2024 US Supreme Court case rulings: MSU experts can comment (2024)

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to deliver rulings on a slate of key cases on topics including social media regulation, government agency authority, environmental regulation, homelessness rights, drug company influence and abortion access. Many of the cases this term could affect both government institutions and how people live their private lives.

As the court issues rulings at the end of this term, Michigan State University has experts from many colleges who can comment on the implications of these rulings, including both sides of these cases.

Social media regulation

Limiting posts: NetChoice, LLC v. Paxton; Moody v. NetChoice, LLC

Nancy Costellois a clinical professor of law at MSU’s College of Law, where she serves as the director for the First Amendment Clinic and the McLellan Free Speech Online Library.Costello’s expertise includes intellectual property law,as well as media and copyright law.
Contact: ncostello@law.msu.edu

NetChoice v. Paxton and Moody v. NetChoice involve challenges to laws in Florida and Texas that would regulate how and when social media companies can moderate their content and require companies to be transparent in their content moderation practices. NetChoice is a coalition of social media companies and internet platforms that challenged the laws, claiming they violate tech companies’ free speech rights. The laws were largely a reaction to social media companies removing content posted often by conservative voices during the Covid-19 epidemic and following the January 6th attack on the national capitol.

“The task of the Court is difficult. It has to sort out what practices by social media companies are expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment, and what practices are non-expressive and can be regulated by the states. The social media companies argue that both these practices (and all others) are exercises of “editorial discretion” that are protected by the First Amendment, and similar to the free speech rights of newspapers and parades. But the states contend that given the sweeping breadth, size and variety of social media platforms they are more like utilities and telegraph companies – common carriers – and subject to greater government regulation.”

Read more on from Costello on this case here.

Removing misinformation: Murthy v. Missouri

Anjana Susarla is the Omura-Saxena Professor in Responsible AI in the Department of Accounting and Information Systems in the
Broad College of Business. Her areas of expertise include artificial intelligence and machine learning, social media, crowdsourcing and analytics.
Contact:
asusarla@broad.msu.edu

A significant percentage of the U.S. population turn to social media to obtain information about health or medical topics. Responsible content moderation policies are necessary to ensure that social media platforms do not unintentionally magnify or accentuate potentially unsubstantiated medical information. The National Academy of Medicine convened an independent advisory group to identifysources of credible information on social media. It is of utmost importance to the public that regardless of the outcomes of Murthy v. Missouri, digital platforms should incorporate the guidelines from the National Academy of Medicine and the World Health Organization toincorporate the new global principles for identifying credible sources of health information in their guidelines, safety policies and enforcement to protect public health.

Government authority and power

Federal agency authority: Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo; Relentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce

Jordan Cash is an assistant professor of political theory and constitutional democracy inJames Madison College. His expertise focuses on the constitutional structure of American political institutions and the resulting effects on the authority and behavior of individuals operating within those institutions.
Contact:
cashjor1@msu.edu

Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondois one of the most important cases that the Supreme Court will decide this term and has the potential to be the most consequential case in administrative law in 40 years. This is because at the heart of the case is the doctrine known as “Chevron deference.” Chevron deference was defined in the 1984 caseChevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.and states that in cases which involve a government agency’s interpretation of a congressional statute, courts must use a test to evaluate the statute. If the case is overturned, the end of Chevron deference would not only be a major change in administrative law but could serve as a constitutional wake-up call to the other branches, disrupting the way Congress has interacted with executive agencies for decades.

Read more on from Cash on this case.

Air pollution regulation: Ohio v. EPA; Kinder Morgan Inc. v. EPA; American Forest & Paper Association v. EPA; and U.S. Steel Corporation v. EPA

Robert Wahlis an assistant professor in the Charles Stewart Mott Department of Public Health in the College of Human Medicine. He is an environmental epidemiologist whose expertise includes asthma surveillance, air pollutants’ effects on asthma and adverse birth outcomes, and the health effects of climate change.
Contact: wahlr@msu.edu

“The Environmental Protection Agency applies rules to mandate reduction of emissions from power plants and factories in states in which their emissions blow into neighboring states. More specifically, the rules limit the release of the pollutant nitrogen dioxide, which is an important component of ground-level ozone (also known as smog). Ozone causes inflammation in the lungs, with increases in ozone levels leading to worsening of asthma and COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, symptoms and increases in emergency department visits and hospitalizations for people with asthma. It is important to note that communities with low income and minority residents are more likely to live in or near high-pollution areas. These communities are also more likely to have higher rates of asthma, COPD and other respiratory illnesses due to low or no access to care, lack of insurance, difficulty with transportation to health care, etc. To compound bad situations, these same folks living in high-pollution areas and experiencing more chronic disease are seeing their symptoms get worse DUE TO air pollution exposures.”

