Court Is Back in Session: No Huge Cases Yet, but Blockbusters Loom

While it seems like just yesterday that the Supreme Court went on vacation after its controversial (but correct) ruling in the Hobby Lobby contraceptive‐​mandate case, summer is over even for The Nine. Today is First Monday, the traditional start of the new Supreme Court term.


As of this writing, the Court has 50 cases on its docket, which is about on par with recent practice, such that we can expect 70 – 75 opinions at term’s end once the Court sets more cases for argument later in the term. Here are some of the issues: whether a policeman’s mistaken belief that someone had committed a traffic violation can form the basis for a lawful search (Heien v. North Carolina — Cato’s brief); whether a prison can prohibit a Muslim inmate from growing a beard (Holt v. Hobbs); whether a fisherman can be prosecuted under Sarbanes-Oxley’s recordkeeping provision for throwing undersized fish overboard (Yates v. United States - Cato’s brief); whether Congress can force the State Department to recognize Jerusalem as part of Israel on U.S. passports (Zivotovsky v. Kerry); the circumstances under which criminal charges can attach to Facebook posts (Elonis v. United States – Cato’s brief); and whether an occupational‐​licensing board gets immunity from liability for anticompetitive behavior (North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners v. FTC – Cato’s brief). These cases don’t yet reach the high profile of recent terms, but if the Court takes up one of the same‐​sex marriage or Obamacare‐​subsidies lawsuits now at its doorstep, all bets are off.


For more detail on these and other cases, see the “Looking Ahead” essay in this year’s Cato Supreme Court Review, as well as these two previews.