The October argument session

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court released its calendar for the , which lasts from Monday, Oct. 5, to Wednesday, Oct. 14. For more on the oral arguments in October, see the On Site section below.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit “overturned a win for Jack Daniel’s in a long-running trademark dispute with the maker of a ‘Bad Spaniels’ dog toy that the whiskey company accused of violating its trademark rights.” The toy at the center of the case “mimics Lynchburg, Tennessee-based Jack Daniel’s famous whiskey bottles with dog-themed alterations – replacing ‘Old No. 7’ with ‘the Old No. 2, on your Tennessee Carpet’ and alcohol descriptions with ‘43% Poo By Vol.’ and ‘100% Smelly.’” The toymaker, VIP Products, “sued Jack Daniel’s in 2014 after receiving a cease-and-desist letter, seeking a court ruling that it did not violate the whiskey maker’s trademark rights.” An Arizona court sided with Jack Daniel’s, but the 9th Circuit reversed in 2020, emphasizing “VIP’s free speech rights.” In 2023, the Supreme Court vacated that decision, holding that “VIP used the trademark to designate the source of its own goods, in a way that was not entitled to First Amendment protections.” Last year, a federal district judge “issued a permanent ban on sales of VIP’s toy,” but the 9th Circuit reversed that ban on Tuesday, “finding that ‘Bad Spaniels’ would not harm Jack Daniel’s reputation.”

In a June 25 ruling, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to end deportation protections for Haitian and Syrian nationals under the Temporary Protected Status program. In recent days, the Department of Homeland Security has appeared to move toward removing “Haitian immigrants in Ohio” by summoning them to check-in appointments, where they are “outfitt[ed] with ankle monitors.” Attorneys for those Haitians told The Washington Post that they’ve been “instructed not to travel anywhere outside a 75-mile radius from their homes.” “Many of the Haitians outfitted with ankle monitors in recent days have ongoing asylum claims and no final order of deportation, their attorneys said.” Attorneys also said that “officers encouraged the immigrants to leave voluntarily and noted the $2,600 financial incentive DHS is offering those who choose to self-deport.”

On Tuesday, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit “said the Trump administration improperly terminated billions of dollars in funds to boost clean energy projects, handing a win to a coalition of nonprofits picked to run the Biden-era effort,” according to the Associated Press. “Six of 10 judges agreed with a lower court judge that the Trump EPA likely violated the [law making the funds available] when it terminated the grants and tried to claw back funds based on a policy disagreement.” Tuesday’s decision overturns an earlier ruling by “a divided three-judge panel of the same appeals court,” which “said the Trump administration had broad power to cancel grants without having to face charges of illegality in federal court.” However, “Climate United Fund and other nonprofits won’t have access to their funds immediately as the decision will be put on hold for several days giving the Environmental Protection Agency time to ask the Supreme Court to step in.”

In a column for The New Republic, Matt Ford contended that the Supreme Court’s “current conservative majority has gone to great lengths to expand presidential power while simultaneously weakening Congress” and argued that this effort is out-of-step with the founders’ vision for the country. “Contrary to the presidentialist narrative, the Framers drafted the Constitution to empower Congress, not to weaken it,” Ford wrote, adding that Congress was the “clear winner” when it came to “the checks and balances” outlined in the Constitution. He called on Congress to “rejuvenate itself” by, among other things, “rebuilding its institutional expertise” and “telling the truth about our constitutional order.”