The last week was both busy and quiet on the Supreme Court front.  The Supreme Court handed down eleven decisions reducing the number of pending cases to eighteen with two weeks to go.  Only two of the cases were medium big, and the really big cases will be decided in the last two weeks.  With the Juneteenth holiday, the Supreme Court will be releasing opinions tomorrow (Tuesday) and Thursday.  For the last week of June, Monday will be an opinion day.  Depending on how many opinions are left after June 27, there will probably be additional opinions on June 29 and, maybe, June 30.  Expect Dodds and New York State Rifle to come the week of June 27.

This week, the two big decisions were in American Hospital Association v. Becerra and Arizona v. City and County of San Francisco.  Both of these are bigger for what they did not say than for what they actually held.

American Hospital Association involves the rules for hospital reimbursements for Medicare.  For years, conservatives have been challenging a judge-made rule (Chevron deference) which dictates that courts should uphold reasonable rules implemented by administrative agencies based on a reasonable interpretation of statutes.  So far, the U.S. Supreme Court has not officially overruled Chevron.  Instead, they are whittling it away through decisions like American Hospital Association.  The courts are doing this by narrowing the field of what is a reasonable interpretation of statutes. Continue Reading...