The Week Ahead – December 5, 2016

The Court will kick off this week by hearing oral arguments in Bethune-Hill v. Virginia Board of Elections on Monday. After the Virginia General Assembly redrew its legislative districts, the plaintiffs sued, alleging that race was a predominant factor in the redistricting. The Court will have to decide if Virginia’s political leaders unconstitutionally gerrymandered the districts to diminish the power of African American voters. The Washington Post discusses the history of the case, leading up to its arguments in front of the high court.

Additionally on Monday, the Court will hear a similar case, McCrory v. Harris. In McCrory, the Court will consider whether the district court was wrong in deciding that North Carolina did in fact redraw their legislative districts to decrease the power of African American voters and therefore violating the Equal Protection Clause. Check out PBS for further details.

On Tuesday, the Court will move away from issues involving politics and race and will hear arguments in Life Technologies Corp. v. Promega Corp. This case involves infringement and the meaning of a specific statute involving the manufacturing and supply of patented inventions used overseas. They will ultimately have to decide if making just one component of a multi-component invention from the U.S. for sale overseas makes the manufacture liable for infringement based on the worldwide sales of the invention. John Duffy of SCOTUSblog breaks down the arguments, here.

Finally, on Wednesday the Court will hear arguments in Czyzewski v. Jevic Holding Corp. The Court will have to decide whether bankruptcy courts can approve settlements providing for the distribution of assets in a manner inconsistent with the priorities set forth in the Bankruptcy Code. Jevic Transportation filed for bankruptcy and the settlement distributed assets to creditors that held lower priority than the truck drivers employed by Jevic. The drivers argue that this distribution violates the Bankruptcy Code. Daniel Bussel of SCOTUSblog discusses how Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases will be effected in the future based on various decisions the Court could make.

One thought on “The Week Ahead – December 5, 2016”

  1. Thank you for the weekly updates and previews. Facts about court cases need to be seen and debated by more people. Having a place to get those facts without too much extra editorializing helps active citizens make up their own minds.

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