The Problems With SCOTUS's History-and-Tradition Approach: The Morning Minute
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June 28, 2022 at 06:00 AM
6 minute read
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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING
DRUNK HISTORY - In less than a week, the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative justices have replaced the usual tests for weighing constitutional violations in the arenas of guns, abortion and religion with a history-tradition test that cements their professed belief in originalism, and creates new challenges for judges and litigants, Law.com's Marcia Coyle reports. "The run-of-the-mill judge anywhere in the United States is not going to have the knowledge to say this [restriction or regulation] is wrong or right unless there's the odd judge who has read a lot of history," one scholar of American history said. "Their political views will undoubtedly tell them how to evaluate this, what to use. It's very cynical, but true." The other problem with using a history-and-tradition approach, according to a number of historians, is that history often provides no definitive answer and historians often disagree. What's worse, most judges and clerks who try to look to history for answers are dependent on the court's library and online resources. "They don't know the scholarship; they don't know the sources," Second Amendment historian Saul Cornell of Fordham University told Coyle. "Every historian knows that when you start your research, you have a working hypothesis. It's drummed into you that when evidence comes in, you have to reexamine the hypothesis. The court's approach is like a Mad Lib game we did as kids. It would be funny except it's our lives."
STATES OF FLUX - Some companies are trying to create workarounds for employees in states with restrictive abortion laws by providing benefits that would allow them to travel out-of-state to access abortion services, joining a chorus of companies that announced they would do so in response to a Texas law last year and the leak of a draft version of the opinion in May. But employment attorneys told Law.com's Jessica Mach those efforts will occur amid a rapidly shifting legal landscape. Companies that have employees in several states and are looking to provide them with abortion-related benefits "would really need to do a state-by-state analysis of what the abortion laws are, whether and under what circumstances abortion is legal in most states," said Sarah Raaii, an associate at McDermott Will & Emery who specializes in employee benefits. "That may be a moving target in the next several days and several weeks." A significant challenge for legal departments is that the growing patchwork of state restrictions can't simply be boiled down to states that ban abortion and states that don't, Raaii said. "Even the restrictions that we've seen in, for instance, Texas and Oklahoma and some of the other states, it seems like each state has created its own timeline of when or under what circumstances abortion might be legal," she said.
WHO GOT THE WORK?℠ - A wholly-owned subsidiary of Targa Resources Corp. has agreed to acquire Lucid Energy Group, a privately-held natural gas processor in the Permian Basin, from Riverstone Holdings LLC and Goldman Sachs Asset Management for $3.55 billion in cash. The transaction, announced June 16, is expected to close in the third quarter of 2022. Houston-based Targa is advised by Vinson & Elkins. Riverstone and Goldman Sachs are represented by Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson. Lucid Energy, which is based in Dallas, is advised by a Latham & Watkins team led by partners Charles Carpenter and James Garrett. >> Read the filing on Law.com Radar and check out the most recent edition of Law.com's Who Got the Work?℠ column to find out which law firms and lawyers are being brought in to handle key cases and close major deals for their clients.
ON THE RADAR - Seyfarth Shaw, Yeshiva University and other defendants were hit with a civil rights lawsuit Monday in New York Southern District Court. The case was filed by Kevin T. Mulhearn P.C. on behalf of an anonymous Yeshiva student who accuses Seyfarth Shaw of intentionally failing to consider key evidence in its investigation of her complaint that a fellow student had sexually assaulted her. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendants. The case is 1:22-cv-05405, Doe v. Yeshiva University et al. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar.
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EDITOR'S PICKS
Patent Eligibility Case Put on Hold; Apple Loses Standing Battle With Qualcomm By Scott Graham |
'I See the Proof in the Pudding': Why This Legal Tech Exec Is a 'Believer' in Law Firms' Ability to Learn From Other Industries By Law.com Contributing Editors |
LGBTQ Lawyers Fight On as SCOTUS, Law Firms Change Landscape By Brad Kutner |
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Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
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