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What's on tap in political news this week? Read on for this weekend's edition of the top stories in federal politics, and for a full review of the week, plus a look ahead, click the button below and launch the full edition.

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Supreme Court accepts three new cases for current term

• On January 17, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear three new cases during its October 2019-2020 term. As of January 21, the court had agreed to hear 73 cases this term.

• In the consolidated case of Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home v. Pennsylvania / Trump v. Pennsylvania, the Trump administration issued regulations allowing for exceptions to the federal mandate to include contraceptive coverage in health insurance plans, following several years of litigation. This included two U.S. Supreme Court decisions regarding regulatory accommodations for religious and moral objections to mandatory contraceptive coverage in Obamacare.

  • The U.S Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld a nationwide injunction that kept the rules from going into effect. It held that the states challenging the rules were likely to succeed in proving that the Trump administration violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), that Obamacare did not allow the regulations, and that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) did not require them.

  • The Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the 3rd Circuit was wrong to deny the organization standing to appeal its decision against the contraceptive mandate exemption rules, that the 3rd Circuit’s decision creates a regulatory environment that violates the RFRA, and that the agencies did not violate the APA when they crafted exemptions to Obamacare’s contraception mandate.

  • The issues:

    • 1. Whether a litigant who is directly protected by an administrative rule and has been allowed to intervene to defend it lacks standing to appeal a decision invalidating the rule if the litigant is also protected by an injunction from a different court.

    • 2. Whether the federal government lawfully exempted religious objectors from the regulatory requirement to provide health plans that include contraceptive coverage.

• In the consolidated case of Ford Motor Company v. Montana Eighth Judicial District Court / Ford Motor Company v. Bandemer, Ford vehicles were driven in car accidents. In Ford Motor Company v. Bandemer, a passenger sustained a severe brain injury and filed a claim against Ford for vehicle defects while alleging that the passenger-side airbag failed to deploy. In Ford Motor Company v. Montana Eighth Judicial District Court, a Ford vehicle’s tire experienced a tread/belt separation, the car lost stability and rolled into a ditch, and the driver died in the crash. A personal representative filed claims against Ford for liability and negligence.

  • Ford moved to dismiss both cases in their respective state district courts, citing a lack of personal jurisdiction. In both cases, Ford’s motions were denied. On appeal in both cases, the state courts of appeal affirmed the rulings of the district courts. Ford appealed the cases to the relevant state supreme courts, which affirmed the rulings of the courts of appeal. On September 18, 2019, Ford petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for review of both cases.

  • The issue: Whether the “arise out of or relate to” requirement of the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause permits a state court to exercise specific personal jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant under Burger King Corp. v. Rudzewicz when none of the defendant’s forum contacts caused the plaintiff’s claims, such that the plaintiff’s claims would be the same even if the defendant had no forum contacts.

• In the consolidated case of Chiafalo v. Washington / Colorado Department of State v. Baca, state-appointed presidential electors voted contrary to their respective state’s laws requiring that they cast their electoral college ballots for the winner of the popular vote. The electors were then penalized by their respective states. The electors appealed the penalties, challenging their constitutionality. In Colorado Department of State v. Baca, the federal circuit court affirmed in part and reversed in part the findings of the district court and remanded the case. In Chiafalo v. Washington, the state supreme court affirmed the ruling of the trial court. In October 2019, the Colorado State Department and the appellants in Chiafalo v. Washington filed petitions for review with the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • The issues:

    • 1. Whether enforcement of state laws threatening penalization for presidential electors who cast electoral college ballots contrary to how the law directs is unconstitutional because a state has no power to legally enforce how a presidential elector casts his or her ballot,

    • 2. Whether a state penalizing an elector for exercising his or her constitutional discretion to vote violates the First Amendment,

    • 3. And whether Article II or the Twelfth Amendment forbids a state from requiring presidential electors to follow the state’s popular vote when casting electoral college ballots.

Supreme Court hears cases on drug offenses, school choice, and commercial arbitration

• The U.S. Supreme Court heard three cases this week. Click here to read more about SCOTUS' current term.

• January 21

  • Shular v. United States concerns the Armed Career Criminal Act’s definition of a serious drug offense.

  • Eddie Shular pleaded guilty to charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and to controlled substances possession. Shular was classified as an armed career criminal because of six previous drug convictions in Florida. He objected to the classification in court, arguing his previous convictions were not "serious drug offenses" under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA). The Northern District of Florida overruled the objection and sentenced Shular to concurrent terms of 15 years in prison on each count. 

  • On appeal, the 11th Circuit Court affirmed the district court's ruling. Shular appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing the 11th Circuit was wrong not to have used a categorical approach to interpret "serious drug offenses" under the ACCA and pointing to a circuit split regarding the determination of serious drug offenses under the ACCA.

  • The issue: Whether the determination of a "serious drug offense" under the Armed Career Criminal Act requires the same categorical approach used in the determination of a "violent felony" under the Act?

  • GE Energy Power Conversion France SAS v. Outokumpu Stainless USA LLC concerns arbitration proceedings in an international commercial business dispute. 

  • Outokumpu Stainless USA LLC ("Outokumpu") contracted with Fives St. Corp. ("Fives") to provide equipment for its steel plant in Alabama. Fives subcontracted with GE Energy Power Conversion France SAS ("GE Energy"), a foreign corporation, to supply the equipment. The contracts between Outokumpu and Fives and between Fives and GE Energy contained arbitration clauses. The equipment was installed between 2011 and 2012 but failed by 2015. Outokumpu sued GE Energy in Alabama state court. The case was moved to federal district court, which dismissed the case and compelled Outokumpu to undertake arbitration proceedings. 

