SCOTUS: Order List

A local article (h/t SCOTUSBlog) provides some details regarding an "order in a pending case" that dropped last week. Headline: "U.S. Supreme Court makes final decision on Miami’s voting map for upcoming election."

We have the same "brief" opinion reference that is typical in coverage.  This is again misleading. This is the whole opinion:

The application to vacate stay presented to Justice Thomas and by him referred to the Court is denied.

The title is "Order in A Pending Case" and the only thing else is the docket number and case name.  It would easily be quoted or just have an image of the whole thing embedded into the article.  

Anyway, the article notes that the dispute involves Miami redistricting, which a community group charged was discriminatory. The map chosen by Miami city commissions was challenged and a federal district judge agreed it was improper.  An ACLU-supported map was chosen instead. The court of appeals (in the conservative-leaning 11th Circuit, which Justice Thomas covers as circuit justice) said the city's map was okay.  

The Supreme Court did not grant a request to intervene. As the article notes:

Thursday’s decision is one part of a broader pending federal lawsuit against the city that was filed by community groups in late 2022. The organizations, which include two local chapters of the NAACP, accused commissioners of approving an unconstitutional voting map in March 2022 that racially gerrymandered city districts.

This has not received much attention (a story was briefly noted at Election Law Blog earlier in the month but this order was not addressed) but it is of interest to local voters in a major city of the country.  

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The Order List is as usual not exciting. It's a bit hard to even stretch a minimum about of interest for allowing the joint appendix to not be printed or for West Virginia not given argument time in one case.  

There is also the usual rehearings denied (were they ever not?) with one mild matter of interest that Alito for whatever reason (involvement with the company?) not taking part in one of the decisions.  

There is one more order list in September and that is when the next execution is scheduled.  Also waiting for Alito/Thomas financial disclosures, their 90-day extension time being over.  

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I also have a new summary of Dobbs on one of the other blogs. 

ETA: The phony "praying coach" case has an update with news he is back at his job. Well, at least -- some reports suggested otherwise -- the whole thing was not a total sham, and he actually was interested in that.  

This is the case (that tossed in a gratuitous burial of the Lemon Test, the three-part test to determine if the Establishment Clause is violated, with the "history and tradition" test that is starting to invade constitutional law) where a coach blatantly was not "privately praying." 

Justice Sotomayor's dissent had pictures (a bit less so, but still rare in Supreme Court cases).  But, the majority ignored this.  And, it shows the general spirit of the already problematic on its own (it's fine to factor it in) of accuracy that the test is being applied.