By MARK SHERMAN
WASHINGTON (AP) — It's crunch
time at the Supreme Court, where the justices are racing to issue
opinions in 17 cases over the next two weeks.
The religious
rights of corporations, the speech rights of abortion protesters and the
privacy rights of people under arrest are among the significant issues
that are so far unresolved.
Summer
travel, European teaching gigs and relaxation beckon, but only after
the court hands down decisions in all the cases it has heard since
October.
In rare instances, the justices will put off decisions and order a case to be argued again in the next term.
This
is also the time of the year when a justice could announce a
retirement. But the oldest of the justices, 81-year-old Ruth Bader
Ginsburg, has signaled she will serve at least one more year, and maybe
longer.
The justices will meet Monday and again Thursday to issue opinions, and could wind up their work by the end of the month.
A look at some of the cases that remain:
—
Contraceptive coverage: Corporations are claiming the right to exercise
religious objections to covering women's contraceptives under their
employee health insurance plans, despite the new health law's
requirement that birth control be among a range of no-cost preventive
services included in health plans.
— Abortion clinic buffer zones:
Abortion opponents are challenging as a violation of their speech rights
a Massachusetts law mandating a 35-foot protest-free zone on public
sidewalks outside abortion clinics.
—
Cellphone searches: Two cases weigh the power of police to search the
cellphones of people they place under arrest without first obtaining a
warrant from a judge.
—
Recess presidential appointments: A federal appeals court said President
Barack Obama misused the Constitution's recess power when he
temporarily filled positions on the National Labor Relations Board in
2012.
— TV on the Internet:
Broadcasters are fighting Internet startup Aereo's practice of taking
television their programming for free and providing it to subscribers
who can then watch on smartphones and other portable devices.
— Greenhouse gases: Industry
groups assert that environmental regulators overstepped their bounds by
trying to apply a provision of the Clean Air Act to control emissions of
greenhouse gases from power plants and factories. This case is unlikely
to affect the recent proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency
to slash carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by nearly one-third
by 2030; that plan involves a different part of the same law.
—
Union fees: Home health care workers in Illinois want the court to rule
that public sector unions cannot collect fees from workers who object
to being affiliated with a union.
—
Securities fraud: Investors could find it harder to bring class-action
lawsuits over securities fraud at publicly traded companies in a case
involving Halliburton Co., a provider of energy services.
—
"False" campaign claims: An anti-abortion group says state laws that
try to police false statements during political campaigns runs afoul of
the First Amendment.
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