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☆ Supreme Court Rejects Trump-Era Ban on Gun Bump Stocks
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-14 | by ( Abbie Vansickle | More About Abbie Vansickle | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The Supreme Court struck down on Friday a ban on bump stocks enacted by the Trump administration after a deadly mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017. By a vote of 6 to 3, with the court splitting along ideological lines, the justices found that the Trump administration had exceeded its power when it prohibited the device, an attachment that enables a semiautomatic rifle to fire at a speed rivaling that of a machine gun. The decision is a forceful rejection of one of the government’s few steps to address gun violence, particularly as legislative efforts have stalled in Congress.

Persons: Trump Locations: Las Vegas

☆ Supreme Court Clears Way for N.R.A. to Pursue First Amendment Challenge
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-30 | by ( Abbie Vansickle | More About Abbie Vansickle | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Supreme Court sided with the National Rifle Association on Thursday, saying it could pursue a First Amendment claim against a New York state official who had encouraged companies to stop doing business with it after the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Fla.Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing for a unanimous court, found that the N.R.A. had plausibly claimed a violation of the First Amendment, sending the case back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York, for further proceedings. The N.R.A., in asking the Supreme Court to hear the case, cited what it described as the enormous regulatory power of the state official, Maria T. Vullo, a former superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services. A court decision siding with Ms. Vullo, the group warned, would open the door to government officials making similar pleas about hot-button issues like abortion and the environment. Ms. Vullo, in court filings, has pushed back again the N.R.A.’s allegations that she undermined the First Amendment.

Persons: Sonia Sotomayor, Maria T, Vullo Organizations: National Rifle Association, U.S ., Appeals, Second Circuit, New York State Department of Financial Services Locations: New York, Parkland, Fla

☆ Supreme Court Allows $2.4 Billion Boy Scouts Sex Abuse Deal to Go Forward
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-22 | by ( Abbie Vansickle | More About Abbie Vansickle | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The Supreme Court cleared the way on Thursday for a $2.4 billion plan to settle sex abuse lawsuits against the Boy Scouts of America to go forward. The court’s brief, unsigned order gave no reasons, which is typical for emergency applications. There were no public dissents. A group of victims had asked the court to pause the plan as the justices consider an opioid settlement against Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin, and the members of the wealthy Sackler family who owned it, because that deal raised similar issues. Like the Purdue Pharma deal, the Boy Scouts agreement was settled in bankruptcy court using a contentious mechanism that insulates a third party from future lawsuits even without requiring that party to declare bankruptcy.

Persons: Sackler Organizations: Boy Scouts of, Purdue Pharma, Boy Scouts Locations: Boy Scouts of America

☆ Supreme Court to Hear Challenge to Controversial Purdue Pharma Deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-04 | by ( Abbie Vansickle | More About Abbie Vansickle | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Purdue Pharma and the wealthy family that controlled it are forever linked to the deadly opioid epidemic, which has left hundreds of thousands of people dead. But their role in the public health crisis is not the central question that the Supreme Court will wrestle with on Monday when it hears arguments over a bankruptcy settlement involving Purdue, the maker of the highly addictive painkiller OxyContin. Instead, the justices will focus on a narrower issue: whether the plan, devised to address the thousands of claims brought by state and local governments, tribes, hospitals and individual victims, can give wide-ranging legal protections to members of the Sackler family, the owners of the company. Under the deal, the Sacklers would pay up to $6 billion of their fortune toward settling those claims in exchange for immunity from all civil legal disputes related to the opioid crisis and Purdue.

