As SCOTUS decisions are being written, a voting case heads to the justices

Law Dork is in research mode this month. Subscribe now to support this work! Also: A Louisiana voting rights case is at SCOTUS. And: One execution is scheduled for May.

I’ve been spending some time this week diving into a research project that I suspect is going to take up a good amount of time this month. Luckily, since the U.S. Supreme Court is done with arguments for the term, this is essentially replacing court time and I still have time to cover other developments as well.

As I have noted elsewhere, though, I am able to take on this project only because of the support that I have received from the Law Dork community. Law Dork runs 100% on your contributions. Law Dork is also my full-time job, and because of your paid subscriptions I have been able to spend all of my time so far this year on Law Dork. I’ve done no freelance work thus far in 2024; everything I’ve published has been here.

That’s not to say I won’t do any outside publishing. At this point, though, when I do so it’s a part of my effort to spread the word about what I’m doing here.

It’s $6 a month or $60 a year to become a paid subscriber. If you do that, you’ll receive bonus features available only to paid subscribers — and support this essential reporting.

I know that not everyone can afford it or prioritize a paid subscription, and, if that’s you, I’m still glad you’re here!

---

Supreme Court decisions

On the news front, we are expecting one or more decisions in argued cases from the U.S. Supreme Court at 10 a.m. Thursday. I will be covering anything to come out of that here at Law Dork.

We don’t know what decisions we will be getting or how many decisions we will be getting.

Generally, we don’t get big decisions in May — but sometimes we do, especially if the court ends up dodging the big issue presented by a case. Additionally, given the number of outstanding important cases, including two cases heard in October 2023 (the first month of the term) and the Trump immunity case, we could very well end up getting some notable decisions in May this year.

There remain 42 outstanding cases — including potentially government-altering cases over the executive branch’s administrative powers and congressional authority to assign those powers, criminal laws relating to gun possession and to the Jan. 6 prosecutions, and two significant abortion-related cases — all expected to be resolved by the end of June, just more than 50 days from now.

---

Voting rights case

There’s also a new voting rights application on the shadow docket that is already an important matter and, depending on how the justices address it, could quickly become extremely important.

The request is part of a follow-up lawsuit in Louisiana related to ongoing litigation over the state’s congressional maps, which now contain two majority-Black districts as a result of successful Voting Rights Act litigation. That map, passed as S.B. 8, was then challenged as a violation of equal protection.

A split lower court agreed and blocked the use of the S.B. 8 congressional map last week. On Wednesday, challengers from the original Voting Rights Act lawsuit asked the Supreme Court to issue a stay of the new injunction so that the S.B. 8 map can be used in the 2024 elections.

I wrote about Wednesday’s filing in a note here:

As I highlight in the note, the challengers who went to the Supreme Court today are represented by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Paul Weiss, Louisiana Justice Institute, ACLU, Adcock Law, and the ACLU of Louisiana.

“It is precisely to preclude cases like this one that the Court recognized the principle that government actors must be given ‘breathing room’ to comply with the VRA, when they have good reason to believe they must, without facing constitutional liability,” the lawyers told the justices.

A response to the request is due by 11 a.m. Monday, May 13, so expect more on that case out of Louisiana as soon as next week.

---

Death penalty update

There is one execution schedule for May.

On May 30 (or May 31), Alabama plans to execute Jamie Mills by lethal injection for the 2004 murders of Floyd and Vera Hill.

If the execution proceeds, it will be the sixth execution of the year. Alabama, Georgia, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas have each carried out one execution thus far in 2024.

Last year at this time, in contrast, 11 executions had already been carried out by Florida, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas.