Supreme Court season

It’s June, which means it’s high Supreme Court season. By the end of this month, we should have decisions in the Obamacare cases, and also in some other important disputes before the High Court. Here are the cases we’re following at PLF.

= Obamacare: If you missed our extensive coverage of the oral arguments in March, click here and scroll down.

= First American v. Edwards: This case involves the question of standing—can Congress give people the right to sue businesses for violating statutes even though the plaintiff hasn’t been harmed? Or does that violate Article III of the Constitution, which only allows federal courts to hear cases that involve actual injuries? Here’s our brief.

= Knox v. SEIU: The latest in a long series of cases involving unions that force non-members to pay money to support union activities. PLF’s brief urges the Supreme Court to rule as a matter of First Amendment law that unions are required to ask first, before they can take money from non-members for political purposes.

= Decker and Georgia-Pacific v. NW Environmental Defense Center: In these combined cases, the latest involving the reach of federal power under the Clean Water Act, the Supreme Court asked the Solicitor General to file a brief expressing his views—and we’re still waiting to see whether the justices will hear the cases or not. Here’s our brief.

= Doe v. Lower Meron School District: May a school district classify neighborhoods by race so as to redistrict attendance zones and achieve a racially balanced student body? We’re waiting to hear whether the justices will hear this case. Here is our brief.

= Harris v. Quinn: Illinois law classifies home healthcare workers as public employees so that they are represented by the SEIU union, which lobbies the government for increased government spending on home health care. Can the government authorize the SEIU to dock home healthcare workers’ paychecks for this purpose? We’ve urged the Court to take the case, and you can read our brief here.

Finally, we’ll be filing a new cert petition in another case this week—more on that soon here on the Liberty Blog.