Persons: Sackler Organizations: Purdue Pharma, Purdue

☆ At Core of Purdue Pharma Case: Who Can Get Immunity in Settlements?
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-03 | by ( Abbie Vansickle | More About Abbie Vansickle | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For years, Purdue Pharma, the maker of the prescription painkiller OxyContin, had been entangled in lawsuits seeking to hold it to account for its role in the spiraling opioid crisis. A pathbreaking settlement reached last year appeared to signal the end to thousands of those cases, funneling billions of dollars toward fighting the epidemic in exchange for exempting members of the billionaire Sackler family, which once controlled the company, from civil lawsuits. But on Monday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments over whether the agreement is a violation of federal law in a case that could have ramifications not just for Purdue but also for organizations that turn to bankruptcy court, as the company did, to resolve claims of mass injury. “There’s huge implications for all of corporate bankruptcy,” said Anthony J. Casey, a law professor at the University of Chicago. “I think this is probably the most important bankruptcy case before the court in 30, maybe 40 years.”

Persons: Sackler, “, ”, Anthony J, Casey Organizations: Purdue Pharma, Purdue, University of Chicago

The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it had issued an ethics code for the justices after a series of revelations about undisclosed property deals and gifts intensified pressure on the court to adopt one. In a statement by the court, the justices said they had adopted the code of conduct “to set out succinctly and gather in one place the ethics rules and principles that guide the conduct of the members of the court.”“For the most part these rules and principles are not new,” the court said, adding that “the absence of a code, however, has led in recent years to the misunderstanding that the justices of this court, unlike all other jurists in this country, regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules.”Left unclear was how the code will be enforced. Although lower federal judges are bound by an ethics code that governs their conduct, the Supreme Court justices have never been required to abide by those same rules because of its special constitutional status. In a letter to lawmakers this spring, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the court “takes guidance” from the ethics code for other federal judges.

Persons: ”, John G, Roberts Jr Organizations: Supreme

☆ Texas Man at Center of Supreme Court Case Says He No Longer Wants Guns
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-06 | by ( Abbie Vansickle | More About Abbie Vansickle | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“It’s a fundamental strategic goal to present cases in the most favorable light possible, and that would include having a sympathetic and relatable person,” said Clark Neily, the senior vice president for legal studies at the Cato Institute, which has advocated gun rights. A panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit wrote that he was “hardly a model citizen,” even as they sided with him. Mr. Rahimi’s case could expand gun rights protections by undoing a federal law that makes it a felony to possess a gun while under a domestic violence protective order. Although the case has garnered a flood of amicus briefs from groups like the National Rifle Association, the Second Amendment Foundation, and the Phyllis Schlafly Eagles, the organizations have largely shifted focus away from Mr. Rahimi. “You could imagine a different case challenging this same law with a much more sympathetic plaintiff.”

Persons: “, ”, Clark Neily, Mr, Rahimi, Phyllis Schlafly Eagles, Eric Ruben Organizations: Cato Institute, U.S ., Appeals, Fifth Circuit, National Rifle Association, Amendment, Southern Methodist University, Brennan Center for Justice Locations: Texas

☆ Supreme Court Delays Efforts to Redraw Louisiana Voting Map
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-19 | by ( Abbie Vansickle | More About Abbie Vansickle | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a lower-court ruling that delays an effort to redraw Louisiana’s congressional map, prolonging a bitter clash over the representation of Black voters in the state. Civil rights groups had sought emergency relief from the Supreme Court after a federal appeals court abruptly canceled a scheduled hearing aimed at drafting a new map for Louisiana. That map was to include two districts in which Black voters represent a large enough share of the population to have the opportunity to select a candidate. The appeals court said that the state legislature should have more time to redraw its own map before a lower court stepped in. The Supreme Court’s order was unsigned, which is typical when the justices rule on emergency applications, and there were no public dissents.

Organizations: Republican Locations: Louisiana

☆ Supreme Court Declines to Revisit Alabama Voting Map Dispute
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-26 | by ( Abbie Vansickle | More About Abbie Vansickle | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Supreme Court on Tuesday morning declined to reinstate a congressional map in Alabama drawn by Republican lawmakers that had only one majority-Black district, paving the way for a new map to be put in place before the 2024 election. The order came in response to a request from Alabama that the justices freeze a lower-court ruling striking down its proposed map. A three-judge panel found that the state had brazenly flouted its directive to create a second majority-Black district or something “close to it.”Alabama’s request for relief was the second time in under a year that it had asked the Supreme Court to affirm a limited role of race in establishing voting districts for federal elections in what amounted to a defiant repudiation of lower-court rulings. The court’s order gave no reasons, which is often the case when the justices decide on emergency applications. The ruling clears the way for a special master and court-appointed cartographer to create a new map.

