Opening Arguments

Today's Bonus Episode asks if there's a way to make sense of the Supreme Court's Lukumi jurisprudence in light of this week's rulings in Trump v. Hawaii (the Travel Ban), Masterpiece Cakeshop, and the somewhat surprising decision to remand the Arlene's Flowers case back to the state of Washington. We begin, however, by checking in with the Southern District of New York's Order approving the Taint Team's review of documents seized from Michael Cohen's offices by the Department of Justice.  How many documents did the Team recommend the Court withhold as privileged?  The answer may surprise you! After that, we revisit the thesis advanced by Andrew Seidel in Episode 180 that the Supreme Court's decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop might result in a more vigorous application of its 1993 decision in Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah, 508 U.S. 520 (1993). Next, we break down the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision in NIFLA v. Becerra, in which the Court struck down a California law regulating so-called "cris