Thursday, June 21, 2012

What is left, what it means

There are now four (or five, if you count Miller and Jackson separately) argued cases left for the Court to hand down this Term, in addition to the ACA cases. They are:

1.  First American Financial Corp. v. Edwards (argued November 28) (Article III standing issue)

2.  United States v. Alvarez (argued February 22) (whether the Stolen Valor Act violates the Free Speech Clause)

3.  Miller v. Alabama and Jackson v. Hobbs (argued March 20) (whether a sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole is constitutional when imposed on persons who were minors at the time of their offense)

4.  Arizona v. United States (argued April 25) (whether four provisions of Arizona's S.B. 1070 are preempted by federal immigration law)

Also slated for today's conference of the Justices--and thus for possible resolution on Monday, perhaps with opinions--is American  Tradition Partnership v. Bullock, the campaign finance case in which the Montana Supreme Court distinguished (flouted? ignored?) Citizens United

It seems highly unlikely the Court will hand down all of these decisions plus the health care cases on Monday. Thus, as most have been guessing, Wednesday or Thursday of next week is most likely for the ACA.