(Adds bump stocks ruling)
June 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court's current
term features major cases involving former President Donald
Trump's claim of immunity from prosecution and his ballot
disqualification, the abortion pill, gun rights, the power of
federal agencies, social media regulation and Purdue Pharma's
bankruptcy settlement.
Here is a look at some of the rulings already issued and
cases already argued.
ABORTION PILL ACCESS
The justices on June 13 rejected a bid by anti-abortion
groups and doctors to restrict access to the abortion pill in a
9-0 ruling that handed a victory to President Joe Biden's
administration in its efforts to preserve broad access to the
drug. The justices overturned a lower court's decision to roll
back Food and Drug Administration steps in 2016 and 2021 that
eased how the drug, called mifepristone, is prescribed and
distributed. The court ruled that the plaintiffs lacked the
necessary legal standing to pursue the case.
IDAHO ABORTION LAW
The justices on April 24 heard arguments in a case pitting
Idaho's strict Republican-backed abortion ban against a 1986
federal law that ensures that patients can receive emergency
care. Biden's administration sued Idaho over the ban, which has
a narrow exception permitting an abortion to save the woman's
life. Idaho officials appealed a lower court's ruling that the
Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) supersedes
the state's abortion law when the two conflict. The justices
appeared split. The conservative justices voiced concerns about
what protections federal law extends to "unborn children" and
whether Congress clearly indicated EMTALA can mandate abortion
in certain emergency cases. A ruling is expected by the end of
June.
TRUMP IMMUNITY CLAIM
The justices on April 25 heard arguments in Trump's claim of
immunity from prosecution for trying to overturn his 2020
election loss to Biden. Trump appealed after lower courts
rejected his bid to be shielded from a federal criminal case
pursued by Special Counsel Jack Smith. Conservative justices
voiced concern about presidents lacking any level of immunity
including for less obviously egregious acts. Justices raised
hypothetical examples of presidential wrongdoing such as selling
nuclear secrets, ordering a coup or political assassination or
taking a bribe. Trump has argued he is immune because he was
president when he took the actions at issue. A ruling is
expected by the end of June.
TRUMP BALLOT DISQUALIFICATION
The court on March 4 handed Trump a major victory by barring
states from disqualifying candidates for federal office under a
constitutional provision involving insurrection and reversing
Colorado's exclusion of him from its ballot. The justices
unanimously overturned a decision by Colorado's top court to
kick the former president off the state's Republican primary
ballot after finding that the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment
disqualified him from again holding public office. The Colorado
court had found that Trump took part in an insurrection for
inciting and supporting the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S.
Capitol by his supporters.
OBSTRUCTION CHARGE
The justices on April 16 heard arguments over whether a man
named Joseph Fischer who was involved in the Capitol attack can
be charged with obstructing an official proceeding -
congressional certification of the 2020 election results. The
case has potential implications for Trump because he faces the
same charge in the special counsel's federal election subversion
case. The conservative justices during the argument signaled
skepticism toward the obstruction charge brought against
Fischer. A ruling is expected by the end of June.
BUMP STOCKS
The court on June 14 declared unlawful a federal ban on
"bump stock" devices that enable semiautomatic weapons to fire
rapidly like machine guns, rejecting yet another firearms
restriction. The 6-3 ruling upheld a lower court's decision
siding with a plaintiff from Texas who challenged the ban by
claiming that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives improperly interpreted a federal law banning machine
guns as extending to bump stocks. The rule was implemented in
2019 after a 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting that killed 58 people.
NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION FREE SPEECH
The justices on May 30 revived a National Rifle Association
lawsuit accusing a New York state official, Maria Vullo, of
coercing banks and insurers to avoid doing business with the gun
rights group in a 9-0 ruling that warned public officials
against wielding their power to punish speech they dislike. The
justices threw out a lower court's ruling that had dismissed the
NRA's lawsuit. At issue is whether Vullo wielded her regulatory
power to coerce financial institutions into cutting ties with
the NRA in violation of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment
protections against government restrictions on free speech.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE GUN CURBS
The court on Nov. 7 heard arguments over the legality of a
federal law that makes it a crime for people under domestic
violence restraining orders to have guns. The justices appeared
inclined to uphold the law. Biden's administration appealed a
lower court's ruling that the law violated the Constitution's
Second Amendment's "right to keep and bear arms." The challenge
was filed by a Texas man charged with illegal gun possession
while subject to a domestic violence restraining order after
assaulting his girlfriend. A ruling is expected by the end of
June.
SOUTH CAROLINA VOTING
The court on May 23 made it harder to prove racial
discrimination in electoral maps in a ruling backing South
Carolina Republicans who moved out 30,000 Black residents when
they redrew a congressional district. The 6-3 decision reversed
a lower court's ruling that the map had violated the rights of
Black voters under the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment, which
guarantees equal protection under the law. The case centered on
the boundaries drawn by the Republican-led state legislature for
one of South Carolina's seven U.S. House of Representatives
districts. The new map raised the district's share of white
voters and reduced its share of Black voters, who tend to
support Democratic candidates.
CONSUMER WATCHDOG AGENCY'S FUNDING
The justices on May 16 upheld the U.S. Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau's funding mechanism in a challenge brought by
the payday loan industry, handing a victory to Biden's
administration. The 7-2 decision reversed a lower court's ruling
that the CFPB's funding design - drawing money each year from
the Federal Reserve instead of from budgets passed by lawmakers
- violated a provision of the U.S. Constitution giving Congress
the power of the purse. The CFPB was established under a law
signed by Democratic former President Barack Obama in 2010 to
curb the kind of predatory lending that contributed to the
2007-2009 financial crisis.
