The Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari in five cases today:
Little v. Hecox; West Virginia v. B.P.J., Nos. 24-38, 24-43: These two cases will address whether states may prohibit transgender women and girls from competing in women’s student athletics. The questions presented are: (1) Whether Title IX prevents a state from consistently designating girls’ and boys’ sports teams based on biological sex determined at birth; and (2) whether the Equal Protection Clause prevents a state from offering separate boys’ and girls’ sports teams based on biological sex determined at birth.
Olivier v. City of Brandon, Mississippi, No. 24-993: This case concerns the Court’s previous ruling in Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1994), which limited 42 U.S.C. § 1983 lawsuits for damages from an unconstitutional criminal conviction to situations where the previous conviction was reversed or invalidated. In this case, the petitioner pleaded no contest and was convicted, but later filed a Section 1983 lawsuit seeking an injunction to block future enforcement of the law under the First Amendment. The questions presented are: (1) Whether Heck v. Humphrey bars claims under Section 1983 seeking purely prospective relief where the plaintiff has been punished before under the law challenged as unconstitutional; and (2) whether Heck v. Humphrey bars Section 1983 claims by plaintiffs even where they never had access to federal habeas relief.
Galette v. New Jersey Transit Corporation; New Jersey Transit Corporation v. Colt, Nos. 24-1021, 24-1113: These consolidated cases involve a state-run agency’s assertion of sovereign immunity against tort lawsuits brought in other states’ courts. The question presented is: Whether the New Jersey Transit Corporation is an arm of the State of New Jersey for interstate sovereign immunity purposes.