Former Sullivan County teacher Jeremy McLaughlin — suspended for three days without pay over posts he made on social media while off-duty — is set to become the first test case in Tennessee of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that granted First Amendment speech protection to the prayers of a Washington state high school football coach. McLaughlin claims that his expletive-laced posts about COVID and masking are also protected, Tennessee Lookout reports. The case is set for trial before U.S. District Judge Clifton Corker in September.

The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday refused to lift a nationwide stay blocking a Biden administration policy on border enforcement priorities, Bloomberg Law reports. The government wants to prioritize the detention and deportation of those who threaten national security, public safety or border security. Several southern states sued to block the policy arguing that all undocumented individuals who cross the border should be considered for detention and deportation. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas found for the states and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit upheld the decision. In her first public vote in a Supreme Court matter, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson voted to let the policy go into effect. The court also agreed to hear the challenge in its next term, scheduling oral arguments for the first week of December.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted yesterday to codify the right to same-sex and interracial marriages in federal law, Tennessee Lookout reports. The Respect for Marriage Act would require state governments to recognize marriages from other states regardless of the sex, race, ethnicity or national origin of those involved. The 267-157 bipartisan vote stemmed from concerns that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last month overturning the constitutional right to an abortion may impact other protections previously upheld by the court. Those opposed to the legislation cited Justice Samuel Alito’s pledge that nothing in the abortion decision “should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.” Supporters cited Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion that the court should reconsider cases dealing with contraceptives, same-sex marriages and private consensual sexual relationships. On Thursday, the House is expected to take up a bill that would codify the use of contraception.

The U.S. Justice Department is calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out a recent ruling that sidelined the Biden administration’s immigration enforcement priorities, Bloomberg Law reports. Department lawyers filed a request for a stay, arguing that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas overstepped its authority when it halted the policy. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to stay the district court decision. The guidelines in question direct immigration officials to prioritize the detention and deportation of people who threaten national security, public safety or border security. The Trump administration had cast a broader net, targeting anyone in the country without authorization. The government argues that given limited resources, it must focus on the most serious cases.

Shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Shinn v. Ramirez, the ABA Death Penalty Representation Project put out a call for more pro bono attorneys to help represent people on death row. In the recent decision, the court found that two men convicted of murder in Arizona could not introduce new evidence in federal court to prove claims of ineffective counsel in their trials, the ABA Journal reports. Emily Olson-Gault, director of the project, says the decision means prisoners now need the best possible pro bono counsel to help them develop postconviction “ineffective assistance of counsel” claims in state court so the foundation is laid for consideration in federal court. For more information on how to get involved, visit the project’s website or email deathpenaltyproject@americanbar.org.

U.S. Supreme Court Marshal Gail Curley in a series of letters is calling on officials in Maryland and Virginia to "enforce" state and local laws that, she wrote, "prohibit picketing outside of the homes of Supreme Court Justices,” NPR reports. Curley's requests come after weeks of protests and picketing outside the homes of the court's conservative justices in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., set off by the leaked Roe v. Wade draft decision in May. Federal and local law enforcement have been present at the homes, but governors of both states have recently said that responsibility for managing the protests falls to federal law enforcement. The two governors wrote to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in May, urging him to enforce a federal law that forbids the demonstrations.

The U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the way for President Joe Biden to end the “Remain in Mexico” policy, The Hill reports. The policy, put in place by former President Donald Trump, requires U.S. asylum-seekers at the southern border to wait in Mexico while their applications are processed. The 5-4 ruling found that the administration did not violate federal immigration law when it sought to rescind the policy and returned the case to lower courts for additional proceedings. Although it’s headed back to the lower courts, an October rescission by the Department of Homeland Security says it will take effect “as soon as practicable” following a decision from the court.

Kentanji Brown Jackson was today sworn in as the first Black female justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Tennessean reports. She replaces retired Justice Stephen Breyer, who yesterday informed President Joe Biden that he would officially retire today, hours after the high court released the last two rulings of its current term. Jackson, a Harvard-trained lawyer and former judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, was confirmed to the Supreme Court in April on a 53-47 vote by the U.S. Senate. Chief Justice John Roberts administered one oath of office to Jackson and Breyer – for whom Jackson clerked more than 20 years ago – administered the other. With that, Jackson became the 104th associate justice – marking the first time women and people of color outnumber white men on the court.

The U.S. Supreme Court today ruled 6-3 in favor of a high school football coach who lost his job because of his post-game prayers at the 50-yard line. By a vote of 6-3, the justices ruled that Joseph Kennedy’s conduct was protected by the First Amendment, SCOTUSblog reports. Writing for the court, Justice Neil Gorsuch said that the school district’s prohibition on prayer targeted Kennedy’s religious conduct, rather than applying a neutral rule, and that the prayers were conducted during a time when other coaching staff were “free to engage in all manner of private speech.” As for the peer pressure students might feel, Gorsuch wrote: “Learning how to tolerate speech or prayer of all kinds is ‘part of learning how to live in a pluralistic society,’ a trait of character essential to ‘a tolerant citizenry.’” The three dissenting judges said Gorsuch had “misconstrue[d] the facts” of the case, depicting Kennedy’s prayers as “private and quiet” when the prayers had actually caused “severe disruption to school events.”

A recent survey by The National Judicial College shows that 97% of the judges who responded think U.S. Supreme Court justices should be bound by an ethics code. The college, which provides training for judges, conducted the poll after the U.S. House Judiciary Committee advanced a bill directing the Supreme Court to adopt such a code. Lower-court federal judges are already subject to a code of conduct. But while Supreme Court justices consult the code and other sources for ethical guidance, they are not bound by it, Reuters reports. The Supreme Court did not respond to requests for comment. But in his 2011 end-of-the-year report, Chief Justice John Roberts said the court had "no reason" to adopt the code because “every Justice seeks to follow high ethical standards."