The Week Ahead – April 10, 2017

As of this morning, with the swearing in of Justice Neil Gorsuch, the Supreme Court is back to its full complement of nine justices. As The Los Angeles Times reports, Gorsuch had two swearing-in ceremonies. The first was a private ceremony at the Supreme Court, at which Chief Justice Roberts presided and, Mark Walsh of SCOTUSblog explains, at which Gorsuch took the constitutional oath. The second ceremony was in the White House Rose Garden, and Justice Kennedy — for whom Gorsuch clerked — administered the judicial oath. In a longer piece, Mark Walsh explains the difference between the oaths provides some background on the history of the oaths taken by Supreme Court justices.

Justice Gorsuch will not hear his first arguments until next week. The first cases that he will hear on the Court involve the legality of the exclusion of churches from state funding in Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer, the Sixth Amendment, defendant’s rights, and inadequate counsel, the revocation of a naturalized citizen’s citizenship, and the proper timing of class action securities lawsuits. Check out Fox News for more details on these cases. USA Today and the Washington Post also provided articles on Gorsuch’s likely impact that will start next week. Gorsuch is not likely to upset the ideological balance of the court given the previous occupant of his seat was Justice Scalia, but he will bring the Court back in full swing now that there are nine justices in place and no worries of deadlocked decisions.

Justice Gorsuch does not even have until next week to get used to his new job. The justices meet for their next Conference on Thursday. Among the duties of the most junior justice is taking notes at Conference and — even more prosaically — answering the door. As Justice Kagan explained — to Gorsuch himself at a public interview last summer — this can happen because “you know, one of the justices forgot his glasses. The other justice forgot her cup of coffee.” And as Kagan also explained, the junior justice sits on the cafeteria committee.

There will also be serious business. As usual, SCOTUSblog identifies petitions worth watching that are listed for the next Conference. One such case is for a writ of certiorari is Dot Foods, Inc v. Department of Revenue for the State of Washington. Law360 describes the case, in which Dot Foods argues its due process rights were violated when it was stripped of its tax-exempt status due to a retroactive application of a Washington statutory amendment that regulated in state sales and commerce of out of state businesses.

Another case worth watching is Carpenter v. United States. As CATO Institute explains, this case involves the constitutionality of warrantless search and seizure of cell phone records under the Fourth Amendment. The plaintiffs were convicted of armed robberies and are appealing their conviction arguing that it violated the Fourth Amendment for the government to  use the cell phone records for information about their whereabouts.

Another case distributed for Thursday’s conference is Mickelson v. County of Ramsey. The issue in this case is whether it is a due process violation for the government to confiscate money from innocent people due to an arrest, and make them prove they are entitled to have it back. Adam Liptak of  The New York Times explains that Corey Statham was arrested and had his charges dismissed, but the county kept a portion of his confiscated money as a “booking fee.” A number of states bill people merely for being arrested and held in jail, and Statham’s attorney Michael A. Carvin argues that, “providing a profit motive to make arrests gives officers an incentive to make improper arrests.”  The issues in this case are similar (though not identical) to the civil forfeiture issues Justice Thomas recently highlighted in an opinion respecting the denial of certiorari.

Finally, the Supreme Court will be considering whether to grant cert in the repeatedly relisted Masterpiece Cake Shop, Ltd. v. Colorado Commission on Civil Rights, which addresses whether an antidiscrimination law can be constitutionally applied to a baker who makes wedding cakes but refuses to do so for same-sex couples for religious reasons. This is one case in which Gorsuch’s arrival could make a substantial difference, as CNN reports here.

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