Because per curiam decisions are issued from the Court as an institution, these opinions all lack the attribution of authorship or joining votes to specific justices. All justices on the Court at the time the decision was handed down are assumed to have participated and concurred unless otherwise noted.
580 U.S. ___ Decided October 11, 2016. Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma vacated and remanded.
The Oklahoma court erred in ruling that Payne v. Tennessee (1991) "implicitly overruled" Booth v. Maryland (1987) in regards to the victim's family members' testimony of the defendant(s) and opinion(s) of the sentence. Payne did not specifically state this, and only the Supreme Court can overrule its own precedent.
Thomas filed a concurrence, joined by Alito, writing that the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals erred by ruling that Payne overruled Booth in its entirety and that the Supreme Court's decision does not affect the analytical foundations of either Booth or Payne.
White v. Pauly
Full caption:
Ray White, et al. v. Daniel T. Pauly, as personal representative of the Estate of Samuel Pauly, deceased et al.
Citations:
580 U.S. ___
Prior history:
Summary judgment denied, No. 12–1311 (D.N.M., Feb. 5, 2014); aff'd, 814 F. 3d 1060 (10th Cir. 2016)
580 U.S. ___ Decided March 6, 2017. Supreme Court of Nevada vacated and remanded.
North Carolina v. Covington
Full caption:
North Carolina, et al. v. Sandra Little Covington, et al.
Citations:
581 U.S. ___
Prior history:
Judgment for plaintiffs, 316 F.R.D. 117 (M.D.N.C. 2016); stay granted, 580 U.S. ___ (2017)
Subsequent history:
recommendations of Special Master adopted, 283 F. Supp. 3d 410 (M.D.N.C. 2018); stay granted in part, 583 U.S. ___ (2018); aff'd in part, rev'd in part, 585 U.S. ___ (2018) (per curiam)
Jesus c. Hernandez, et al. v. Jesus Mesa, Jr., et al.
Citations:
582 U.S. ___
Prior history:
Dismissed, W.D. Texas; aff'd in part, sub nom. Hernandez v. United States, 757 F. 3d 249 (5th Cir. 2014); aff'd, 785 F. 3d 117 (5th Cir. 2015) (en banc); cert. granted, 580 U.S. ___ (2016)
582 U.S. ___; 137 S. Ct. 2075; 198 L. Ed. 2d 636 Decided June 26, 2017. This case concerns two lesbian couples, Leigh and Jana Jacobs and Terrah and Marisa Pavan. The Jacobses were married in Iowa in 2010, and the Pavans were married in New Hampshire in 2011. Both couples conceived children through anonymous sperm donors, and those children were both born in Arkansas in 2015. When they filled out the birth certificates, both couples listed both partners' names, but the State of Arkansas accepted only the birth mothers' names. Arkansas state law required that the birth mother's name be listed on the form, and that the husband of the birth mother be listed on the form as the father, including in cases of artificial insemination by anonymous sperm donor. Both couples sued the State of Arkansas, alleging that the birth certificate law violated the Constitution. The trial court agreed, but the Arkansas Supreme Court reversed, reasoning that the statute was about the biological relationship between a mother and a child, and thus did not violate the precedent set in Obergefell v. Hodges. The United States Supreme Court summarily reversed that decision and remanded it, stating that the reasoning of the Arkansas Supreme Court denies married gay couples the benefits that are inherent in marriage, thus violating Obergefell.
Justice Neil Gorsuch filed a dissenting opinion, which was joined by Justices Thomas and Alito. In it, he argued that this case warranted more than summary reversal, because Obergefell was solely about marriage and this statute, while tangentially related, was a different issue.
Trump. v. International Refugee Assistance Project
Full caption:
Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, et al. v. International Refuge Assistance Project, et al.
Citations:
582 U.S. ___
Prior history:
Preliminary injunction granted, International Refugee Assistance Project v. Trump, 2017 WL 1018235 (D. Md., Mar. 16, 2017); aff'd, 857 F. 3d 554 (4th Cir. 2017)
