Arizona Horizon annual Supreme Court session preview

 Each year we mark the beginning of the U.S. Supreme court term with analysis of some of the noteworthy cases the high court will be taking up – and there are some important cases on the docket this term. Our guests: Arizona State University Law Professor Paul Bender, and attorney Stephen Montoya, a partner at Montoya, Lucero and Pastor.

In a 6-3 Supreme Court, Bender said he is questioning whether the Supreme Court is as conservative as people say it is. “I wonder if it’ll be more or less conservative, or if we will see a difference with the new appointees,” he said. Montoya said he thinks the court is going to proceed very cautiously. “I think the court heard the outcry loud and clear. I would predict this very conservative court to moderate its conservative activism from the public outcry,” Montoya mentioned. 

Montoya predicts that the Supreme Court will be a “Kavanaugh” court in the coming years. 

When talking about abortion, Montoya said that women, families, physicians, and more have relied on Roe v. Wade for years. “I think there is an in-between position,” said Bender. “One thing that has always been maintained in the court while Roe has been in place is the viability standard,” Montoya said. 

The next topic was shadow dockets. Bender said he refers to shadow dockets as emergency dockets. “There are some things that need to be decided right away,” Bender added. Montoya said that during the Trump administration, the administration prevailed 28 times with emergency motions in non-death penalty cases. During the Obama and Bush administrations, the administrations only prevailed four times in non-death penalty cases.

Both Montoya and Bender said they will wait to see what happens and develops in the Supreme Court session.