The Supreme Court did not issue opinions today on the major cases involving affirmative action, same-sex marriage, and voting rights -- those decisions will likely come next week. But they did rule on a key voter registration law in Arizona. Noah Feldman, Harvard law professor, Bloomberg View columnist and author of Cool War: The Future of Global Competition discusses the case, and last week's gene patent opinion and offers analysis of today's rulings.
Get Up To Speed on the Key Decisions: Our SCOTUS Reading List
- The Voter Registration Case (Decided Today): Read the Decision | More on Arizona vs. The Inter Tribal Council of Arizona (Scotus Blog)
- The Gene Patenting Case (Decided Last Week): Noah Feldman's Analysis | The Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. | Full Decision (PDF)
- The Affirmative Action Case:
A white plaintiff, denied admission, claims that University of Texas’s policy of taking race and class into account when admitting students constitutes racial discrimination.
WNYC Explainer | Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin (Scotus Blog) | Sherrilyn Ifill Op-Ed (NYTimes) | Valerie Strauss Response to Iffil (Washington Post) - The Same-Sex Marriage Cases:
-- Hollingsworth vs. Perrry: Challenges Prop. 8, which amended the California state constitution to allow only opposite-sex couples to marry.
-- Windsor vs. United States: Challenges the federal definition that marriage — and the associated benefits — is between a man and a woman.
USA Today Primer | WNYC Breakdown | United States v. Windsor (Scotus Blog) | Holligsworth v. Perry (Scotus Blog) - The Voting Rights Act Case:
On Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which mandates that certain parts of the country get “preclearance” from the federal government before making election law changes.
Primer from The Root| Heritage's Shelby 101 | Shelby County v. Holder (Scotus Blog) - The Indian Adoption Case: Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl (Scotus Blog) | "Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl" (Radiolab)
