October 1, 2023
Starting tomorrow – the Supreme Court is back in session.
This term – the justices will decide on a wide range of extremely controversial. Here are just a few that you should know about.
In November the justices will hear arguments in perhaps the most consequential case this term. United States vs Rahimi. I actually told you all about this case when they agreed to hear it back in July. And the question they’re going to answer — does someone with a court-approved domestic violence restraining order have a 2nd amendment right to also possess guns? The 5th circuit court of appeals says yeah they do. We’ll have to see what the justices say.
The court is also going to weigh in on three major cases involving social media and free speech. Just last week the court agreed to hear a case involving new laws passed in Texas and Florida that restrict social media companies from removing certain political posts or accounts. (Moody v NetChoice & NetChoice, llc v Paxton) basically the state laws are challenging the content-moderation policies and community guildelines. The companies say they have a first amendment right to operate their private business the way they want, and the states are saying the companies are violating the 1st Amendment rights of users. And as I told you back in April the justices are also going to be hearing a pair of cases that will determine whether public officials can block constituents or censor their comments on either the public or private social media pages. (Lindke v Freed & O’Connor-Ratcliff v Garnier)
Back in July I told you the court will consider if big corporations and wealthy investors were unconstitutionally taxed to the tune of billions of dollars. It’s a case that will determine what is considered taxable income and possibly change the taxing powers of Congress.
The justices are also going to be taking up a voting rights case out of South Carolina where a lower court found that the state assembly drew a gerrymandered map. (Alexander v South Carolina state conference of the NAACP)
We are also expecting the court to hear another abortion case about the medical abortion pill mifepristone and it’s also very possible they will hear a case involving whether certain states can remove former president trump’s name from a ballot because of his role in January 6th.
We will not get any rulings on these cases until June when the supreme court term ends.
