Last night, Judge Amy Coney Barrett became only the 5th woman in American history to become a Supreme Court Justice – a remarkable accomplishment. Justice Barrett was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in a 52 – 48 vote, securing a 6 – 3 conservative majority on the Court.
The Supreme Court kicked off its 2020 – 2021 term this month, hearing ten cases prior to Justice Barrett’s confirmation. She will be unable to rule on these cases, but there are nearly 30 cases Justice Barrett and her colleagues will hear this fall, including some cases postponed from the 2019 – 2020 term due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Take a look at a few of the important cases to watch this term.
Related Read: Meet the Four Women Who Preceded Justice Barrett on the Supreme Court
Affordable Care Act
The Court will consider the latest challenge to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which will tackle two big questions: Whether the states in this case have standing to challenge the minimum coverage provision of the ACA, and whether Congress rendered the law’s individual insurance mandate unconstitutional by eliminating the tax penalty that had been attached to the mandate. If the court finds the individual mandate unconstitutional, a third question arises: Is the mandate capable of being severed? And if not, the entire Act could be struck down.
Read more on California v. Texas and Texas v. California on the SCOTUSBlog, and don’t miss our Healthcare Policy Brief on the subject, or the Affordable Care Act Deep Dive
Election Laws
The Justices will consider a four-year legal battle over an Arizona policy that requires voters who vote in person on Election Day to use their assigned precincts for their ballots to be counted. They’ll also weigh in on another Arizona state law that prohibits “a person from handling absentee ballots other than the voter, an acknowledged family member, the U.S. Postal Service or other legitimate shipper, or election officials.” The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in favor of the DNC, citing that Section 2 forbids the state from eliminating those practices. The Arizona Republican Party asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Ninth Circuit’s decision, stressing that Arizona’s laws on out-of-precinct voting and “ballot harvesting” are commonplace practices used to prevent election fraud and that the Ninth Circuit’s “sweeping view threatens virtually all ordinary election rules.”
Read more on Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee and Arizona Republican Party v. Democratic National Committee on the SCOTUSBlog, and dive into our Election Series.
Impeachment
In a high-profile case, The Court will weigh in on a dispute over efforts by members of Congress to obtain secret materials from the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller on investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Read more on Department of Justice v. House Committee on the Judiciary on the SCOTUSBlog.
Religious Freedom
The Justices will hear a case involving faith-based adoption agencies and same-sex couples who would not be certified as foster parents. One question the Court will consider is whether the government violates the First Amendment’s Free Exercise clause when participation by a religious social-services agency in the foster-care system “is contingent on actions and statements by the agency that conflict with the agency’s religious beliefs.”
Read more on Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on the SCOTUSBlog.
2020 Census
New York and a coalition of 20 states, cities and localities have challenged the Administration on a July 2020 Census memorandum, stating it is an attempt to exclude undocumented immigrants from state-by-state population totals compiled by the U.S. Census, which are used for the allocation of seats in the House of Representatives.
Read more on Trump v. New York on the SCOTUSBlog, and check out our Policy Brief on the Census.
COMING SOON
Stay tuned for our Deep Dive on the Judicial Selection Process.
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