Gavel Drop: Supreme Court Limits President’s Appointment Power
In other news, a federal court found that a religious university discriminated against a single, pregnant worker who refused to either marry or stop living with her partner, and the Hawaii judge who struck down the Muslim ban is now under 24-hour protection due to threats.
Welcome to Gavel Drop, our roundup of legal news, headlines, and head-shaking moments in the courts.
In a 6-2 opinion last week, the U.S. Supreme Court placed restrictions on a president’s authority to staff certain government positions if the post requires a Senate confirmation hearing. The ruling will give President Trump less flexibility in making appointments.
The city of Fort Collins, Colorado, plans to appeal a federal judge’s decision to temporarily stop enforcement of a local ordinance prohibiting women from going topless in public.
Feminist writer and lawyer Jill Filopovic explains that constitutional originalism is bullshit.
A Pennsylvania teenager is suing his high school, claiming he was humiliated and emotionally harmed by being “forced” to share a bathroom and locker room with a transgender boy.
U.S. Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch once dissented from a ruling requiring a trucking company to rehire a man who was fired after he left his broken-down trailer and cargo on the side of the road because he feared freezing to death if he waited for the company to send a repair person. The man, Alphonse Maddin, says it’s “surreal” that his personal story has become the subject of Supreme Court confirmation hearings.
Former Oregon Gov. Barbara Roberts (D) criticized Neil Gorsuch, saying that he is wrong to equate “death with dignity” and suicide.
A federal judge ruled that a religious university discriminated against an unmarried pregnant employee when it fired her because she refused to either marry the father of her child or stop living with him.
President Trump announced his first pick for a lower court: He intends to nominate a federal district court judge in Kentucky, Amul Thapar, to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson has received multiple death threats as a result of his ruling striking down Trump’s Muslim ban. So much so, that he has been assigned a 24-hour protective detail. Trump’s America!
Anti-LGBTQ legal group Liberty Counsel and its founder, Mathew Staver, have been named as defendants in a lawsuit to determine if they have any knowledge about a “converted lesbian” who may have kidnapped the child she had with her then-partner and moved to Nicaragua in order to deprive her partner of visitation.