Homeless shelters in public spaces: City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson

Deyánira Nevarez Martínez is an assistant professor in the Urban and Regional Planning Program in the School of Planning, Design and Construction in the colleges of Agriculture and Natural Resources and Social Science. Nevarez Martínez’s expertise focuses on the role of the state in homelessness and housing precarity and informality. In fact, she was part of a group of social scientists who submitted an amicus brief with peer-reviewed research on homelessness in support of the plaintiffs.
Contact: nevarez1@msu.edu

“My own research in Southern California explicitly demonstrates how local enforcement of anti-homeless ordinances not only fails to resolve but also intensifies the plight of the unhoused by stripping away their dignity and autonomy. This case offers a critical juncture to reevaluate and eliminate such punitive measures, replacing them with proven, supportive interventions that address the underlying causes ofhomelessnessand foster long-term stability. It’s imperative that our policies reflect a commitment to humane and effective solutions.

“If the Supreme Court rules in favor of the City of Grants Pass, it could exacerbate homelessness by criminalizing unsheltered homelessness even when there is no available shelter. This would result in more people with criminal records, making it harder for them to find jobs and housing, and forcing them to deal with legal issues rather than addressing personal barriers. Jails are dangerous for unhoused people and may be worse than living on the streets. Additionally, people would lose crucial community ties. Criminalizing homelessness also increases conflict and hampers community efforts to address the issue, as it pits people against each other instead of encouraging collaboration. By ruling in favor of the unsheltered individuals who brought the case, the court would affirm that everyone in the community is valued and that the legitimate role of local government is to ensure decent conditions for all, rather than targeting certain individuals for incarceration or exclusion.”

Read more from Martinez on this case here.

Health access and care

Opioid settlement: Harrington v. Purdue Pharma L.P.

Cara Polandis an associate professor in theDepartment of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology in MSU’s College of Human Medicine. Poland focuses on educating physicians and physicians-in-training to improve care for patients with substance use disorders and alcohol use disorders. She is the program director of an addiction medicine fellowship in collaboration with Trinity Health West Michigan.
Contact:
polandc2@msu.edu

“The actions of Purdue Pharma and its board of directors, including members of the Sackler family, should be held accountable for their contributions to the opioid, addiction and mental health crises facing our nation and those we serve at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. We trust that the Supreme Court will act in a nonpartisan manner to help provide restitution to the communities impacted by these crises and to support the health and wellness of our country. Key components of this include the need to ensure that the spending does what it is intended to do and that expenditures follow the Johns Hopkins Opioid Settlement Spending Principles, are in compliance with Exhibit E of the broader opioid settlement dollars and are subject to reporting and accountability to public transparency.”

Emergency room abortions: Idaho v. U.S.

Sean Valles is a professor and director of the Center for Bioethics and Social Justice in the College of Human Medicine. His expertise includes examining the challenges of responsibly using race and ethnicity concepts in monitoring health disparities, analyzing how biomedicine meshes with public health and population health, and studying the ethical aspects of how communities’health is impacted by government policies. He can comment on bothIdaho v. U.S. andFood and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine.
Contact: valles@msu.edu

“The federal law at issue — the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act — means that every patient in the emergency room has a right to receive whatever emergency medical care they need, regardless of how hospital administrators or politicians might feel about it. Idaho says that its state-level restrictions on abortions should allow them to limit what kind of care doctors can provide to patients in emergencies. The importance of this dispute is clearest in cases where a pregnant patient desperately needs an emergency abortion to prevent permanent harm (but not certain death), such as needing emergency abortion care to prevent a stroke or to prevent having so much damage to the uterus that it would need to be surgically removed. The Idaho law says that preventing major medical harms isn’t a good enough reason to allow pregnant patients to get an emergency abortion. If the Supreme Court sides with Idaho by limiting EMTALA rights, pregnant patients in the emergency room will be at increased risk of injury or even death in states that threaten doctors with arrest and prison if they interfere with a pregnancy while treating a patient.

Abortion medication access: Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine

The case is an attempt to limit abortion access across the U.S. by cynically attacking the process for how the FDA approved the drug mifepristone, which is used for medication abortions. Mifepristone has been on the market for over two decades and has proven itself to be one of the safest drugs on the market — it is about as safe as the over-the-counter painkiller ibuprofen. Needlessly restricting this very safe and effective drug would force abortion-seeking patients nationwide to either use a less safe and effective medication option or to book a more invasive procedure at a clinic. As has been repeatedly stated during this legal battle: patients who don’t want to take mifepristone don’t have to, and doctors who don’t want to prescribe it don’t have to do that either.

2024 US Supreme Court case rulings: MSU experts can comment (2024)

FAQs

2024 US Supreme Court case rulings: MSU experts can comment? ›

2024 US Supreme Court case rulings: MSU experts can comment. The U.S. Supreme Court is set to deliver rulings on a slate of key cases on topics including social media regulation, government agency authority, environmental regulation, homelessness rights, drug company influence and abortion access.

Can U.S. Supreme Court rulings be challenged? ›

When the Supreme Court rules on a constitutional issue, that judgment is virtually final; its decisions can be altered only by the rarely used procedure of constitutional amendment or by a new ruling of the Court. However, when the Court interprets a statute, new legislative action can be taken.

