Top legal experts from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law can assist media with commentary on breaking U.S. Supreme Court Cases as the high court’s 2014-15 term comes to a close.
Mark Graber, the Jacob A. France Professor of Constitutionalism, can speak about Reed v. Town of Gilbert, Arizona; a separation of church and state case that seeks to resolve the difference between “ideological” signs and “political” signs posted in publically viewed locations.
Graber, the author of A New Introduction to American Constitutionalism and American Constitutionalism: Structures and Powers and American Constitutionalism: Rights and Powers (both from Oxford University Press):can also weigh in on Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, a case that could severely limit the ability of voters to take responsibility for redistricting decisions out of their legislator’s hands.
For Texas Department of Housing v. Inclusive Communities Project, Professor Barbara Bezdek, a housing and community development law expert, can provide insight into a case that challenges the power of the 1968 Fair Housing Act, which outlawed discrimination on the basis of race in housing.
Professor Ellen Weber of Maryland Carey Law’s nationally-ranked Law & Health Care Program can speak about King v. Burwell, a case that challenges the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).
The legality of same-sex marriage in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges is the specialty of family law expert Martha Ertman, the Carole & Hanan Sibel Research Professor of Law, and author of Love’s Promises: How Formal and Informal Contracts Shape All Kinds of Families (Beacon Press).
Professor Lee Kovarsky can speak about Glossip v. Gross, a case challenging the use of the anti-anxiety drug midazolam in lethal injection executions.
For Walker v. Sons of Confederate Veterans, Professor James Grimmelmann, an expert in intellectual property, privacy, and cyber and technology law can address the issues over limits on government and free speech raised in this case over Confederate flags on specialty license plates. Currently, nine allow specialty license plates with Confederate flags that honor Sons of Confederate Veterans. Texas does not permit the specialty plates, arguing that the Confederate flag is offensive.