June is looking like it's going to be a very busy month for the Supreme Court. The highest court in the land will be ruling on 4 major cases that touch on vital issues like same-sex marriage, affirmative action, voting rights and gene patents, according to CNN.
As the Supreme Court finishes up their session they will meet publicly at least five times to announce their decisions in the 30 remaining open cases by the end of June these four cases are the most widely anticipated.
Thomas Goldstein, an attorney and publisher of SCOTUSblog.com, spoke to CNN about what the importance of the upcoming decisions and what he expects.
"It's almost unimaginable the number of things that the Supreme Court is going to decide that will affect all Americans in the next month," Goldstein said. "What would surprise me this term is if the court upheld use of affirmative action or the (enforcement tool behind the) Voting Rights Act. And I think it would be a big surprise if the court did anything radical when it comes to same-sex marriage - either saying there was a constitutional right to it, or rejecting that claim outright and forever. I think that's something they're going to try and tread the middle ground path."
All of the arguments have ended for the term and the Justices have voted and are working on writing up their opinions. In a Washington that is becoming infamous for the amount of leaks that slip the Supreme Court seems to be the last place where discretion still exists.
"At the Supreme Court, those who know, don't talk. And those who talk, don't know," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has famously said, according to the Associated Press.
Two appeals relating to same-sex marriage will be decided by the court; an appeal attempting to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act to allow same-sex couples the same federal benefits afforded straight couples and an appeal of the Prop 8 referendum in California that overturned legalized gay marriage in the state, according to CNN.
California is the only state to have allowed same-sex marriage and then subsequently revoked it by state referendum; part of the ruling by the court will focus on whether a state referendum can take back that right once it has already been given.
During the March arguments on the case Justice Sonia Sotomayor questioned whether the case should have even been taken by the court.
"If the issue is letting the states experiment and letting the society have more time to figure out its direction, why is taking a case now the answer?" Sotomayor asked, according to CNN.
A key case that is flying under the radar involves voting rights. Shelby County, Ala., is arguing that Congress overstepped their bounds when it renewed the Voting Rights Act in 2006. Specifically they are arguing that section 5 of the law, which requires nine states and dozens of counties with a history of racial discrimination to get permission from the Department of Justice to change voting laws, according to NBC News.
Also on the table is a case that will decide whether or not colleges are allowed to use affirmative action in deciding admissions. Abigail Fisher, who was denied admission to the University of Texas in 2008, is arguing that affirmative action denied her the rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. If the court agrees with Fisher it would reverse a decision made by the court 3 years ago, according to NBC News.
