This year’s eight-member court may reach different outcomes than had formerly been expected in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, the public employee union dues case; the Obamacare religious exemption cases including Little Sisters of the Poor v. Burwell; and Fisher v. Texas, the affirmative action case, among others. Also diminished: the chance that the Court will overturn its doctrine of “Auer deference” to agencies’ interpretations of their own regulations, a doctrine laid out by Scalia himself which he later came to reconsider [Adam Gustafson, Washington Examiner] Plus the trio of class action cases, the challenge to the EPA’s coal-throttling Clean Power Plan, and much more [Daniel Fisher, Forbes] (& welcome Wall Street Journal Law Blog readers)

Filed under: administrative law, Supreme Court