Who'sreadyforSCOTUSopinion(s)at10?!

Today is NOT the last opinion day of the Supreme Court's term. We don't know when that is yet!

Big cases remaining:

•contraceptive mandate
•Oklahoma tribal lands
•ministerial exception
•Trump's financial records (House subpoenas)
•Trump's tax returns (NY state subpoena)

Traditionally, on the second-to-last opinion day, the chief justice announces from the bench that the next opinion day will be the last one of the term.

Obviously, the justices aren't taking the bench now, so it's unclear if/how Roberts will do this digitally.

First opinion: By a 7–2 vote, the Supreme Court expands the scope of the "ministerial exception," allowing religious employers to ignore civil rights laws. Sotomayor and Ginsburg dissent. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/19-267_1an2.pdf

SCOTUS' decision allows a religious employer like a church to ignore employment protections if it believes employees play an "important" religious role.

Sotomayor: "That simplistic approach has no basis in law and strips thousands of schoolteachers of their legal protections."

Sotomayor's dissent: "This sweeping result is profoundly unfair. The Court is not only wrong on the facts, but its error also risks upending antidiscrimination protections for many employees of religious entities." She condemns the decision for its "inherent injustice."

More Sotomayor: "This Court has lamented a perceived 'discrimination against religion.' Yet here it swings the pendulum in the extreme opposite direction, permitting
religious entities to discriminate widely and with impunity
for reasons wholly divorced from religious beliefs."

The teachers in these cases were allegedly fired for having breast cancer and being old, i.e. on the basis of disability and age. SCOTUS says: Too bad, the school says you play an important religious role, so you don't get ANY civil rights protections. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/19-267_1an2.pdf

Breyer and Kagan joined Alito's remarkably broad opinion abolishing civil rights protections for employees of religious institutions (including schools). They did not write separately to qualify their votes. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/19-267_1an2.pdf

Second and final opinion of the day: By a 7–2 vote, SCOTUS upholds the Trump administration's evisceration of the ACA's contraceptive mandate, approving its sweeping religious and moral exemptions. Sotomayor and Ginsburg dissent. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/19-431_5i36.pdf

Kagan writes separately, joined by Breyer. She thinks the Trump administration has statutory authority to gut the contraceptive mandate, but thinks that mandate may have been enacted in an arbitrary and capricious manner. Still votes to uphold it for now. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/19-431_5i36.pdf

As Ginsburg notes in her dissent, today's decision means that between 70,500 and 126,400 women will "immediately lose access to no-cost contraceptive services." It's a huge blow to birth control access in America. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/19-431_5i36.pdf

Tomorrow will be the last opinion day of the Supreme Court's term. We should get decisions in Mazars and Vance, the cases involving Trump's financial records and tax returns.

We are also due to learn whether a huge chunk of Oklahoma is actually tribal land.

We're going to get a bunch of complaints from the right about how the liberal justices "vote in lockstep" but please note that Kagan and Breyer sided with the conservatives in both of today's HUGE religion cases.

(The "lockstep" talking point is extremely silly.)

Today is a good day for those who believe that religious employers, from churches to private corporations, should be allowed to impose their beliefs on employees, even when doing so inflicts real harm. The court's expansion of (what it deems) religious liberty is breathtaking.

SCOTUS' decisions in Morrissey-Berru and Espinoza mean that (1) states that fund secular private schools are also obligated to fund religious schools, and (2) states generally can't enforce their civil rights laws against the religious schools they're forced to fund.

Oof, Alito approvingly cites Rod Dreher's The Benedict Option. I'd tag Dreher but he blocked me because I'm gay and he despises LGBTQ people. Someone congratulate him for me. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/19-267_1an2.pdf