Tag Archives: SCOTUS

From the website of “death to gays” Pastor Kevin Swanson: The Oregon Supreme Court upheld the lower court rulings requiring that Aaron and Melissa Klein pay $135,000 for not baking a cake for a homosexual ceremony. Now they are appealing the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Here, we interview Aaron Klein on how they lost their little family bakery …

Just in from the Democratic National Committee: On the 3rd anniversary of Obergefell v. Hodges, the 5th anniversary of U.S. v. Windsor, and the 15th anniversary of Lawrence v. Texas, DNC Chair Tom Perez released the following statement: “Before the Supreme Court handed down its decision in U.S. v. Windsor five years ago, Edie Windsor said, ‘I think justice will …

Just in from the White House: “Today’s Supreme Court ruling is a tremendous victory for the American People and the Constitution. The Supreme Court has upheld the clear authority of the President to defend the national security of the United States. In this era of worldwide terrorism and extremist movements bent on harming innocent civilians, we must properly vet those …

NBC News reports: The U.S. Supreme Court upheld President Donald Trump’s restriction on travel to the United States from a handful of Muslim countries on Tuesday, giving the White House its first high court victory on the merits of a Trump initiative. After a series of federal court rulings invalidated or scaled back earlier versions of the travel ban, Monday’s …

Courthouse News reports: The Supreme Court struck down a California law on Tuesday that puts different disclosure requirements on pregnancy centers depending on the status of the licenses. A nonprofit called NIFLA, short for the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, brought the underlying case shortly after the California Legislature passed the Reproductive FACT Act in 2015. Among other …

LeGaL executive director Eric Lesh reports at Medium: In the first lower court ruling applying Masterpiece Cakeshop, the Arizona Court of Appeals rejected the argument that business owners have a license to discriminate against same-sex couples in Brush & NIB Studio v City of Phoenix. This case was brought by the Alliance Defending Freedom. This shows that the Supreme Court’s …

Via press release: When faced with the contentious issue of balancing religious freedom and LGBT equality, today the Supreme Court wisely decided to hit the pause button. There will be many on the left who will say that this ruling opens the door to rampant discrimination, and many on the right who will declare that this is a major milestone …

Via press release from Lambda Legal: “The Court today has offered dangerous encouragement to those who would deny civil rights to LGBT people and people living with HIV. Religious freedom under our Constitution has always meant the right to believe whatever you wish but not to act on your beliefs in ways that harm others. The Court today alarmingly fails …

From the editorial board of the New York Times: Dear Justice Kennedy, As you have no doubt heard, rumors of your impending retirement are, for the second year in a row, echoing around Washington and across America. While you and your colleagues on the Supreme Court were listening to the final oral arguments of the term in recent days, those …

The Chicago Tribune reports: The U.S. Supreme Court has for the second time rejected an appeal by imprisoned former Gov. Rod Blagojevich of his convictions on corruption charges. The justices did not comment Monday in letting stand the convictions and 14-year prison term that Blagojevich is serving. He’s scheduled to be released in 2024. His convictions included trying to extort …

Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens today penned a New York Times op-ed calling for the repeal of the Second Amendment. His conclusion: In 2008, the Supreme Court overturned Chief Justice Burger’s and others’ long-settled understanding of the Second Amendment’s limited reach by ruling, in District of Columbia v. Heller, that there was an individual right to bear arms. …

USA Today reports: They don’t call her Notorious RBG for nothing. Stephen Colbert hilariously attempted to keep up with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at D.C.’s Watergate Hotel gym on Wednesday’s episode of The Late Show. While the funnyman gushed over the 85-year-old clad is a shirt that read “SUPER DIVA,” RBG seemed less impressed with Colbert. The thing …

The Washington Post reports: The Supreme Court on Monday turned down a request from Pennsylvania Republican legislative leaders to block the implementation of a redrawn congressional map that creates more parity between the political parties in the state. The practical impact is the 2018 elections in the state are likely to be held with a map much more favorable to …

Reuters reports:  The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday required Arizona to continue to provide driver’s licenses to the so-called Dreamers immigrants and refused to hear the state’s challenge to an Obama-era program that protects hundreds of thousands of young adults brought into the country illegally as children. The case centered on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program created …

Politico reports: Dean Heller knows he’s the most vulnerable Republican senator in the country. But he thinks Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy might just help him hang on to his seat. “Kennedy is going to retire around sometime early summer,” Heller predicted in Las Vegas last week, according to audio of an event he spoke at that was obtained by …

Portland’s ABC affiliate reports: An appeal has been filed with the Oregon Supreme Court in hopes of overturning a $135,000 penalty given to the owners of a Gresham bakery who refused to bake a cake for a gay couple. The Oregon Court of Appeals upheld a decision by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries to penalize owners of Sweet …

Published today by Christian Newswire: The Foundation for Moral Law, an Alabama nonprofit corporation dedicated to the defense of religious liberty and a strict interpretation of the Constitution in accordance with the intent of its Framers, filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court Monday supporting Proclamation 9645, President Trump’s travel ban. Proclamation 9645 prohibits travel to the United …

As we await the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case, a sobering ad has been released in support of public accommodations rights for LGBT Americans. From the Movement Advancement Project: Inspired by a real legal case, Funeral Home, produced by MAP as part of the Open to All campaign, depicts a grieving widow who has just lost her …

USA Today reports: The Supreme Court refused Monday to review a federal judge’s order that the Trump administration continue a program protecting undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children. The denial leaves in place the popular DACA program, which has protected some 690,000 undocumented immigrants from deportation and enabled them to get work permits. The program had faced …

Reuters reports: A second U.S. judge on Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump’s decision to end a program that protects immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children from deportation. U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in Brooklyn ruled that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, cannot end in March as planned, a victory for state attorneys general …