SCOTUS News
Justices release full April calendar for final argument session of term
on Mar 12, 2021 at 5:18 pm
The Supreme Court on Friday released the calendar for the justices’ April argument session. In contrast to the justices’ February and March argument sessions, each of which either featured or is scheduled to feature only six hours of argument after changes in position by the Biden administration led to cases being removed from the calendars, the justices will hear oral argument in 15 cases, for a total of 13 hours of argument. Highlights of the April calendar, which begins on April 19, include Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L., the case of a Pennsylvania student who was removed from her high school’s cheerleading team over offensive Snapchat messages, and Americans for Prosperity v. Becerra and Thomas More Law Center v. Becerra, a pair of challenges to a California policy that requires charities to disclose the names and addresses of their major donors.
The full set of cases scheduled for argument during the April argument session is as follows:
Yellen v. Confederated Tribes of Chehalis Reservation and Alaska Native Village Corp. v. Confederated Tribes of Chehalis Reservation (consolidated for one hour of oral argument on April 19): Whether Alaska Native corporations are “Indian tribes” eligible to receive federal COVID-19 relief money.
Sanchez v. Mayorkas (April 19): Whether an immigrant who enters the United States without proper authorization but receives “temporary protected status” can become a lawful permanent resident.
Greer v. United States (April 20): Whether, when applying plain-error review based on an intervening decision of the Supreme Court, a court of appeals can look at matters outside the trial record to determine whether the error affected a defendant’s substantial rights or affected the trial’s fairness, integrity or public reputation.
United States v. Gary (April 20): Whether a defendant who pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm is automatically entitled to plain-error relief if the district court did not advise him that one element of that offense is knowing that he is a felon.
Terry v. United States (April 20): Whether defendants who were sentenced for low-level crack-cocaine offenses before Congress enacted the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 are eligible for resentencing under the First Step Act of 2018.
City of San Antonio v. Hotels.com (April 21): Whether district courts lack the discretion to deny or reduce an award of costs following a successful appeal.
Minerva Surgical, Inc. v. Hologic, Inc. (April 21): Whether a defendant in a patent infringement action who assigned the patent may have a defense of invalidity heard on the merits.
Americans for Prosperity v. Becerra and Thomas More Law Center v. Becerra (consolidated for one hour of oral argument on April 26): Whether a California policy that requires charities to disclose the names and addresses of their major donors violates the First Amendment.
Guam v. United States (April 26): Whether Guam or the United States will bear financial responsibility for clean-up of a hazardous waste site created by the Navy on the island of Guam.
Hollyfrontier Cheyenne Refining v. Renewable Fuels Association (April 27): Whether a small refinery can qualify for a hardship exemption from the renewable fuel standard program in the Clean Air Act if it has not received continuous prior extensions of the initial exemption.
United States v. Palomar-Santiago (April 27): Whether charges that a non-citizen illegally reentered the United States should be dismissed when the non-citizen’s removal was based on the misclassification of a prior conviction.
Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. (April 28): Whether public school officials may discipline students for speech that occurs off campus.
PennEast Pipeline Co. v. New Jersey (April 28): Dispute over PennEast’s efforts to build a natural-gas pipeline through Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
This article was originally published at Howe on the Court.