FEDERAL AGENCY POWERS
The court heard arguments on Jan. 17 in a bid by fishing
companies to further limit the regulatory powers of federal
agencies in a dispute involving a government-run program to
monitor for overfishing of herring off New England's coast. The
justices appeared divided in the case. The companies have asked
the court to rein in or overturn a precedent established in 1984
that calls for judges to defer to federal agency interpretation
of U.S. laws deemed to be ambiguous, a doctrine called "Chevron
deference." A ruling is expected by the end of June.
SEC IN-HOUSE ENFORCEMENT
The justices on Nov. 29 heard arguments over the legality of
proceedings conducted by in-house judges at the Securities and
Exchange Commission to enforce investor-protection laws. The
conservative justices signaled some sympathy toward the
challenge brought by a Texas-based hedge fund manager who the
SEC fined and barred from the industry after determining he had
committed securities fraud. Biden's administration appealed a
lower court decision striking down the SEC enforcement
proceedings at issue as unconstitutional for violating the right
to a jury trial and infringing on presidential and congressional
powers. A ruling is expected by the end of June.
OZONE EMISSIONS
The court on Feb. 21 heard arguments in a bid by three
Republican-led states and several energy companies to block a
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulation aimed at
reducing ozone emissions that may worsen air pollution in
neighboring states. Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia, as well as
pipeline operators, power producers and U.S. Steel, are seeking
to avoid complying with the EPA's "Good Neighbor" plan
restricting ozone pollution from upwind states, while they
contest its legality in a lower court. The conservative justices
appeared sympathetic toward the plaintiffs. A ruling is expected
by the end of June.
SOCIAL MEDIA AND GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
The justices on March 15 decided that government officials
can sometimes be sued under the First Amendment for blocking
critics on social media. In unanimous rulings in two cases from
California and Michigan, the justices set a new standard for
determining if public officials acted in a governmental capacity
when blocking critics on social media - a test to be applied in
lawsuits accusing them of First Amendment violations. First
Amendment free speech protections generally constrain government
actors, not private individuals.
SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT MODERATION
The court on Feb. 26 heard arguments over the legality of
Republican-backed laws in Texas and Florida that constrain the
ability of social media companies to curb content on their
platforms that these businesses deem objectionable. The
justices expressed reservations about the laws but signaled they
may not block them in their entirety. The two cases involve
technology industry challenges contending that the laws
restricting the content-moderation practices of large social
media platforms violate First Amendment protections. A decision
is expected by the end of June.
BIDEN ADMINISTRATION SOCIAL MEDIA
The justices on March 18 heard arguments in a challenge on
First Amendment grounds to how Biden's administration encouraged
social media platforms to remove posts that federal officials
deemed misinformation, including about elections and COVID-19.
The administration appealed a lower court's preliminary
injunction constraining how White House and certain other
federal officials communicate with social media platforms. The
justices appeared skeptical of the challenge brought by Missouri
and Louisiana, along with five individual social media users.
The Supreme Court's decision is expected by the end of June.
PURDUE PHARMA BANKRUPTCY SETTLEMENT
The court on Dec. 4 heard arguments over whether to approve
pain medication OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma's bankruptcy
settlement. The justices voiced concern that the deal would
shield Purdue's wealthy Sackler family owners from lawsuits over
their role in a deadly opioid epidemic while also worrying that
scuttling it could harm victims. Purdue's owners under the
settlement would receive immunity in exchange for paying up to
$6 billion to settle thousands of lawsuits filed by states,
hospitals, people who had become addicted and others who have
sued the company over misleading marketing of OxyContin. A
ruling is expected by the end of June.
HOMELESS ENCAMPMENTS
The court, delving into the U.S. homelessness crisis, on
April 22 heard arguments over the legality of local laws used
against people who camp on public streets and parks in a case
involving a southwest Oregon city's anti-vagrancy policy. The
city of Grants Pass appealed a lower court's ruling that found
that the ordinances - which make it illegal to camp on
sidewalks, streets, parks or other public places - violate the
Constitution's Eighth Amendment prohibition against "cruel and
unusual" punishment. A decision is expected by the end of June.
STARBUCKS UNIONIZATION
The justices on June 13 sided with Starbucks ( SBUX ) in the
coffee chain's challenge to a judicial order to rehire seven
Memphis employees fired as they sought to unionize in a ruling
that could make it harder for courts to quickly halt labor
practices contested as unfair under federal law. The justices
unanimously threw out a lower court's approval of an injunction
sought by the U.S. National Labor Relations Board ordering
Starbucks ( SBUX ) to reinstate the workers while the agency's in-house
administrative case against the Seattle-based company proceeds.
WORKPLACE DISCRIMINATION LAWSUITS
The justices on April 17 made it easier to bring certain
workplace discrimination lawsuits in a ruling that gave a boost
to a St. Louis police officer who claimed she was transferred to
an undesirable new role because of her sex. At issue was whether
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars workplace
bias, requires employees to prove that discrimination caused
them significant harm such as a pay cut, demotion or job loss.
The unanimous ruling disapproved that approach.
'TRUMP TOO SMALL' TRADEMARK
The court on June 13 barred a federal trademark for the
phrase "Trump Too Small" - an irreverent criticism of the former
U.S. president - rejecting a California lawyer's claim that the
trademark denial violated his First Amendment rights. The
justices unanimously overturned a lower court's decision that
the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's rejection of Steve
Elster's application to register the trademark to exclusively
use it on T-shirts violated his free speech rights.
(Compiled by Andrew Chung and John Kruzel; Editing by Will
Dunham)