How Appealing



Monday, April 22, 2019

“Federal appeals court says tire-chalking by parking enforcement officers is unconstitutional”: Fred Barbash of The Washington Post has this report.

Roberto Acosta of MLive reports that “Appeals court rules chalking tires violates Fourth Amendment.”

Ed White of The Associated Press has a report headlined “A win for people who park too long: Tire marking thrown out.”

Alex Johnson of NBC News reports that “Chalking tires to enforce parking rules is unconstitutional, court finds; Marking your tires with chalk is trespassing, not law enforcement, the federal appeals panel said in a Michigan case.”

And Kevin Koeninger of Courthouse News Service reports that “Sixth Circuit Rules Against ‘Chalking’ of Parked Cars.”

My earlier coverage of today’s Sixth Circuit ruling can be accessed here.

Posted at 9:50 PM by Howard Bashman



“What the Census Case Will Say About the Supreme Court: Can the Trump administration add a citizenship question? The answer will be a test of the court’s politicization.” Law professor William W. Buzbee has this essay online at The New York Times.

Posted at 9:36 PM by Howard Bashman



“Supreme Court to decide whether gay, transgender workers are protected by anti-discrimination laws”: Robert Barnes of The Washington Post has this report.

David G. Savage of The Los Angeles Times reports that “Supreme Court to rule on workplace bias against gay and transgender employees.”

Jess Bravin and Brent Kendall of The Wall Street Journal report that “Supreme Court to Rule on Gay, Transgender Employment Rights; High court to consider whether civil rights law bars workplace discrimination on basis of sexual orientation, gender identity.”

Richard Wolf of USA Today reports that “Supreme Court agrees to decide if sexual orientation, gender identity should get federal job protection.”

Alex Swoyer and Valerie Richardson of The Washington Times report that “Supreme Court grants review in LGBTQ employment discrimination cases.”

Mark Sherman of The Associated Press reports that “Supreme Court to take up LGBT job discrimination cases.”

Lawrence Hurley of Reuters reports that “U.S. Supreme Court takes up major gay, transgender job discrimination cases.”

Greg Stohr of Bloomberg News reports that “U.S. Supreme Court to Review Bias Lawsuits by Gay, Transgender Workers.”

Pete Williams of NBC News reports that “Supreme Court to rule whether civil rights law bans discrimination against LGBTQ employees; The question has divided the nation’s lower courts.”

Ariane de Vogue of CNN reports that “Supreme Court will take up LGBT employee discrimination cases next term.”

Josh Gerstein of Politico reports that “Supreme Court to take up cases on gay and transgender rights in the workplace.”

Jacqueline Thomsen of The Hill reports that “Supreme Court to consider workplace discrimination of LGBTQ community.”

And Ema O’Connor of BuzzFeed News reports that “The Supreme Court Will Decide Whether Employers Can Discriminate Against LGBT Employees; The court will look at whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prevents discrimination ‘on the basis of sex,’ applies to LGBT individuals.”

Posted at 8:15 PM by Howard Bashman



“Supreme Court Can Interpret ‘Sex’ in Many Ways; In three gay- and trans-rights cases, the justices will have to weigh a law’s text versus its purpose — and politics will have its say”: Law professor Noah Feldman has this essay online at Bloomberg Opinion.

Online at Slate, Mark Joseph Stern has a jurisprudence essay titled “The Supreme Court’s New LGBTQ Cases Could Demolish Sex Discrimination Law as We Know It.”

And online at ThinkProgress, Ian Millhiser has an essay titled “The absolute worst case scenario in the Supreme Court’s new anti-LGBTQ cases; A lot more than LGBTQ rights are potentially on the chopping block.”

Posted at 7:50 PM by Howard Bashman



“It’s confidential: Supreme Court decision on Freedom of Information Act hinges on one word.” Richard Wolf of USA Today has this report.