Organizations: Republican Locations: Alabama, Black

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on Friday called on the nation to accept some of the ugliest truths in its history as she confronted the debates roiling the country about racism and violence against Black Americans. “If we’re going to continue to move forward as a nation we cannot allow concerns about discomfort to displace knowledge, truth or history,” Justice Jackson told a crowd of hundreds. “It is certainly the case that parts of this country’s story can be hard to think about. I know that atrocities like the one we’re memorializing today are difficult to remember and relive. “We cannot forget because we cannot learn from past mistakes we do not know exist.”

Persons: Ketanji Brown Jackson, Justice Jackson, ” Justice Jackson, ” Organizations: Black, Sixteenth, Baptist Church, Ku Klux, Sunday, ” Locations: Birmingham, Alabama

☆ Justice Dept. Asks Supreme Court to Hear Abortion Pill Case
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-08 | by ( Abbie Vansickle | More About Abbie Vansickle | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court on Friday evening to hear a challenge to the availability of a commonly used abortion pill, raising the possibility that the justices will rule on the fate of the drug. The case centers on the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug more than two decades ago and could have broader implications for the pharmaceutical industry, including the agency’s regulatory authority over other medications. The request came in response to a ruling by a federal appeals court last month that upheld the legality of the pill but imposed significant restrictions on its distribution. The decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit would prevent the drug from being sent through the mail or prescribed by telemedicine. For now, the pill remains available because the Supreme Court determined in April that access to the drug would remain unchanged until the appeals process finished.

Organizations: Department, Food, U.S ., Appeals, Fifth Locations: United States

☆ Justice Thomas Reports Private Trips With Harlan Crow
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-31 | by ( Abbie Vansickle | More About Abbie Vansickle | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But Justices Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. requested 90-day extensions, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, which collects and publishes the forms. Mr. Crow treated the justice on a series of lavish trips, including flights on his private jet, island-hopping on his superyacht and vacationing at his estate in the Adirondacks. Mr. Crow also bought the justice’s mother’s home in Savannah, Ga., and covered a portion of private school tuition for the justice’s great-nephew, whom he was raising. Other wealthy friends have hosted Justice Thomas, including David L. Sokol, the former heir apparent to Berkshire Hathaway. In the years that followed, Mr. Singer repeatedly had business before the court.

Persons: Thomas, Samuel A, Alito Jr, Thomas’s, Harlan Crow, ProPublica, Crow, David L, Berkshire Hathaway, Anthony Welters, underwrote, Prevost, ” Justice Alito, Paul Singer, Singer Organizations: Administrative, U.S . Courts, Sokol, ” Locations: Texas, Savannah , Ga, Berkshire, Washington, Alaska

The settlement involving Purdue, the maker of the prescription painkiller OxyContin, touches on one of the country’s largest public health crises. Experts say the decision may also have important consequences for other cases that use the bankruptcy system to settle claims of mass injuries. Here’s what you need to know about the court’s decision:Why did the Supreme Court decide to weigh in? It’s rare for the Supreme Court to agree to hear a bankruptcy court dispute, experts say, especially one dealing with a settlement agreement in a mass-injury case. Trustee Program, a watchdog office within the Justice Department, that petitioned the Supreme Court to review the deal.

