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The Supreme Court will begin its new term on Monday and has a number of blockbuster cases on the docket. On Tuesday, a case involving "ghost guns" will be heard. These are weapons that are assembled at home from parts and which the Bureau of ATF tried to regulate. These guns do not have serial numbers. They are widely used in crimes around the country. The issue at hand is whether the Bureau has the statutory authority to regulate them. Gun owners and groups maintain that only Congress has the authority to regulate gun parts.
Another case sure to get a lot of attention is the administration's challenge to a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming care for transgender minors. This includes puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender-transition surgeries. A lower court upheld the ban and ruled that the state had the power to regulate medical procedures. The government's position is that the law violates the Fourteenth Amendment since it singles out one specific type of medical treatment that is banned while all others are left to the doctor and patient.
Another case involving minors has been brought by the adult entertainment industry. The industry is challenging a Texas law that requires pornographic websites to verify that visitors are over 18. This would require users to upload some form of ID that could later leak out if the site were hacked. We are curious as to which side the nation's most famous porn consumer, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R-NC), is on, but as far as we can tell, he hasn't yet taken a position.
A third case involving minors is one resulting from the FDA's decision to ban flavored e-cigarettes marketed to children. The FDA denied a request from a company to market e-cigarettes with "Jimmy The Juice Man Peachy Strawberry" and "Killer Kustard Blueberry" flavors in an attempt to get children to think that vaping is no different than eating fruit.
If Kamala Harris wins the presidency, then multiple criminal cases involving Donald Trump are sure to proceed and some will undoubtedly reach the Supreme Court. But even if he wins, he will not be able to wave a magic wand and make the state cases go away. He is scheduled to be sentenced in December in the New York hush money cases. If the judge orders him to report to prison on Jan. 21, 2029, that case is sure to end up in the Supreme Court this term.
And on top of these, there are all the election cases that are likely to be brought throughout the rest of the year, both before the election and after it. If the Court, along partisan lines, makes controversial decisions that affect the election, there is sure to be a firestorm and calls for Court reform.
In addition to soon ruling on controversial issues that really should be solved by the elected political branches of the government, the justices' own behavior is being questioned. At least two of the justices have accepted large gifts-in-kind from wealthy donors who have considerable interest in the direction of the Court. In response to bad PR about this misbehavior, Chief Justice John Roberts did cobble together a code of ethics. Unfortunately, it has no enforcement mechanism, so justices can violate it with impunity. (V)