Dear Colleagues:

Welcome back to our Public Affairs Discussions for a new academic year. I am very glad to begin with our traditional opening discussion of the Supreme Court.

Each year our eminent legal scholars analyze what happened in the previous term and project what might happen in the term that begins the First Monday in October. Last year there was so much to project that we actually did three Supreme Court programs. Professors Adler and Entin spoke in January as well as September, and Professor Atiba Ellis spoke separately about the two big election law cases.

Therefore this year we have lots to review. Major decisions included limiting the EPA’s (and perhaps by analogy many other agencies’) regulatory authority; further limits on state efforts to control guns; two cases that emphasized “free exercise” of religion even in contexts that could be viewed as state endorsement of religious activity (which used to be viewed as violating the establishment clause); rejection of executive privilege claimed by former President Trump; limiting the Biden administration’s efforts to enforce vaccine-testing by larger employers; upholding the ability of state Supreme Courts to review state election laws for compliance with state constitutions; holding that Alabama’s 2021 redistricting violated the Voting Rights Act by suppressing representation of African-Americans; striking down affirmative action in university admissions; preserving the basics of the “entitlement” status of the Medicaid program; and blocking President Biden’s student loan forgiveness program.

That’s quite a lot, and not an entirely right-wing set of decisions. So what do they tell us about the attitudes and alignments on the Court? And what comes next?

That depends in part of the set of cases moving forward. There don’t seem to be as many hot-button social issues as in the previous two terms. Yet a series of major cases regarding the administrative state – what federal agencies can do – could have deep effects on our system of government. One might vitiate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Another could reverse one of the foundational cases in administrative law, Chevron vs. National Resources Defense Council (though that has been eroding for a while). A third challenges the ability of agencies (in this case the SEC) to adjudicate enforcement matters, on the grounds that this violates the Seventh Amendment right to trial by jury. A fourth involves whether congress members as individuals can sue to compel agencies to provide information. Professors Adler and Entin can tell us about these cases and others in the pipeline.

Is there a conservative revolution in jurisprudence, and how far is it likely to go? What are the limits as revealed by individual Justices’ positions last term? It is a great pleasure to welcome back Professors Adler and Entin for their annual “Review and Preview.” Please join them for their wise and somewhat different perspectives on the law and the Court, what has happened and what might happen next.

In-Person and Virtual Attendance

In order to make it easy for people to protect themselves and still participate, the meetings can be attended on Zoom. Participants can register for each meeting in the same way they did for the past three years. The link is posted below.

The discussion begins at 12:30 p.m., but the room should be open no later than Noon. We try to have beverages and refreshments set up soon after that. Participants should be able to sign on to Zoom also by Noon. But please remember not much will be happening online until the talk begins at 12:30 pm. Please also be prepared to show identification when entering Kelvin Smith Library.

Zoom participants should speak up when asked for questions or comments, or submit thoughts through Zoom’s chat function. Please keep yourself muted until you are choosing to speak.

Each week we will send out this newsletter with information about the topic. It will also include a link to register (for free) for the discussion. When you register, you will automatically receive from the Zoom system the link to join the meeting. If you do not get the newsletter, you should also be able to get the information each Monday by checking http://fridaylunch.case.edu Then if you choose you can use the contact form on that website to request the registration link.

This week’s Zoom link for registration is:

https://cwru.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAucuqvpz8tGNxGTgZqRR5vMyTIbB3BRCaM

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Please also e-mail padg@case.edu if you have questions about arrangements or any suggestions. Or call at 216 368-2426 and we’ll try to get back to you. We are very pleased to be partnering this semester with the Siegal Lifelong Learning Program to share information about the discussions.

Best wishes for safety and security for you and yours,

Joe White
Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies

About Our Guests

Jonathan H. Adler is the inaugural Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law and and Director, Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Law at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law, where he teaches courses in environmental, administrative, and constitutional law.

Professor Adler is the author or editor of seven books, including Business and the Roberts Court (Oxford University Press, 2016), Rebuilding the Ark: New Perspectives on Endangered Species Act Reform (AEI Press, 2011), and over a dozen book chapters. His articles have appeared in publications ranging from the Harvard Environmental Law Review and Yale Journal on Regulation to The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. He has testified before Congress a dozen times, and his work has been cited in the U.S. Supreme Court. A 2016 study identified Professor Adler as the most cited legal academic in administrative and environmental law under age 50.

Professor Adler is a contributing editor to National Review Online and a regular contributor to the popular legal blog, “The Volokh Conspiracy.” A regular commentator on constitutional and regulatory issues, he has appeared on numerous radio and television programs, ranging from the PBS “Newshour with Jim Lehrer” and NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” to the Fox News Channel and “Entertainment Tonight.”

Jonathan Entin has taught Constitutional Law; Administrative Law; Courts, Public Policy and Social Change; and a Supreme Court Seminar. Before joining the faculty in 1984, he clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (when she was on the U.S. Court of Appeals) and practiced in Washington with Steptoe & Johnson. The recipient of several teaching awards and a former co-editor of the Journal of Legal Education, he is at work on a book about equal protection. Among his recent publications are “Getting What You Pay For: Judicial Compensation and Judicial Independence,” Utah Law Review (2011) and “Responding to Political Corruption: Some Institutional Considerations,” Loyola University Chicago Law Journal (2011).

* Kelvin Smith Library requires all entrants to show identification when entering the building, unless they have a university i.d. that they can magnetically scan. We are sorry if that seems like a hassle, but it has been Library policy for a while in response to security concerns. Please do not complain to the library staff at the entrance, who are just doing their jobs.

Schedule of Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:

September 8: Take Two, But Double the Stakes? November’s Reproductive Rights and Marijuna Ballots After Issue One’s Defeat. With Ellen R. Kubit.

September 15: Should Hard Drugs Be Decriminalized? With Michael W. Clune, Ph.D., Samuel B. and Virginia C. Knight Professor of the Humanities, Department of English, and Lee Hoffer, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Anthropology and Professor of Psychiatry.

September 22: Forty Years of AIDS Research and Care. With Michael M. Lederman, MD, LSMFT, Scott R. Inkley Emeritus Professor of Medicine.

September 29: To Be Determined. Alternate Room: Mather House 100

October 6: COVID-’23 and Beyond. With David H. Canaday, MD, Professor of Infectious Disease and Associate Director of Research for the Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center, Cleveland VA.

October 13: Civil-Military Relations in Egypt. With Dina Rashed, Ph.D., Associate Dean of the College for Academic Affairs, University of Chicago. Alternate Room: Mather House 100

October 20: One Semester Away from Crisis: Small Colleges and American Higher Education. With Tom Bogart, Ph.D., Visiting Professor and Chair, Department of Economics. Alternate Room: Mather House 100

October 27: Storefronts, Communities, and the Changing World of Retail. With Michael Goldberg, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Design and Innovation; Executive Director and Associate Vice President, Veale Institute for Entrepreneurship.

November 3: To Be Determined.

November 10: To Be Determined.

November 17: To Be Determined.

November 24: Thanksgiving Break

December 1: To Be Determined.

December 8: To Be Determined.