High Court to Hear Important Cases in ‘Intense’ Two-Week Period
The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear several important cases in the next few weeks, including disputes over a student strip search, a reverse discrimination claim, voting rights, and a requirement for immigrant English classes.
Legal Times says the next two weeks will be an “intense” period, despite a pledge by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. last June to avoid a last-minute crunch of released opinions with more arguments earlier in the term.
The court did live up to part of the pledge, releasing 40 opinions so far, more than the number released in recent terms, Legal Times says, citing the Daily Writ blog. But 39 cases remain. “A rush of newer petitions that caught the fancy of the justices and their clerks in January has made a hash of the plan for an easier spring,” the Legal Times story says.
The period will also be intense for Austin, Texas, lawyer Gregory Coleman, a former Texas solicitor general who is arguing two cases, Legal Times says.
Among the cases to be argued in April:
• Being argued today, a case that asks whether public schools in Nogales, Ariz., are complying with federal laws requiring states to “take appropriate action to overcome language barriers that impede equal participation by its students in its instructional programs.” The Arizona Daily Star has a story on the case.
• A reverse discrimination suit by white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., who passed a promotional exam, only to have the results thrown out because no blacks got top scores. The Washington Post looks at the challenge in a story noting several important civil rights cases before the court. The case will be argued Wednesday, according to Legal Times. Coleman, a former clerk for Clarence Thomas, is representing the white firefighters.
• Scheduled for Tuesday, a challenge to a strip search of a 13-year-old student. School officials suspected the girl was hiding prescription-strength ibuprofen pills, but found nothing.
• A challenge to pre-clearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act, to be argued April 29. At issue is whether society has changed so much that once-constitutional racial remedies are now improper infringements on state sovereignty. Coleman is representing an Austin utility district challenging the voting law.