Brent Kendall and Jess Bravin of The Wall Street Journal report that “Supreme Court Case Explores Privacy of Business Data in Food-Stamp Case; Industry pushed back when South Dakota newspaper sought per-store payouts under program from U.S. Department of Agriculture.”

Jonathan Ellis of The Argus Leader of Sioux Falls, South Dakota reports that “Justices grapple with whether food stamp payments are public records.”

Jessica Gresko of The Associated Press reports that “Top court skeptical of paper’s argument over food stamp data.”

And Josh Gerstein of Politico reports that “Supreme Court could limit access to business data; Justices heard arguments on Monday in the case, which pits business groups against news organizations and open-government advocates.”

You can access at this link the transcript of today’s U.S. Supreme Court oral argument in Food Marketing Institute v. Argus Leader Media, No. 18-481.

Posted at 7:18 PM by Howard Bashman



“The Supreme Court Could Shift Power to Republicans for the Next Decade; The Trump administration’s census citizenship question comes before the court on Tuesday”: Ari Berman of Mother Jones has this report.

Posted at 5:56 PM by Howard Bashman



“United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims announces Live Streaming of Oral arguments beginning tomorrow at 10am April 23, 2019”: So reads the title of an email that I received moments ago from Chief Judge Robert N. Davis of the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

Here is the full text of the email itself (hyperlinks in original):

As the Chief Judge of the United State Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims I wanted to bring a recent and exciting development to your readers’ attention. Our Court has launched a YouTube channel where we will be live streaming all our oral arguments starting April 23, 2019. As the youngest federal Court, and one with a national jurisdiction, we have always made significant efforts to educate, be transparent and accessible to the public.

To that end, for many years now, our electronic case filing system has allowed free public access to all filings and decisions from our Court. Apart from posting all our orders and decisions, we have had same-day audio of all oral arguments. And now we are pleased to announce that live streaming of oral arguments begins tomorrow.

We hope this will bring a new level of accessibility to the public. We also hope that this will be useful to appellate practitioners. Our Court continues to explore unique and exciting areas of the law. Most recently we have grappled with certifying class actions in an appellate setting following a widely covered Federal Circuit decision. On the administrative law front, the Supreme Court has granted certiorari to two cases involving our Court — Kisor v. Wilkie, and Gray v. Wilkie.

I thought you might want to share this news with your readership. It is another opportunity to view interesting oral arguments and to study and discuss appellate advocacy and developments. By joining the Ninth Circuit and other courts on the internet, I hope our Court will encourage greater accessibility, education and transparency of our justice system.

Thanks so very much to Chief Judge Davis for sending along this information for me to share with the readers of this blog. Here’s hoping that this will spur many more federal courts of appeals to join the Ninth Circuit in broadcasting live their oral arguments on YouTube.

Posted at 5:50 PM by Howard Bashman



“Saginaw parking ticket lawsuit could have ‘major effects across the country'”: In January 2019, Cole Waterman of MLive had an article that begins, “Can government operatives issue parking tickets based on chalking vehicle tires, or does such an act constitute a violation of one’s constitutional rights? That’s an issue before a federal appeals court after a lawsuit was filed over tire chalking in Saginaw.”

Today, a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued this decision reinstating the lawsuit.

Posted at 1:16 PM by Howard Bashman



“Third Circuit Considers Sex-Segregated Swimming and the Fair Housing Act”: Alexandra Jones of Courthouse News Service had this report last month.

Today, a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued a decision holding that the condominium defendant’s gender-segregated pool schedule discriminates against women in violation of the Fair Housing Act.

Posted at 1:08 PM by Howard Bashman



“Supreme Court to Decide Whether Bias Law Covers Gay and Transgender Workers”: Adam Liptak of The New York Times has this report.

Posted at 9:44 AM by Howard Bashman



Access today’s Order List of the U.S. Supreme Court: At this link. The Court today granted review in five new cases, two of which were consolidated for a single hour of oral argument. And the Court called for the views of the Solicitor General in one case.

Posted at 9:31 AM by Howard Bashman