Case Summaries (eNews)

  Golden Glow Tanning Salon, Inc. v. City of Columbus, no. 21-60898 (5th Cir. Nov. 8, 2022). A tanning salon unsuccessfully challenges a COVID shutdown mandate on Equal Protection and Takings grounds—but the concurrence argues that work is a fundamental unenumerated right and implies that the Supreme Court should apply strict scrutiny to governmental acts which deprive one of the right to earn a livelihood.       Background In March 2020, after the Governor of Mississippi declared a state of emergency in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Columbus,...

Last week, in a win for local governments, the Supreme Court held 6-3 in Vega v. Tekoh, that an individual may not bring a Section 1983 claim based on an alleged improper admission of an unMirandized statement during a criminal prosecution. This case involves a deputy sheriff's investigation of sexual assault allegations.  Deputy Vega believed his questioning was non-custodial and he did not Mirandize the suspect—Terence Tekoh—prior to asking questions about what had happened.  Tekoh ultimately agreed to write down what...

Yesterday, the Supreme Court held in a 6-3 decision in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District that a school district violated the First Amendment’s Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses when it terminated the employment of a high school football coach for refusing to curtail his practice of praying at the 50-yard line after football games with students.  Significantly, the majority also overruled Lemon v. Kurtzman and the Establishment Clause’s “endorsement test,” though it does so without explicitly saying so (calling...