The Supreme Court did not act on President Donal Trump’s travel ban in a list of orders issued at 9:30 a.m. on Monday morning. There is another conference later today meaning that a decision may still be made before Tuesday morning.
The justices are expected to issue their last orders today before heading for summer break.
During the morning session, the justices reversed a lower court’s church-and-state ruling against a church playground in Missouri which was excluded from receiving state funds intended for non-profits.
“The exclusion of Trinity Lutheran from a public benefit for which it is otherwise qualified, solely because it is a church, is odious to our Constitution all the same, and cannot stand,” Justice John Glover Roberts Jr. wrote in his opinion.
The Court also agreed today to hear a case next fall of a Colorado man who refuses to make cakes for same-sex couples because it violates his religious beliefs.
But a single news item may overshadow the Court’s actions - the potential retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy. If Kennedy, 81, announces his retirement, Trump would get a second Supreme Court pick just six months into his presidency.
Kennedy did not speak about his retirement during a weekend reunion with clerks, according to three clerks who spoke with the Associated Press. But several of his former clerks do think he may be contemplating retirement in the next year or so.
Kennedy already hired a clerk for the upcoming term as well as the term after that, according to the Supreme Court blog.
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