Faculty member Jose Gomez

Students in Jose Gomez’s Equality and the Constitution program will give oral arguments relating to six cases before The Evergreen Supreme Court this spring. Although not a public event, we thought alumni would like to know what issues are being critically examined on campus this spring.

The Court will hear oral arguments in the following six cases. Each case involves controversies that implicate equality, primarily equal protection under the Fifth and Fourteenth  Amendments to the United States Constitution. These are real cases recently decided by various circuits of the United States Courts of Appeals and one state supreme court. Three of the cases (two involving same-sex marriage and one involving affirmative action in higher education) were argued before the United States Supreme Court earlier this year, and decisions from that court are expected any day now.

1. Case No. S2013-05:  United States and BLAG v. Edith Windsor, on a writ of certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit – 9:40 to 10:40 a.m.  Issue: Whether the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines the term “marriage” under federal law as a “legal union between one man and one woman” deprives same-sex couples who are legally married under state laws of their Fifth Amendment rights to equal protection under federal law.

2. Case No. S2013-04:  Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, on a writ of certiorari to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit – 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.  Issue: Whether the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment permits the consideration of race in undergraduate admissions decisions.

3. Case No. S2013-02: City of Arlington v. Frame, on a writ of certiorari to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit – 12:20 to 1:20 p.m.  Issue: Whether Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act and § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. (and their implied private right of action) extend to newly built and altered public sidewalks.

4. Case No. S2013-06: Hollingsworth v. Perry, on a writ of certiorari to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit – 9:40 to 10:40 a.m.  Issue: Whether the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the state of California from defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

5. Case No. S2013-01:  State of Iowa v. Mootz, on a writ of certiorari to the Iowa Supreme Court – 11:00 a.m. to 12:0 p.m.  Issue: Whether a state district court erred when it denied a defendant a peremptory challenge during the jury selection process on the basis that he was using the strike to engage in purposeful racial discrimination.