Supreme Court's Pivotal Docket: Marriage Equality, Privacy, and Immigration Enforcement

The Supreme Court’s quiet summer docket has stirred with a handful of consequential developments. According to One First by Steve Vladeck, the justices have two new emergency applications from the Trump administration: one asking the Court to reinstate the termination of certain NIH grants that lower courts blocked as politically motivated, and another seeking to lift a temporary restraining order limiting ICE’s suspicionless “roving patrol” arrests in and around Los Angeles; Justice Kagan has called for a response on the ICE matter, and additional death penalty stay requests could push the Court to tie or break last term’s record for emergency rulings. Vladeck also notes the Court issued four orders last week denying stays of execution for Tennessee inmate Byron Black, with no public dissents, and quietly tweaked its online docket format after a late-June notification glitch.

On the merits front looking ahead, ABC News reports that the Court has formally been asked to take a case that directly urges overturning Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 ruling that recognized a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. The petition comes from former Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, who is appealing a jury verdict and fees after refusing to issue marriage licenses; her filing labels Obergefell “egregiously wrong,” setting up a potential fall-term flashpoint if the justices grant review. In the tech and privacy space, MediaPost reports that a web user has asked Justice Brett Kavanaugh for more time to seek Supreme Court review in a Video Privacy Protection Act fight, citing a split between the Second and Sixth Circuits over who counts as a “consumer” when websites share video-viewing data via the Meta Pixel; the NBA and industry groups are urging the Court to step in, warning that the broader reading could upend targeted advertising.

Meanwhile, the Regulatory Review highlights immediate ripple effects from the Court’s recent CASA decision curbing nationwide injunctions, explaining that Justice Barrett’s opinion still leaves room for broad relief when necessary to provide complete relief to the parties. The piece points to a Ninth Circuit case upholding a “universal” injunction after CASA, underscoring that courts continue to block national policies when narrower orders won’t suffice, even as the Supreme Court narrows the tool’s use. In the broader policy orbit around the Court, KFF Health News aggregates that public interest groups have decided not to seek Supreme Court review of the Sixth Circuit ruling that struck down the FCC’s net neutrality order and Title II classification, effectively leaving that reversal in place for now as deadlines passed at the end of last week; the same roundup flags an ABC News item on the same-sex marriage challenge returning to the justices’ doorstep.

Taken together, listeners should watch for imminent orders on emergency applications tied to immigration enforcement and federal research funding, possible death-penalty stay activity, and a potentially explosive cert decision on whether to revisit marriage equality. At the same time, the Court’s limits on nationwide injunctions are already being tested in the lower courts, and a circuit split on online video privacy could invite the justices’ intervention if extensions are granted and petitions are filed in the coming weeks. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

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