  • On appeal, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the district court's decision to compel arbitration. GE Energy appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court for review, arguing the 11th Circuit's decision underlined a 2-to-2 circuit court split.

  • The issue: Whether the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the "New York Convention") permits a non-signatory to an arbitration agreement to compel arbitration based on the doctrine of “equitable estoppel,” where a court will not grant a judgment to a party acting unfairly in the proceedings.

• January 22

  • Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue concerns school choice and the use of public funding for religious schools.

  • A 2015 law established a tax credit for taxpayers donating to scholarship organizations for private school students. The law made the Montana Department of Revenue responsible for administering the tax credit and ensuring the credit was constitutional. To ensure compliance, the Department established Rule 1, which excluded students attending religiously affiliated private schools from receiving scholarship funds. Kendra Espinoza, Jeri Anderson, and Jaime Schaefer, the plaintiffs, challenged Rule 1 in the Montana 11th Judicial District Court, arguing it violated their constitutional rights. The 11th Judicial District granted summary judgment to the plaintiffs. 

  • On appeal, the Montana Supreme Court reversed the 11th Judicial District's ruling. The plaintiffs appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, writing that the Montana Supreme Court's ruling "deepened the long-standing split on whether barring religious options from student-aid programs violates the federal Religion and Equal Protection Clauses."

  • The issue: Does it violate the U.S. Constitution to invalidate a generally available and religiously neutral student-aid program because the program affords students the choice of attending religious schools?

Impeachment trial of President Trump continues with debates regarding trial rules and delivery of opening statements

• The impeachment trial of President Donald Trump (R) continued as the House impeachment managers, led by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and the president’s attorneys debated the proposed rules for the trial. On early Wednesday morning, the Senate adopted a set of trial rules by a party-line vote of 53-47.

• Under these rules, the House managers and president’s attorneys will each have up to 24 hours to deliver opening statements. Senators will be allowed up to 16 hours to ask questions. Following these proceedings, the Senate will reconsider whether to subpoena witnesses or documents.

Congressional candidate filing period to end in West Virginia

• The major-party filing deadline to run for elected office in West Virginia is on January 25, 2020. In West Virginia, prospective candidates may file for the following offices:

  • U.S. Senate

  • U.S. House (3 seats)

• The primary is scheduled for May 12, and the general election is scheduled for November 3, 2020.

• West Virginia’s statewide filing deadline is the 11th to take place in the 2020 election cycle. The next statewide filing deadline is on February 7  in Indiana.

Sanders leads Democratic presidential candidates in pageviews for second straight week

• Last week, Bernie Sanders led all Democratic campaigns in pageviews. His campaign page was viewed 3,568 times, equaling 15.5% of pageviews for all Democratic campaigns during the week. He was followed by Joe Biden with 11.2% of pageviews and Michael Bloomberg with 10.2%. The top three Democratic presidential candidates in lifetime pageviews are Andrew Yang with 162,812, Pete Buttigieg with 153,302, and Biden with 146,353.

• Deval Patrick was the candidate whose campaign received the most pageviews this week relative to last week. His campaign page increased in pageviews by 55.3%. Andrew Yang saw the smallest increase in pageviews relative to last week among Democratic candidates with 7.4%.

• As in previous weeks, every other Republican candidate led Donald Trump in pageviews. Trump received 1,857 pageviews, while Joe Walsh received 3,537, Roque de la Fuente received 3,233, and Bill Weld received 3,093.

• Each week, we report the number of pageviews received by 2020 presidential campaigns on Ballotpedia. These numbers reflect the time investments of our community of thousands of readers who visit a Ballotpedia because they think the candidate is worth knowing more about, whether they believe the candidate has a strong chance of winning or is an unknown who warrants a closer look.

Congressional candidate filing period ends in Maryland

• The major-party filing deadline passed to run for elected office in Maryland. In Maryland, prospective candidates filed for the following congressional offices:

  • All eight U.S. House seats

  • Neither U.S. Senate seat is up for election in 2020

• The primary is scheduled for April 28, and the general election is scheduled for November 3, 2020.

• An additional special election is scheduled for one of the seats, Maryland's 7th Congressional District, due to the death of Rep. Elijah Cummings (D) on October 17, 2019. The filing deadline for the special election passed on November 20, 2019, the primary is on February 4, and the general election is on April 28. The winner of the special election will complete the remainder of Cummings' term, which concludes in January 2021.

• Maryland’s statewide filing deadline is the 10th to take place in the 2020 election cycle. The next statewide filing deadline is on January 25 in West Virginia.

Congress is in session

• Both the Senate and the House are in session next week. Click here to see the full calendar for the second session of the 116th Congress.

Where was the president last week?

• On Monday, Trump visited the Martin Luther King memorial.

• On Tuesday, Trump spoke at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

• On Wednesday, Trump met with the President of the Kurdistan Regional Government and the President of the Republic of Iraq. 

• On Thursday, Trump spoke at the Republican National Committee Winter Meeting.

• On Friday, Trump spoke at the signing ceremony for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020.

Federal judiciary

• 79 federal judicial vacancies

• 19 pending nominations

• 12 future federal judicial vacancies

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