Civil Cases in the Supreme Court’s October Term 2021

Every Term of the Supreme Court has a blockbuster case or two that come to represent snapshots of the Court’s philosophy and temperament. This one had enough to cover several Terms. Addressing multiple lines of unfinished business, the Court overturned Roe, Casey, and Lemon—and affirmed a right to carry a gun outside the home to boot. The Court could sensibly have filled the rest of its civil docket with ERISA interpretation issues, but it kept going. In cases that would have been a big deal in other Terms, it also permitted the federal government to mandate COVID vaccines for medical workers but not other employees, shot down arguably the most significant climate change regulation in history, and shored up the litigation power of state attorneys general in one case while undermining it in another. It overrode state constitutional exclusion of religious instruction from choice scholarship programs, permitted a football coach to pray at the 50-yard line, protected a right to have a pastor lay-on hands during execution, and permitted an assemblage to fly the Christian Flag in the public square just like other groups fly the Pride Flag. Under the Free Speech Clause, it permitted different rules for off-premises and on-premises signs (maybe) and said Ted Cruz could be repaid money he loaned to his U.S. Senate campaign from post-election donations