Weekly Roundup, December 4, 2015

Did you miss your Supreme Court news this week? Let our Weekly Roundup help. (To stay on top of the latest Supreme Court happenings, follow ISCOTUS on Twitter.)

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked a Hawaiian election for  an assembly to advocate measures for greater self-government for Native Hawaiians in which only descendants of indigenous people were permitted to vote. Jess Bravin reported on the order for the Wall Street Journal.

Episode 2 of Oyez’s “So Ordered” podcast completes its coverage of the 1978 affirmative action case Regents of the University of California v. Bakke.

The Supreme Court issued its first decision this Term on Tuesday. In OBB Personverkehr AG v. Sachs, the Court ruled that a lawsuit against the Austrian railroad did not qualify for the “commercial activity” exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

On Monday, Justices heard argument in Green v. Brennan, which concerns when the filing period should begin for a constructively-discharged federal employee. Read accounts of the argument at Law 360, Education Week, and  Slate.

The George Washington Law Review offers an overview of the cases the Supreme Court will hear in December. We previewed the upcoming week’s reviews of Evenwel v. Abbot and Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin. Steven Mazie of The Economist previewed Evenwel, writing that the case’s stakes “are potentially huge.” In the Los Angeles Times, David Savage wrote up a full preview of Fisher.

Judge Richard Posner and Professor Eric Segall wrote an Op-Ed for the New York Times criticizing Justice Scalia’s dissents in the Supreme Court’s gay rights decisions. “Justice Scalia seems to want to turn the Constitution upside down when it comes to government and religion,” they write; “ his political ideal verges on majoritarian theocracy.”

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