The Marshall Project reports that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Harrington v. Purdue Pharma raises the bar for companies trying to shield their wealth by filing for bankruptcy when faced with lawsuits alleging harm, and could impact the Boy Scouts of America's settlement with sexual abuse victims. In 2020, the Boy Scouts of America filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and later agreed to a nearly $2.5 billion settlement to compensate more than 82,000 victims of alleged sexual abuse. The settlement includes releasing police departments from liability for abuse that occurred within the Scouts' Explorer program. As a result, victims of police abuse may have a new opportunity to seek justice. The U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals is set to decide if and how the decision applies to Scouting America. Livingston Enterprise has the story. 

Ordinary Americans are “getting whacked” by too many laws and regulations, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch says in a new book that underscores his skepticism of federal agencies and the power they wield. “Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law” was co-authored by his former law clerk Janie Nitze and focuses on the real life stories of Americans who risked jail time, fines, deportation and other hardships over federal rules. “Too little law and we’re not safe, and our liberties aren’t protected … But too much law and you actually impair those same things,” Gorsuch told The Associated Press in an interview.

President Joe Biden on Monday proposed significant changes to the U.S. Supreme Court, including a binding code of conduct and term limits for the nine justices, Reuters reports. The president called on Congress to pass binding and enforceable rules that would require justices to disclose gifts, refrain from public political activity and recuse themselves from cases in which they or their spouses have financial or other conflicts of interest. He also urged lawmakers to adopt an 18-year term limit for justices and proposed a constitutional amendment to eliminate the broad presidential immunity recognized in a July 1 Supreme Court ruling involving former President Donald Trump. The president laid out his arguments for these changes in an opinion piece in the Washington Post and at a speech at the presidential library of former President Lyndon B. Johnson. In April 2021, Biden convened a commission to study changes to the court. The commission released its final report in December 2021.

A number of Democratic U.S. senators have introduced legislation designed to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision curtailing the deference given to federal agencies when questions related to regulations surface in the courts. The "Stop Corporate Capture Act" would codify the so-called "Chevron deference" into law and make a series of other changes that sponsors say would modernize and streamline the rulemaking process. Reuters has more on the proposal. Read the bill or a two-page summary.

According to multiple media reports, President Joe Biden is seriously considering calling for major changes to the U.S. Supreme Court, including term limits for justices and imposition of an ethics code. The proposals also could include a constitutional amendment to eliminate the broad immunity for presidents and other federal officeholders — something the court recently upheld — according to the Washington Post, which was the first to report the news based on a transcript of a call between Biden and members of the U.S. House Progressive Caucus. Biden reportedly told the group that he has been working with constitutional scholars for the last three months to develop a plan. Any changes would need to be approved by Congress. The Tennessean has more on the story.

Pharmaceutical company AbbVie has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up its fight to protect corporate records, warning that a lower court ruling threatens to erode the shield that protects most attorney communications. The company is appealing a decision from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the filing of a sham patent-infringement suit can overcome attorney-client privilege, Reuters reports. The appeals court found that such cases can be considered fraudulent activity and trigger the “crime-fraud exception,” which allows attorney-client privilege to be set aside.

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, has introduced articles of impeachment against U.S. Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, The Hill reports. The congresswoman said in a statement that the justices’ "pattern of refusal to recuse from consequential matters before the court in which they hold widely documented financial and personal entanglements constitutes a grave threat to American rule of law." She also says the pair should be removed for their “failure to disclose” millions of dollars in gifts over decades.

The U.S. Supreme Court has granted review of a range of cases for its next term, which will begin in October. The cases accepted include challenges to the Biden administration’s “ghost gun” regulations, the Food & Drug Administration’s denial of flavored vape products, and a Texas law requiring age verification for online porn sites. The court did not accept a challenge to an Illinois ban on certain semiautomatic guns, safety regulations from the Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA), or a teen sex abuse victim’s attempt to revive a lawsuit against Snapchat. Reuters has more on each of these cases.

On the final day of its term, the U.S. Supreme Court today announced the three remaining opinions in cases argued during the 2023 - 2024 term. In Trump v. United States, the court held that a former president has immunity from criminal prosecution for “official acts” but not “unofficial acts,” sending the case back to the lower court to determine the application of this principle to facts in the case. “The parties before us do not dispute that a former President can be subject to criminal prosecution for unofficial acts committed while in office,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the 6-3 majority. “They also agree that some of the conduct described in the indictment includes actions taken by [President] Trump in his unofficial capacity.” The Tennessean and SCOTUSblog have more on the historic decision.

Today's other opinions include Corner Post, Inc. v. Board of Governors, where the court affords companies more time to challenge many regulations, rejecting the argument that the statute of limitations to file a lawsuit runs from when a regulation is issued and finding instead that begins when a regulation first affects a company, according to Reuters. The case was one of several this term challenging the power of executive agencies, and the ruling could amplify the effect of last week's decision to overturn the Chevron doctrine, according to the New York Times.

Finally, the court kept on hold efforts by Texas and Florida to limit how social media platforms regulate content posted by their users in a ruling that strongly defended the platforms’ free speech rights, reports AP. The court unanimously agreed to return the cases to lower courts for analysis. Writing for the court, Justice Elena Kagan said the platforms, like newspapers, deserve protection from government intrusion in determining what to include or exclude from their space. “The principle does not change because the curated compilation has gone from the physical to the virtual world,” Kagan wrote in an opinion signed by five justices.

The U.S. Supreme Court today issued three rulings and indicated that the final opinions of the term will be issues on Monday. The court held that an obstruction law used to charge hundreds of rioters who took part in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was improperly applied, according to NPR. The statute in question bars obstruction of an official proceeding, and the court found that it only applies in cases of evidence tampering, such as destruction of records or documents. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said he was disappointed by the decision, but emphasized its impact will be limited as no defendants were charged only with that offense. The Tennessean has more on how the ruling may shorten prison sentences for at least two people arrested in Tennessee.

The court also handed down its biggest decision on homelessness in decades, ruling that ordinances banning people from sleeping and camping in public places do not violate the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment, reports the New York Times. Justice Sotomayor dissented, arguing that the decision focused only on the needs of cities but not the most vulnerable, noting that sleep is a biological necessity, and this decision forces “an impossible choice — either stay awake or be arrested."

Finally, the court overturned the landmark Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council (1984) decision, cutting back sharply on the power of federal agencies to interpret the laws they administer and ruled that courts should rely on their own interpretation of ambiguous laws. CBS reports that the decision will likely have far-reaching effects on issues such as employment, environmental protection and health care. SCOTUSblog has more on all of these cases. Four cases remain to be decided, including whether former President Donald Trump has immunity from prosecution, AP reports.