SCOTUS – WTF?, Justice & Drew, 6.22.20

SCOTUS – WTF?, Justice & Drew, 6.22.20

Monday morning I joined my good friends on Justice & Drew to discuss two recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions and one upcoming decision. In Clayton v. Bostock County, the Court, on a 6-3 vote and with Justice Gorsuch authoring the opinion, held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits an employer from terminating an employee who is homosexual or transgender. As I mentioned during our discussion, I do not take the “sky is falling” view that many conservatives have, as I pointed out that (1) most states’ laws already prohibit this; and (2) Justice Gorsuch clearly limits the scope of the Court’s ruling to employment, and I believe that almost all Americans would agree that one should not lose their job because they are homosexual or transgender. You can read that decision here.

The second case, DHS v. Regents of University of California, dealt with President Trump’s repeal of the DACA program, which was enacted by President Obama via executive order. As we discussed, this case has been widely misinterpreted as upholding the legality of the DACA program. Far from it. Instead, the Court acknowledged that the program was enacted illegally, but held that the Trump Administration must follow the procedure outlined in the Administrative Procedures Act in repealing it. To be fair, it’s still a bad decision, but not for the reasons being proffered by many conservative pundits.

We also briefly discussed what the Court might do in the case of June Medical Services v. Russo, which deals with a Louisana law requiring doctors who perform abortions to have hospital admitting privileges. As we discussed, a similar Texas law was struck down by the Court in 2016, and I believe that a similar result will occur here.

Be sure to check out the Justice & Drew page on this website for more of my “Lawyer Extraordinare” appearances on the show.