| American Traditions Partnership v. Bullock (son of Citizen's United) is summarily reversed 5-4. Certiorari granted on 10 cases (meaning December will probably only have five argument days instead of 6). Opinions in three of the six outstanding cases. Two of the cases are the juvenile life without parole cases which resulted in one opinion written by Justice Kagan (5-4 decision). The remaining opinion is by Justice Kennedy in Arizona v. United States (SB 1070). Three of the four challenged provisions in Arizona law (the provision making it a crime for an undocument alien being employed, the provision making it a state crime for an undocument alien to be present in Arizona, and the provision allowing the arrest of probable cause of being deportable) are pre-empted by federal law. The provision permitting a check of immigration status during an otherwise valid detention is not pre-empted, as it could be narrowly interpreted to forbid extending the detention for the sole purpose of conducting such a status check. Decision was 8-0 (Justice Kagan recused) on the record check provision; 6-2 on the crime for being an undocument worker, and 5-3 on the other two provisions. In making his statement regarding his dissent in the Arizona case, Justice Scalia commented on President Obama's announcement regarding suspending deportations of non-criminal undocumented aliens who had been brought here as juveniles. Rest of opinions will be on Thursday. |
.jpg)