Persons: Sackler Organizations: Supreme, Purdue Pharma, Purdue, U.S ., Justice Department Locations: U.S

☆ Supreme Court Pauses Opioid Settlement With Sacklers Pending Review
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( Abbie Vansickle | More About Abbie Vansickle | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Supreme Court agreed on Thursday to consider the government’s challenge of a bankruptcy settlement involving Purdue Pharma, putting on pause a deal that would have shielded members of the wealthy Sackler family from civil opioid lawsuits in exchange for payments of up to $6 billion to thousands of plaintiffs. In doing so, the court sided with the Justice Department, which had requested the court put the settlement plan on hold while it considered reviewing the agreement. The government has argued that the family behind Purdue Pharma, maker of the prescription painkiller OxyContin, should not be able to take advantage of legal protections meant for debtors in “financial distress.”The court’s order, which was unsigned, gave no reasons and included no public dissents, adds to the uncertainty around the plan to compensate states, local governments, tribes and individuals harmed by the opioid crisis while offering protection for the Sackler family. The order specified that the justices would hear arguments in the case in December. The court’s decision to take up the challenge to the bankruptcy agreement is the latest twist in the yearslong legal battle over compensation for victims of the prescription drug crisis.

Persons: Sackler Organizations: Purdue Pharma, Justice Department

☆ Hunter Biden Judge, Defying a ‘Rubber Stamp,’ Jumps Into the Spotlight
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-27 | by ( Abbie Vansickle | More About Abbie Vansickle | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Judge Maryellen Noreika, a 57-year-old former patent and intellectual property litigator, is not an especially high-profile figure in the small legal community in the country’s second-smallest state. Records show she had not worked on criminal cases or presided over a courtroom before President Donald J. Trump nominated her to the federal bench in 2017. She stunned everyone in the courtroom by refusing to approve a deal that would have settled tax and gun charges against Mr. Biden. Then she sent the lawyers back to the drawing board. He selected her, he said, as a research assistant to help supervise a group of law students for a large project for the Federal Judicial Center, the education and research agency of the United States federal courts.

Persons: Judge Maryellen Noreika, Donald J, Trump, Hunter Biden, Mr, Biden, Arthur Hellman, Judge Noreika Organizations: Records, Court, Justice Department, University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Federal Judicial Center, United Locations: Wilmington, Del, United States

Only three months into Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s first Supreme Court term, she announced a book deal negotiated by the same powerhouse lawyer who represented the Obamas and James Patterson. The deal was worth about $3 million, according to people familiar with the agreement, and made Justice Jackson the latest Supreme Court justice to parlay her fame into a big book contract. Justice Neil M. Gorsuch had made $650,000 for a book of essays and personal reflections on the role of judges, while Justice Amy Coney Barrett received a $2 million advance for her forthcoming book about keeping personal feelings out of judicial rulings. Those newer justices joined two of their more senior colleagues, Justices Clarence Thomas and Sonia Sotomayor, in securing payments that eclipse their government salaries. In recent months reports by ProPublica, The New York Times and others have highlighted a lack of transparency at the Supreme Court, as well as the absence of a binding ethics code for the justices.

Persons: Ketanji Brown Jackson’s, James Patterson, Jackson, Neil M, Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, Clarence Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor, ProPublica, Thomas’s, Justice Samuel A, Alito Jr, John G, Roberts Organizations: The New York Times, Supreme, Republican Locations: The

On Oct. 15, 1991, Clarence Thomas secured his seat on the Supreme Court, a narrow victory after a bruising confirmation fight that left him isolated and disillusioned. Within months, the new justice enjoyed a far-warmer acceptance to a second exclusive club: the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, named for the Gilded Age author whose rags-to-riches novels represented an aspirational version of Justice Thomas’s own bootstraps origin story. If Justice Thomas’s life had unfolded as he had envisioned, his Horatio Alger induction might have been a celebration of his triumphs as a prosperous lawyer instead of a judge. So began his grudging path to a judicial career that brought him great prestige but only modest material wealth after decades of financial struggle. When he joined the Horatio Alger Association, Justice Thomas entered a world whose defining ethos of meritocratic success — that anyone can achieve the American dream with hard work, pluck and a little luck — was the embodiment of his own life philosophy, and a foundation of his jurisprudence.

Persons: Clarence Thomas, Horatio Alger, Thomas’s, Justice Thomas, —, ” Organizations: Distinguished, Yale Law School, Horatio, Horatio Alger Association, Justice

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