06/29/23

Good morning! It’s Thursday, June 28th.

National Work from Home Day.

Oh buddy, do I have some news for the person that invented this holiday…

And now, the news.

Recent Supreme Court Rulings

-via NY Times, Washington Post, SCOTUS Blog, & Oyez

It’s been quite the session for the Court and, as they prepare to hand down the last of the term’s rulings this week, I thought this would be a good time to talk about what’s come down so far and what we’re still waiting for.

Starting with:

The big news on Tuesday: the state legislatures case.

This case would have give state legislatures to just OOP – regulate federal elections, including drawing partisan maps, without the state’s courts being able to say anything about it. (Besides, like, “oh yikes. That’s really bad. I wish we could do something!”)

In a win for democracy, it was rejected on a 6-3 vote. And when I tell you that you’ll be SHOCKED to know who voted against the majority and tried to get the states to do whatever they want when it comes to elections… well, then that would be a joke. Because, naturally, it was Aleako, Thomas, and Gorusch.

And speaking of elections and wins for democracy…

On June 8th, the Court also ruled that Alabama had diluted the power of their Black voters, by drawing a partisan map.

This one was decided on a 5-4 majority, which Barrett joining Gorsuch, Aleako, and Thomas on the opposition. And you really gotta ask yourself, when you’re having lunch with those three, if you’re doing the right thing with your life.

This case is actually deceptively big, as it reiterated the vitality of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Section 2 “prohibits voting practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race, color, or membership in one of the language minority groups identified in Section 4(f)(2) of the Act.”

And since the Court actually LOVES hating voting and the Voting Rights Act, protecting Section 2 is a win for sure.

Moving on over to a case that requires to me, prepare to be shocked, say something nice about Justice Gorsuch… in a 7-2 decision on June 15th, the Court upheld the Indian Child Welfare Act, which prioritizes keeping Native American children with their tribes.

The ruling did not resolve whether the law was discriminatory against non-Native families, a question that Kavanaugh wrote in his opinion should be considered.

In keeping on theme, Aleako and Thomas dissented.

And let’s lower the seriousness of the cases with Jack Daniel's Properties v. VIP Products LLC… this was the case where a company called VIP Products LLC produced a few dog toys that sort of looked like Jack Daniels products. Except they were dog toys and instead of the label saying “Jack Daniels” it said “Bad Spaniels”

In a very lame business move, Jack Daniels sued the company and this one made it all the way to the high Court, where all the Justices agreed that parody of another’s trademark is subject to a likelihood-of-confusion analysis and is not automatically excluded from a claim of trademark dilution. A ruling that will very likely lead to other companies being a little more careful about their parody products.

And from there, let’s scoot our boots on over to the cases we’re waiting on. Just a quick note… I’m recording this on Tuesday night because I’m a full on, actual for real, adult that’s going to Disneyland on Wednesday. So we’ll likely come back to some of these on Friday.

First up: Affirmative Action. Aka Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, and Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina

This case was argued in October and, in the arguments, it appeared that the Justices would overturn decades of precedent. The big question here is… how broad of a decision will it be?

And speaking of college – student loans. Aka Biden v. Nebraska, and Department of Education v. Brown.

Aka aka – these loans were paused in March of 2020 and while the economy isn’t doing the most best, it has nothing to do with these loans so why not just cancel them since studies show that when everyone does better everyone does better?

Who knows but the big hope here is that the Justices will decide the plantiff’s didn’t have a legal standing.

And speaking of no legal standing… 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis is the case where no one asked Lorie Smith, the Christian graphic artist, to design a same-sex wedding website, but she was just nervous they COULD ask her and she wouldn’t be able to say no. This is similar to the wedding cake case from 2018, except in this case… no one asked her to make the website!

We’ll see.

We’ve also got Groff vs DeJoy, which is the case of Gerald Groff, who quit his job as a letter carrier after he was asked to deliver mail on Sundays, which is against his religion. In 1977, a case called Trans World Airlines v. Hardison noted that the Civil Rights Act doesn’t require employers to “reasonably accommodate” workers’ religious observance if it would impose more than a minimal burden on their operations.

Groff’s lawyer says the Sunday work requirement, “should be treated no differently than allowances for disability and pregnancy.”

I… don’t really know actually what to say about that.

And that’s it. That’s the news.

Those are the Supreme Court cases!

Expect those last few cases to get announced this week, so that Aleako and Thomas can jump on their private jets that for sure totally don’t even influence them at all, even though they almost certainly do. Just don’t ask questions.

I’m proud of… well not Aleako and Thomas, that’s for sure. Or Roberts! My guy – I realize the leak is coming from instead the robes but could you please do SOMETHING to ensure the people who get hired for literally their whole lives could possibly have some sort of consequences for bad actions.

But I am proud of working from home… I work from home and I love it. Truly it.

But more than that… because you are an absolute boss no matter where you work… I’m proud of you.