Appellate Advocacy Blog Weekly Roundup Friday, December 20, 2019

Each week, the Appellate Advocacy Blog Weekly Roundup presents a few tidbits of news and Twitter posts from the past week concerning appellate advocacy. As always, if you see something during the week that you think we should be sure to include, feel free to send a quick note to either (1) Dan Real at [email protected] or on Twitter @Daniel_L_Real or (2) Catharine Du Bois at [email protected] or on Twitter @CLDLegalWriting.

A short post this penultimate week of 2019, crafted between grading final papers and sharing the winter break with family. 

US Supreme Court Opinions and News:

• The Supreme Court won’t hear the challenge to the Kentucky abortion ultrasound law. The law requires women seeking abortions be given ultrasounds and requires doctors to describe the ultrasounds to the women. Doctors argued that the law violated the First Amendment. The decision leaves the law in place. See reports from NYT, Washington Post, and AP.

• As a follow-up to the previous posts following this issue: the Supreme Court refused the Justice Department’s request to stay the DC District Court order that blocked four federal executions.  The Court recognized that “it would be preferable for the District Court’s decision to be reviewed on the merits by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit before the executions are carried out.” See order here.

• The Court also will not hear the appeal of the Ninth Circuit decision protecting the homeless who sleep on sidewalks, leaving that protection in place. As this column noted previously, the Ninth Circuit held that it was cruel and unusual punishment for a city to “prosecut[e] people criminally for sleeping outside on public property when those people have no home or other shelter to go to.” Opinion p. 4.  The Ninth Circuit noted that “just as the state may not criminalize the state of being homeless in public places, the state may not criminalize conduct that is an unavoidable consequence of being homeless — namely sitting, lying, or sleeping on the streets.” See reports from Washington Post and Reuters.

Federal Appellate Court Opinions and News:

• This week, the Fifth Circuit ruled on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, holding that the individual mandate is unconstitutional but remanding the issue of severability; thus leaving the law intact for now.  See reports from CNBC, Washington Post, and NYT.

• The Second Circuit ruled last week that, in limited circumstances, landlords can be liable for one tenant’s racial harassment of another tenant. The decision holds that, under the Fair Housing Act, landlords can be liable if they fail to address tenant-on-tenant race discrimination in the building.  See report from AP and Court House News.

• The Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit rules that the FDA can regulate e-cigarettes just like conventional cigarettes in this December 10 decision.  The decision recognizes that e-cigarettes are “indisputably highly addictive and pose health risks, especially to youth, that are not well understood.” See Washington Post report here.

• According to the District Court for District of Utah, American Samoans are citizens at birth, not non-citizen nationals. See order and CNN coverage.