Can the U.S. Supreme Court review a state court decision? ›

The current statute authorizing Supreme Court review of [f]inal judgments or decrees rendered by the highest court of a State in cases arising under the Constitution or federal laws or treaties is 28 U.S.C. § 1257.

How do I find U.S. Supreme Court decisions? ›

The Supreme Court Database. The Supreme Court Database is the definitive source for researchers, students, journalists, and citizens interested in the U.S. Supreme Court. The Database contains over two hundred pieces of information about each case decided by the Court between the 1791 and 2022 terms.

Are decisions of the United States Supreme Court are officially published in the United States Reports? ›

The United States Reports is a series of bound case reporters that are the official reports of decisions for the Supreme Court of the United States. A citation to a U. S. Supreme Court decision includes several elements that are needed to retrieve the case. For example, Chevron U.S.A., Inc.

What are the only two ways to remove a justice of the Supreme Court? ›

Article III states that these judges “hold their office during good behavior,” which means they have a lifetime appointment, except under very limited circumstances. Article III judges can be removed from office only through impeachment by the House of Representatives and conviction by the Senate.

Can the scotus overturn a state conviction? ›

Federal courts can hear challenges to state criminal convictions pursuant to petitions for a writ of habeas corpus. While early Supreme Court cases interpreted that authority narrowly, subsequent cases allowed for broader federal review of state court convictions.

Can you appeal a state supreme court decision? ›

Although state supreme court rulings on matters of state law are final, rulings on matters of federal law (generally made under the state court's concurrent jurisdiction) can be appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Can judicial review overturn state laws? ›

However, the Supreme Court did exercise judicial review in other contexts. In particular, the Court struck down a number of state statutes that were contrary to the Constitution. The first case in which the Supreme Court struck down a state statute as unconstitutional was Fletcher v. Peck, 10 U.S. (6 Cranch) 87 (1810).

Can the Supreme Court intervene in a state case? ›

Original jurisdiction means that the Supreme Court is the first, and only, Court to hear a case. The Constitution limits original jurisdiction cases to those involving disputes between the states or disputes arising among ambassadors and other high-ranking ministers.

Where are Supreme Court rulings posted? ›

The opinions of the Supreme Court of the United States are published officially in the United States Reports. See 28 U. S. C. §411.

How long does it take for the US Supreme Court to make a decision? ›

The justices meet frequently to discuss all the opinions and orders that have been drafted. If a justice does not agree with the majority of the other justices, the justice may write a separate dissenting opinion. Generally, an opinion is issued within four months of oral argument, but in some cases it may take longer.

Do states have to follow Supreme Court decisions? ›

A decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, a federal court, is binding on state courts when it decides an issue of federal law, such as Constitutional interpretation. The Constitutional issues are federal. The state trial court is thus bound by the U.S. Supreme Court's decisions about the Constitutional issues in your case.

What are the three reporters that U.S. Supreme Court decisions are reported in? ›

U.S Supreme Court Cases: Supreme Court opinions are published in 3 different case law reporters: United States Reports (the official reporter) - "U.S.", Supreme Court Reporter (West) - "S. Ct.", and Lawyers' Edition (Lexis) - "L. Ed.".

What does stare decisis mean? ›

Stare decisis means “to stand by things decided” in Latin. When a court faces a legal argument, if a previous court has ruled on the same or a closely related issue, then the court will make their decision in alignment with the previous court's decision.

Are Supreme Court rulings binding? ›

The decisions of the Supreme Court are binding on all federal courts, and are binding on state courts regarding issues of the Constitution and federal law. A case from a state's highest court may be appealed to the Supreme Court if there is a federal legal question involved.

How many times has the Supreme Court reversed itself? ›

As of 2018, the Supreme Court had overruled more than 300 of its own cases. The longest period between the original decision and the overruling decision is 136 years, for the common law Admiralty cases Minturn v. Maynard, 58 U.S. (17 How.) 476 decision in 1855, overruled by the Exxon Corp.

Does Congress have authority over the Supreme Court? ›

Article III, Section I states that "The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish." Although the Constitution establishes the Supreme Court, it permits Congress to decide how to organize it.

Who enforces Supreme Court rulings? ›

The Supreme Court has no power to enforce its decisions. It cannot call out the troops or compel Congress or the president to obey. The Court relies on the executive and legislative branches to carry out its rulings. In some cases, the Supreme Court has been unable to enforce its rulings.

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Recommended Articles
Article information

Author: Nicola Considine CPA

Last Updated:

Views: 5243

Rating: 4.9 / 5 (49 voted)

Reviews: 88% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Nicola Considine CPA

Birthday: 1993-02-26

Address: 3809 Clinton Inlet, East Aleisha, UT 46318-2392

Phone: +2681424145499

Job: Government Technician

Hobby: Calligraphy, Lego building, Worldbuilding, Shooting, Bird watching, Shopping, Cooking

Introduction: My name is Nicola Considine CPA, I am a determined, witty, powerful, brainy, open, smiling, proud person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.