After adding seven new cases to their docket on Friday, the Supreme Court issued more orders on Monday morning from last week’s “long” conference. The justices called for the views of the federal government in three new cases and set the latest chapter of a long-running water dispute between Florida and Georgia for oral argument “in due course.” They also denied review in over a thousand petitions for review, with one of those denials drawing a sharp three-and-half-page statement from Justice Clarence Thomas criticizing the court’s 2015 decision recognizing a right to same-sex marriage. Thomas’ statement came in the case of Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges because of her religious objections to same-sex marriage. Two same-sex couples who were denied marriage licenses sued Davis under federal civil rights laws, alleging that she had violated their constitutional right to marry. The district court denied Davis’ motion for qualified immunity, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit upheld that decision. Davis went to the Supreme Court, urging the court to “vindicate her qualified immunity defense.” Her case, she contended, “has […]
News from around the world. Curated by Mark McDowell. Posts do not constitute agreement or endorsement.