The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted review in 14 new cases to be argued in its new term, adding to the 40 it had granted before it recessed for the summer. The order list (pdf) is the product of the Court’s so-called “long conference” Monday at which, in private, it considered the thousands of petitions that have piled up during the summer recess. It was Justice Elena Kagan’s first such conference, and as junior justice it would have been her responsibility to report to the Court clerk all the cases the Court agreed to hear.
The list also indicated that Kagan has decided to recuse in four of the new cases, presumably because of her role at earlier stages as solicitor general. That makes for a total of 25 cases out of the 54 the Court has granted so far in which Kagan will not participate. The new cases in which she has recused are: Astra USA Inc. v. Santa Clara County, a dispute between public hospitals and drug companies; FCC v. AT&T, which asks whether corporate “personhood” extends to the Freedom of Information Act which exempts the release of government documents that invade “personal privacy” (we wrote about the case here); United States v. Tinklenberg, a Speedy Trial Act case; and Schindler Elevator Corp. v. United States, a False Claims Act case.
