Supreme Court Watch (Summary)

I dropped separate refereces regarding what happened at the Supreme Court this week. A week that looked to be relatively boring had basically five separate matters, of varying importance. Not earth shattering, but worth pointing out.

First, there were basically two separate "order lists" that provided multiple court orders. Monday brought the first (scheduled) order list, which was boring. Wednesday brought a few grants, nothing that major, though at least one might be of some interest. Friday brought one more thing: a schedule for the February oral arguments.  Some federal power issues there.

There was also two substantive orders. First, with another passionate conservative dissent from Gorsuch (and Alito), New York will continue to be allowed to require medical workers to vaccinate without a religious exemption.  This does not mean this, to some rather obviously valid regulation will stay in place permanently.  The order regarded seeking immediate emergency relief, which Kavanaugh/Barrett earlier noted was not appropriate.  Without saying a final word on the overall matter. 

The other sent the abortion case back to the 5CA, which likely will mean more delays.   This involves some "inside baseball," including the pending request for the probably willing 5CA to send a question to the Texas state courts regarding the ability to sue.  The dissenting justices was particularly concerned about such methods when they did not want to provide only a narrow route for the litigation to proceed. 

And, a bonus to be continued: with a response due by Tuesday, Justice Kagan was asked to allow another abortion restriction to go into operation immediately. So, sorta busy mid-December action.