday morning turned down a request from Kim Davis, a former county clerk in Kentucky, to reconsider its 2015 decision recognizing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. In a brief, unsigned order, the justices rejected Davis’ petition for review of a ruling by a federal appeals court upholding an award of $100,000 to a gay couple to whom she had refused to issue a marriage license. That petition had also asked the justices to overrule the 2015 decision, Obergefell v. Hodges, arguing that a right to same-sex marriage “had no basis in the Constitution,” as Amy noted in her analysis of Monday’s order.

Justices Agree to Decide Major Election Law Case

Setting the stage for a major ruling on election law, the Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide whether federal law requires ballots to be not only cast by voters but also received by election officials by Election Day. Watson v. Republican National Committee centers on a Mississippi law that is similar to laws in 30 other states and the District of Columbia allowing mail-in ballots to be counted as long as they are received within five business days after Election Day. For more on the case, read Amy’s analysis.

Court Appears Skeptical of Prison Inmate’s Religious Liberty Claim

The court on Monday appeared unsympathetic to the plight of a Louisiana man who is suing prison officials who shaved his dreadlocks despite a federal appeals court ruling that established his right to keep them. After nearly two hours of oral argument, a majority of the justices seemed to agree that a federal law intended to protect the religious rights of prisoners does not allow Damon Landor to sue the prison officials in their personal capacities for money damages, according to Amy’s argument analysis.

Contributor Corner

The Citizenship Fight’s Potential Next Targets

In his latest Immigration Matters column, César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández explored the possibility of President Donald Trump further narrowing access to birthright citizenship, highlighting Supreme Court briefs that “suggest that the Trump administration may be preparing to deny U.S. citizenship to children whose parents are U.S. citizens if the parents, or the children, are also citizens of another country.”