The Supreme Court begins its new term on Monday, and it's going to be a busy one. The court added 15 more cases to its docket on Friday, including an effort by gun makers to block Mexico's lawsuit against them, reports SCOTUSBlog. On Monday, the court is expected to add more cases and release details of the hundreds of cases it decided not to hear. Some of the cases added Friday:
- Nuclear waste. The court agreed to step into a fight over plans to store nuclear waste at sites in rural Texas and New Mexico. The justices said they will review a ruling by the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals that found that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission exceeded its authority under federal law in granting a license to a private company to store spent nuclear fuel at a dump in West Texas for 40 years, the AP reports. The outcome of the case will affect plans for a similar facility in New Mexico. Political leaders in both states oppose the facilities.
- Reverse discrimination. The court is also taking up the case of an Ohio woman who claims she suffered sex discrimination in her employment because she is straight. The justices agreed to review an appellate ruling that upheld the dismissal of the discrimination lawsuit filed by the woman, Marlean Ames, against the Ohio Department of Youth Services, the AP reports. Ames, who has worked for the department for 20 years, contends she was passed over for a promotion and then demoted because she is heterosexual. Both the job she sought and the one she had held were given to LGBTQ people.
- Texas death row inmate. The court has also agreed to hear the case of a Texas man on death row who has long argued that DNA testing would help prove he didn't kill an 85-year-old woman during a home robbery decades ago. The order came down Friday in the case of Ruben Gutierrez, months after the justices stayed his execution 20 minutes before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection. Gutierrez was condemned for the 1998 stabbing of Escolastica Harrison at her home in Brownsville. Gutierrez has long asked for DNA testing on evidence like Harrison's nail scrapings, a loose hair wrapped around one of her fingers, and various blood samples from within her home.
(More big upcoming SCOTUS cases can be seen
here.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
