The Supreme Court disposes of lots of cases without comment. A few people want them to explain everything. That would be a tad silly.
They dispose of thousands of things, including not granting patently meritless claims from (to use a legal term) kooks. My rule is that they should do it for executions and when they overturn the court below.
Some of the orders do have interesting details. Others are more trivia answers. That can be interesting too.
Friday's Order
They disposed of, without comment, an "order in pending case" on Friday. It was "application for a writ of injunction presented to Justice Kagan and by her referred to the Court is denied."
The case concerned a desire to have a vaccine exemption for a student because the vaccine was somehow a product of an abortion. The Supreme Court didn't say why, as noted, but these requests are rarely provided. The merits are not the issue here.
Still, of course, the subject matter catches one's eye. It turns out that decades ago that fetal tissue was used to start a cell line that was involved in the production of the vaccine. It is not clear why the abortion occurred.
It's not like someone performed an abortion for scientific experiments. Once the abortion occurs, it is unclear why a fetal tissue sample can not be used. And, as noted here from a Catholic perspective:
As a practicing Catholic, I think the moral balance of indirectly benefitting from an abortion that occurred 50 years ago in order to take a vaccine that will prevent further death in the community is a no-brainer – especially considering that so many of the over 620,000 American deaths have occurred in the most vulnerable and marginalized in our society. We need to focus on saving lives right now. We need to care for our neighbors.
The level of indirect involvement that is cited to demand an exemption, repeatedly to harm third parties (e.g., deny insurance benefits or make it harder to obtain them), is not only infuriating, it is immoral. And, bad as a matter of free exercise law.
Order List
The Monday Order List is the last scheduled thing on the schedule until November 3. (Happy Birthday, Bobby, who won't read this.) Two executions are scheduled before then, so we shall see about that.
The Order List included various housekeeping measures. Notably, Alito (cert denial) and Gorsuch (habeas, the claimant cited for abusing the privilege of free cases) didn't participate in two of the denials.
The Supreme Court has added three new cases -- involving arbitration, gun rights, and bankruptcy. All three are relists.
The Second Amendment case involves prosecution of drug users (controlled substances). A sympathetic claim though (1) what drugs (2) how strong is the constitutional claim? The claim is notable too because Hunter Biden's crimes involved this matter.
Another notable thing: the justices decided to wait to determine if Little v. Hecox is moot. The trans student in the case asked the Court to do so. They will wait until after oral argument (this is fairly normal).
Funding
The Supreme Court announced that its funding has run out, given the current Republican government shutdown. Yet again, the public information office released a statement but did not post it on the website.
They have a press release page for that, you idiots. There is a notice on the website:
Due to a lapse of appropriations, the Supreme Court Building will be closed to the public until further notice. The Building will remain open for official business.