The Relist Watch column examines cert petitions that the Supreme Court has “relisted” for its upcoming conference. A short explanation of relists is available here.

This Friday’s conference marks the Supreme Court’s last real chance to grant petitions in time for argument at the court’s April sitting – the last sitting of this term. The court already has an unprecedented 91 relisted cases in contention for those slots. This week it added 17 more relisted cases raising 10 distinct legal issues. Grants could come as soon as Friday.

Courtly Observations is a recurring series by Erwin Chemerinsky that focuses on what the Supreme Court’s decisions will mean for the law, for lawyers and lower courts, and for people’s lives.

What will be the fate of Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, the Supreme Court’s 2020 landmark ruling protecting gay, lesbian, and transgender individuals from employment discrimination? Over the last year, the court has failed to follow the logic of Bostock in upholding discrimination against transgender individuals. And at the oral arguments on Jan. 13, in two cases involving state laws barring transgender girls and women from participating in sports that correspond to their gender identity, the oral arguments gave the strong sense that a majority of the justices are likely to uphold the state laws, making even more salient the question of what will be left of Bostock.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday debated whether New Jersey’s public transit agency can be sued in state courts in New York and Pennsylvania. The New Jersey Transit Corporation argues that it is an “arm” of the state and therefore is immune from lawsuits elsewhere, but after a little over an hour of arguments, it was not clear whether a majority of the justices agreed.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the conviction of a Montana man who was convicted of assaulting a police officer. In a unanimous decision written by Justice Elena Kagan, the court ruled in Case v. Montana that police officers in Anaconda, Montana, did not violate the Fourth Amendment when they entered William Case’s home without a warrant, rejecting Case’s contention that the police officers needed “probable cause” to go into his house. Under the Supreme Court’s earlier cases, Kagan wrote, it was enough that the police officers reasonably believed that Case – whose former girlfriend had called them to tell them that Case had threatened to commit suicide – needed emergency assistance.

We were live as the court released its opinions in Barrett v. United States, Case v. Montana, and Bost v. Illinois State Board of Elections.

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