As July gets underway, here’s what we’re reading:
Brittany Hunter, “Justice Thomas says the quiet part out loud in Pung“ (Pacific Legal Foundation) (“Although the Court rejected the fair market value claim, members of the Court went out of their way to emphasize the narrowness of the decision and the unusual facts that gave rise to the case. Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito repeatedly framed the ruling around tax sales that are “fairly conducted in light of our country’s history of tax sales.””)
Mike Soraghan, “Supreme Court pipeline case is a clash of conservative principles“ (EnergyWire) (“The gas pipeline case the Supreme Court accepted Monday pits conservative priorities against each other. On one side, there’s states’ rights and property rights. On the other is the need for gas pipelines and other energy development. In the middle is a $383,000 tab for legal work, racked up as attorneys for a group of North Dakota ranchers fought with a gas company about a pipeline across their land.)
Damon Root, “In Big Win for Fourth Amendment Advocates, the Supreme Court Says ‘Geofence Warrants’ Count as a ‘Search’” (Reason) (“In a welcome result for civil libertarians, the Court ruled on Monday that “geofence warrants” count as a “search” under the Constitution and therefore trigger the Fourth Amendment’s safeguards against unreasonable searches and seizures.”)
Kiran Subramanian, “New Fed Report Shows the Dangerous Impacts of Rent Control in St. Paul“ (Americans for Tax Reform) (“A new report from the Minneapolis Federal Reserve shows that one of the progressive left’s favorite proposed solutions to the housing crisis, rent control measures, has disastrous effects.”)
Jacob Sullum, “In Chatrie, Neil Gorsuch Reiterates His Critique of 2 Dubious Fourth Amendment Doctrines” (Reason) (“Justice Neil Gorsuch concurred in that judgment, but he wrote separately to reiterate his longstanding critique of two dubious concepts that have figured prominently in the Court’s Fourth Amendment reasoning for half a century: the “reasonable expectation of privacy” test and the third-party doctrine.”)
Elise Schmelzer, “US Supreme Court will weigh in on water battle between Colorado and Nebraska” (Denver Post/Idaho Statesman) (“The South Platte River Compact allows Nebraska to use more of the river’s water during the winter, but only if it builds a canal system. Nebraska leaders in 2022 revived long-dormant plans to build the Perkins County Canal, a move that could require them to use eminent domain to obtain land in Colorado.”)