The Preview will open with featured speaker Jess Bravin, The Wall Street Journal Supreme Court Correspondent, followed by a panel discussion. On the panel, Bravin will join Second Circuit Judge Rosemary Pooler, Arnold & Porter Supreme Court Litigator Reeves Anderson, University Professor David Dreisen, and Associate Dean for Faculty Research Lauryn Gouldin for a preview of the Court's October 2019 docket.
The preview will include cases involving Title VII’s applicability to discrimination based on sexual orientation and one’s status as transgender, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, Bivens claims, and incorporation of the Sixth Amendment guarantee of unanimous verdicts, among others.
The panel will be moderated by Vice Dean Keith Bybee.
This program is open to the public and has typically been approved for 3 CLE credits. There is no charge for this CLE Program. If you are seeking CLE credit, please register by September 6, 2019, as follows:
Syracuse University College of Law and the Northern District of New York Federal Court Bar Association have been certified by the New York State Continuing Legal Education Board as Accredited Providers of continuing legal education in the State of New York. “United States Supreme Court: the 2019–2020 Term” complies with the requirements of the New York State Continuing Legal Education Board for 3.0 credits towards the professional practice requirement. This program is appropriate for newly admitted and experienced attorneys. This is a single program. No partial credit will be awarded.
The College of Law‘s second annual Supreme Court Preview program examined the vacancy following Justice Anthony Kennedy retirement after nearly three decades on the country’s highest court. Justice Kennedy was the deciding swing vote in many high profile cases during his tenure and his retirement announcement launched a politically contentious nomination process that has dominated the news cycle for most of the summer.
Featured speaker Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor at Slate, opened the afternoon program with a lecture on the impacts that these significant court transitions have on the journalists who regularly cover the Court.
Lithwick then joined the Honorable Rosemary Pooler of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and College of Law Professors Sanjay Chhablani and Margaret Harding for a panel discussion moderated by Vice Dean Keith Bybee. The panel previewed some of the cases pending before the Court, including cases involving arbitration, the death penalty, the double jeopardy clause, and Native American sovereignty, among others.
The Supreme Court’s 2016-2017 term was marked by caution and consensus that reflected the eight justices’ “strenuous efforts” to rule narrowly to avoid deadlocks. After the 2016 election and the subsequent confirmation of Justice Neil Gorsuch in April, the Court returned to fighting weight.
As speaker Amy Howe, editor and reporter for SCOTUSblog explained, the Court’s docket for 2017-2018 had “no shortage of blockbusters,” presenting issues including: the constitutionality of President Trump’s travel ban; whether Colorado’s public accommodations law violates a bakery owner’s First Amendment rights by requiring him to make custom cakes for same-sex weddings; whether the Fourth Amendment protects historical cell-site location information (and the continued viability of the controversial third-party doctrine); whether Wisconsin’s most recent legislative redistricting is unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering; and whether arbitration agreements that require employees to forgo collective, class-action relief are enforceable under the Federal Arbitration Act (a case in which DOJ’s position from before the election has changed).
This program examined the impacts of the 2016 election on the 2017-2018 term and on the composition of the Court going forward with previews and analysis of key cases on the Court’s 2017-2018 docket.
