Federal Judiciary

Today’s Opinions

By Akin Gump Supreme Court Practice Group

The Court has released the opinion  in Cuomo v. The Clearing House Ass?n, L.L.C. (08-453), holding that states have the power to police discrimination in mortgage lending. The decision below is affirmed in part and reversed and part in a 5-4 opinion by Justice Scalia. Justice Thomas filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Kennedy and Alito.  The opinion is available here.

The Court has released the opinion in Ricci, et al. v. DeStefano, et al. (07-1428 and 08-328), holding for the plaintiff firefighters that the City of New Haven cannot be sued for disparate liability. The decision below is reversed and remanded in a 5-4 opinion by Justice Kennedy. Justice Scalia filed a concurring opinion. Justice Alito filed a concurring opinion, in which Justices Scalia and Thomas joined. Justice Ginsburg filed a dissenting opinion, in which Justices Stevens, Souter, and Breyer joined.  The opinion is available here. 

The Court has held that  Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (08-205) will be reargued on Wednesday, September 9 at 10 a.m.  The Court has issued the following written order: “The parties should address the following question: ‘For the disposition of this case, should the Court overrule either or both Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce and the part of McConnell v. FEC which addresses the facial validity of Section 203 of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002?’”

For more details of the Court’s closing public session, please see this morning’s LiveBlog.

Full post as published by SCOTUSBLOG on June 29, 2009 (boomark / email).