Supreme Court opinions on Obamacare and Arizona’s SB1070 immigration law could come as early as Thursday, but that’s not guaranteed.
Three #SCOTUS decisions today may be a sign that the #Obamacare decision won't come out on June 25. http://t.co/jFv3FxQb
— Avik Roy (@Avik) June 18, 2012
Brad Joondeph of the ACA Litigation Blog has published a comprehensive breakdown of when the Supreme Court may issue its opinion in the case. “Setting aside the ACA cases,” he notes, “the Court essentially has twelve other decisions to hand down.” In addition, “in recent Terms, the Court has handed down opinions on Wednesdays or Thursdays of both of the last two weeks of the Term, in addition to the regularly scheduled Mondays. And the Court has already announced that it will issue one or more opinions next Thursday, June 21.” Worth also noting, he writes, “the Court almost never issues more than four or five opinions on the same day.”
Hence, if the court issues four or five opinions each on Monday, June 18 and Thursday, June 21, that would leave between two and four opinions for the last scheduled day for reading opinions: Monday, June 25.
“If the Court has handed down virtually all of the twelve [non-Obamacare] opinions…by next Thursday, then June 25 would likely be the last day of the term,” Joondeph says. “But if the Court only hands down, say, five or six opinions next week, it will need at least two days the following week to hand down what remains.” That means that the Court will probably reserve either June 27 or June 28 to hand down the last set of rulings.
Thursday & Monday are the next days SCOTUS has skedded to release decisions. 9 rulings left to be released this term.
— Philip Klein (@philipaklein) June 18, 2012
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Here’s what we got from the Supreme Court today:
Scotus rules to keep Steve Gutenberg a star. #Stonecutters
— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) June 18, 2012
Oh, wait, hereare the decisions that were handed down by the nation’s highest court Monday morning:
#SCOTUS issues opinion in Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians v. Patchak. By Kagan. Vote is 8-1, with Sotomayor dissenting.
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) June 18, 2012
#SCOTUS decision: Salazar v. Ramah Navajo Chapter. Opinion by Sotomayor, with vote 5-4. http://t.co/uKbjBlFB
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) June 18, 2012
Next #SCOTUS opinion by Justice Alito: Williams v. Illinois, the Confrontation Clause case. Illinois Sup. Ct. affirmed. http://t.co/vKLLo3MJ
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) June 18, 2012
4th decision was Christopher v. SmithKine Beecham Corp.
— Philip Klein (@philipaklein) June 18, 2012
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