Today at the Supreme Court

Today was a highly significant day at the Court, primarily because, as it is the first Monday in October, it is the first day of the Court's term. Under 28 USC 2, the Court " shall hold at the seat of government a term of court commencing on the first Monday in October of each year ". It was, as such, the day the Court issued its first order list after the summer recess, during which it was not in session. And because the Court is not in recess during the summer, it is not generally granting or denying petitions, with very limited exceptions (primarily highly time-sensitive capital cases where the defendant will file a petition shortly before their execution is scheduled). But people are continuing to file petitions, and they are continuing to be docketed, throughout the summer. This has been the case for many years, which means when the Court starts its new term in October, there is always a large backlog of petitions that have built up over the summer.  The first confer...

Today, the Court didn't publish any new orders on its "Orders of the Court" or "Opinions Relating to Orders" pages. But I was able to find something that probably should have been published as a "miscellaneous order" today but, for some unknown reason, was not. Specifically, in the stay application 25A376 (Samantha Estefania Franc Castro v. Jose Leonardo Brito Guevara), Alito (the circuit justice to whom the application was submitted, because it originated from the Fifth Circuit) granted an administrative stay (by himself, without referring it to the full court) of the Fifth Circuit's mandate. I can't find much media discussion of this aside from this Law360 article . However, looking at the application itself sheds significant light on why the applications thought it was so urgent.  The first sentence of the introduction reads: "This application concerns whether, pending a forthcoming petition for certiorari, a seven-year-old girl residin...

Undoubtedly, the most significant Supreme Court news today was that the Court granted certiorari in five cases (why the Court couldn't wait until three days from now for their scheduled order list to announce these grants, of course, remains a mystery). Those cases are listed below. Docket Name 24-1046 Wolford v. Lopez 24-1238 Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC 24-699 Exxon Mobil Corporation v. Corporación Cimex, S.A. (Cuba) 24-983 Havana Docks Corporation v. Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. 25-95 Pung v. Isabella County, Michigan Wolford v. Lopez  is a major gun rights case where the petitioners want the Court to invalidate a Hawaii gun control law as unconstitutional. The law in question makes it illegal for someone with a concealed-carry permit to concealed carry a firearm onto someone else's property unless “given express authorization to carry a firearm on the property by the owner, lessee, operator, or manager of the property.” The petition originally presented two quest...