On Wednesday, the Supreme Court decided Callais. The last paragraph of the opinion stated:
The judgment of the District Court is affirmed, and thesecases are remanded for proceedings consistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
Well, it is not ordered right away. Under the Court’s rules, the remand does not happen immediately. In this 2020 post, I described the process by which judgments are actually entered. Conflicts over the timing of the judgments have arisen in high profile cases, including Bush v. Gore, Boumediene, Trump v. Vance, Trump v. Mazars, DHS v. Regents, Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson, and others. Of course, after Obergefell was decided, jurisdictions outside the Sixth Circuit immediately issued marriage licenses to gay couples, even though they were bound by injunctions. Whatever, love won!
The private plaintiffs in Trump v. Callais have asked the Supreme Court to issue the judgment forthwith. Louisiana has taken no position on the request, because the issuance of the judgment is irrelevant:
The State notes that the Court’s May 15, 2024 Order also states that, “[i]n the event jurisdiction is noted or postponed, this order will remain in effect pending the sending down of the judgment of this Court.” That language can be read to conflict with the cited language above, which requires automatic termination of the Order if the lower court’s judgment is affirmed. That potential conflict, however, has no bearing here because, whether the Order is already terminated or will be terminated when this Court sends down the judgment, nothing prevents Louisiana from adopting a constitutional map and process consistent with this Court’s decision right now.
Louisiana is correct. The District Court did not issue an injunction. The Supreme Court affirmed the District Court’s judgment. Nothing prohibits Louisiana from following the Supreme Court’s decision as a precedent, even if there is no issued judgment. Moreover, once Louisiana adopts new maps in the next week or so, this entire dispute will be mooted.
The Supreme Court can safely do nothing here.
