The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to allow immigrants who receive "temporary protected status" — which enables them to stay in the United States on humanitarian grounds — to apply to become permanent residents if they entered the country without documentation. Writing for the unanimous court, Justice Elena Kagan said that "because a grant of TPS does not come with a ticket of admission, it does not eliminate the disqualifying effect of an unlawful entry." Reuters has more on the story.

A day after a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the D.C. Circuit rejected their effort to resume evictions, a group of landlords has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on the matter, News 5 reports. The group is asking the court to vacate a stay imposed by U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich on her ruling that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention overstepped its authority in imposing the nationwide moratorium. Though Friedrich found the action unconstitutional, she agreed to delay her ruling from taking effect to allow time for the Biden administration to appeal. The group submitted an emergency application to Chief Justice John Roberts stating that the current order would "prolong the severe financial burdens borne by landlords under the moratorium for the past nine months." The moratorium is set to expire on June 30.

The U.S. Supreme Court has announced that it will review Mississippi’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, a direct challenge to the standards set by Roe v. Wade, WPLN reports. Tennessee has been among several states putting more restrictions on abortions, last month telling a federal appeals court that the state’s goal is to ban abortion when a fetus might be able to feel pain. SCOTUS will hear the case this fall and a ruling could be possible in a little over a year.

The Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States will hold its first meeting on Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. EDT. The meeting will be conducted virtually and is open to the public. Those who would like to attend must register at info@pcscotus.gov by submitting full name, organization (if applicable), email address and phone number. Public comments may also be submitted to the same email address. For more information contact Dana Fowler with the General Services Administration at 202-501-1777. The commission was established last month by President Joe Biden to study various changes to the Supreme Court, including whether to increase the number of justices.

Gov. Bill Lee is one of four governors nationwide who have endorsed a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution to limit the number of U.S. Supreme Court justices to the current count of nine, Tennessee Star reports. Other governors who have endorsed the “Keep Nine Amendment” include Doug Ducey of Arizona, Mike DeWine of Ohio and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska. The proposed amendment has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives as H.J. Resolution 11 and in the Senate as S.J. Resolution 9. Another Tennessean has connections to the effort as well. Former Tennessee Attorney General Paul Summers is one of the organizers of the “Keep Nine Amendment” campaign.

Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III last week called on the U.S. Supreme Court to reject claims that the state violated Mississippi’s sovereignty when it pumped water from a vast aquifer in the region, Bloomberg Law reports. The filing comes after a special master appointed by the high court to consider the matter recommended rejecting Mississippi’s claims last year. The longstanding dispute between the two states centers on whether a Memphis utility interfered with Mississippi’s authority over its land and waters when it pumped water from the Sparta-Memphis Aquifer. Mississippi asked the Supreme Court to recognize its right to the groundwater and impose damages on Tennessee.

The U.S. Supreme Court is leaving in place an appeals court decision that Tennessee’s rationing of life-saving hepatitis C drugs to prisoners was constitutional, the Associated Press reports. The court decided this week it would not take up an appeal of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals' decision from last August. The appeals court sided with the trial court that state officials did not act with deliberate indifference to prisoners’ medical needs and were reasonable in prioritizing the sickest patients for treatment. The prisoners sued the Tennessee Department of Corrections in 2016 for indifference to their serious medical needs.

A group of Democratic lawmakers today introduced legislation that would expand the U.S. Supreme by four justices, the ABA Journal reports. The bill, called the Judiciary Act of 2021, was introduced by Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-NY, Sen. Edward Markey, D-MA, Rep. Hank Johnson, D-GA, and Mondaire Jones, D-NY. “Thirteen justices for 13 circuits is a sensible progression,” Nadler said of the legislation. The Supreme court has had nine justices since 1869, according to Reuters. At other times, Congress has changed the size of the high court, ranging from six to 10 justices. President Joe Biden has previously indicated he is not a fan of “court packing.”

The U.S. Supreme Court last week announced that it will close out oral arguments for the current session as it began, in teleconference sessions with justices and lawyers participating remotely. The public information office said the argument sessions scheduled for later this month and on May 4 will be held telephonically in keeping with COVID-19 public health guidance. Under usual court tradition, oral arguments would not resume until next October, but there is no word yet what plans are in place for the 2021-2022 term, CNN reports. The justices have not conducted arguments in their courtroom since March 2020. They heard their first case by teleconference last May.

President Joe Biden signed an executive order today establishing a commission to study whether to add seats to the Supreme Court and other reform proposals, The Hill reports. The Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States will be chaired by former White House counsel Bob Bauer and Cristina Rodríguez, a Yale law school professor and former deputy assistant attorney general, and be comprised of 36 members. The group is tasked with examining the genesis of the reform debate and the court’s role in a constitutional system. It also is asked to analyze a number of reform proposals regarding the membership and size of the court, length of service for justices, the process for choosing cases, and current rules and practices. Read more from the executive order and the White House press release.

In related news, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer warned this week that adding justices to the high court would cause “eroding” of trust in the court. In a two-hour address at Harvard Law School, he said public acceptance of court decisions, and more fundamentally, the rule of law, is threatened by such reform proposals. SCOTUSblog has more and a link to a video of the speech.