Civil Rights Panel

Description

The Court will hear cases this Term involving the free exercise of religion, free speech, sports participation for transgender athletes, and challenges to the death penalty under the Eighth Amendment.  This panel will discuss these cases and make predictions, including speculation on whether there are more civil rights challenges to find their way to the Supreme Court docket.

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Materials for Panel

Little v. Hecox & West Virginia v. B.P.J. – Sex-Based Limits on Sports as a 14th Amendment Issue, Transgender Rights

Issue: In both cases, the Court will hear argument on whether sex-at-birth-based designations for girls’ and boys’ sports teams violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

• Little v. Hecox
  • Petitioners’ Reply Brief
  • Petitioners’ Supplemental Brief
  • Respondents’ Brief in Opposition
  • Case file
• West Virginia v. B.P.J.
  • Petitioners’ Reply Brief
  • Petitioners’ Supplemental Brief
  • Respondents’ Brief in Opposition
  • Case file
• Supreme Court Will Hear Challenges to Bans on Athletic Participation by Transgender Students - ACLU
• Gov. Little comments on SCOTUS taking up Idaho’s transgender athletics case - Idaho Office of the Governor

First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, Inc. v. Platkin – Free Speech Limitations on a Pregnancy Center and State vs Federal Jurisdiction Over Subpoena Power

Issue: Whether, when the subject of a state investigatory demand has established a reasonably objective chill of a group’s First Amendment rights, a federal court in a first-filed action is deprived of jurisdiction because those rights must be adjudicated in state court.

• Petitioners’ Reply Brief
• Respondents’ Brief in Opposition
• Case file
• First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Platkin - Alliance Defending Freedom
• Narrow Applicability Is Not the Same As Narrow Tailoring: Applying the First Amendment in First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Platkin - Cynthia Fleming Crawford, The Federalist Society
• US Supreme Court to hear dispute involving anti-abortion crisis pregnancy center - Brendan Pierson, Reuters

Hamm v. Smith – Eighth Amendment and Atkins Claims

Issue: Whether and how courts may consider the cumulative effect of multiple IQ scores in assessing an Atkins claim.

• Petitioners’ Reply Brief
• Respondents’ Brief in Opposition
• Case file
• SCOTUS will consider impact of death row inmate's multiple IQ tests in determining execution eligibility - Debra Cassens Weiss, ABAJournal
• United States Supreme Court Sends Case of Alabama Death-Sentenced Prisoner Back to 11th Circuit Court of Appeals - Death Penalty Information Center

Landor v. Louisiana Dept. of Corrections and Public Safety – First Amendment, Free Religion

Issue: Whether an individual may sue a government official in his individual capacity for damages for violations of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 by shaving an inmate’s head despite his religious beliefs that prohibited cutting his hair.

• Case file
• Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections & Public Safety - Harvard Law Review
• Fifth Circuit Opinion

Olivier v. City of Brandon, Mississippi – First Amendment, Freedom of Religion Conflict on Whether Local Ordinance Violates Section 1983 Relief

Issue: (1) Whether this court’s decision in Heck v. Humphrey bars claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 seeking purely prospective relief where the plaintiff has been punished before under the law challenged as unconstitutional; and (2) whether Heck v. Humphrey bars Section 1983 claims by plaintiffs even where they never had access to federal habeas relief.

• Case file