October Term 2023
7 cases • 7 decided • 0 argued • 0 pending
Term Tracker
October Term 20237
7
0
Decided
Moody v. NetChoice, LLC
The Court sent back two major cases about whether states can force social media platforms to carry content they want to remove. Texas and Florida had passed laws restricting how platforms like Facebook and YouTube moderate posts. The tech industry argued these laws violate the First Amendment.
Trump v. United States
In a landmark ruling, the Court held that former presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts taken while in office. The decision created a framework: presidents have absolute immunity for actions within their core constitutional powers, presumptive immunity for other official acts, and no immunity for unofficial acts.
Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo
In one of the most consequential decisions in decades, the Supreme Court overturned the 40-year-old Chevron doctrine. Under Chevron, courts had deferred to federal agencies' interpretations of ambiguous laws. Now, courts must use their own independent judgment when interpreting statutes, rather than automatically deferring to the government's reading.
Fischer v. United States
The Court narrowed the reach of a federal obstruction law that prosecutors used to charge many January 6th defendants. The law makes it a crime to obstruct an 'official proceeding,' and the government used it against people who disrupted the certification of the 2020 election results.
City of Grants Pass v. Johnson
The Court ruled that cities can enforce laws against camping on public property, even when homeless people have nowhere else to go. Grants Pass, Oregon had fined homeless residents for sleeping outside. The Ninth Circuit had said this violated the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
SEC v. Jarkesy
The Court ruled that people accused of securities fraud by the SEC have a right to a jury trial in federal court, rather than being tried by an administrative law judge within the agency. The Seventh Amendment guarantees the right to a jury in certain cases, and the Court found this protection applies to SEC enforcement actions seeking financial penalties.
Trump v. Anderson
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that states cannot remove presidential candidates from the ballot under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. Colorado had tried to keep former President Trump off the primary ballot, arguing he engaged in insurrection on January 6th. The Court said only Congress, not individual states, has the power to enforce this provision against federal officeholders.