A newsletter by Reuters and Westlaw |
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Good morning. Today we’re looking at how the U.S. Supreme Court has leaned into America’s culture wars with its rulings in trans rights cases. Plus, SCOTUS will issue orders this morning; the suspect in the shooting death of Minnesota Assemblywoman Melissa Hortman and her husband is due in court; and an ABA proposal is facing sharp criticism from educators. I’m off tomorrow for the holiday. Have a great weekend!
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The U.S. Supreme Court's latest term was bursting with fodder for America's culture wars, few more so than in three cases touching on transgender rights. Here’s what to know: |
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This term the court upheld a ban in Tennessee on medical treatments for minors with gender dysphoria (opinion here), allowed President Trump's prohibition on transgender people in the U.S. military to take effect and permitted parents to keep their children out of classes when storybooks with LGBTQ+ characters are read (opinion here). All three liberal justices dissented in these cases.
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On Monday, the court threw out judicial decisions that favored transgender people in cases from North Carolina, West Virginia, Idaho and Oklahoma, ordering lower courts to reconsider their decisions in light of its ruling in the Tennessee case. Read more about that here.
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These outcomes, along with other decisions that split along ideological lines to back restrictions on Planned Parenthood (opinion here) and limits on access to online pornography (opinion here), showed the court majority's willingness to rule on polarizing matters as the court continues to steadily push U.S. law to the right.
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Some legal scholars said the rulings were all but predictable given the make up of the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, and the alignment of outcomes with Republican priorities. "They are not umpires in this war; they are culture warriors," University of Chicago constitutional law professor Mary Anne Case, said of the court's conservatives. Read more here.
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But not all the disputes this term starkly divided the court. Even in areas where the court can easily cleave along ideological lines - such as gun rights and religion - the conservative and liberal justices found common ground with the outcome. Read more about that here.
- Next term, which starts in October, the court could hear another major transgender rights issue involving challenges to state laws that ban transgender athletes from female sports teams in public schools. More orders on what the court could hear next term are expected this morning.
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U.S. District Judge Fernando Olguin in Los Angeles will consider whether to adopt a court-appointed special master's conclusion that the DOJ does not have evidence to support its billion-dollar fraud case accusing UnitedHealth Group of keeping overpayments from the government for patients on its Medicare insurance plans. Read the special master recommendation here.
- A preliminary court hearing will be held in St. Paul, Minnesota, for the suspect in the shooting death of Democratic State Assemblywoman Melissa Hortman and her husband, as well as the shooting of state Senator John Hoffman and his wife.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes. |
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That’s how many counts of transportation to engage in prostitution Sean “Diddy” Combs was convicted of by a jury on Wednesday. The verdict was an overall win for Combs who was cleared on three other charges, including sex-trafficking and racketeering, that could have put him behind bars for life. Combs was denied bail and will remain in jail |
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