Let My Justices Go!
The Supreme Court will hear some big cases during Passover
March 14, 2013
(Wikipedia)
What do you do when the Supreme Court of the United States, which is 33% Jewish, has slated a major case during the first two days of Passover?
The most probable answer for Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Elena Kagan is…to go to work. Nevertheless, it seems worth noting that on the days upon which first and second seder fall, the Court will be hard at work on some pretty important cases.
According to the Monthly Argument Calendar, just hours before the first and second seders, the Court will hear a case about patent litigation, another about class action and arbitration issues, and finally, Hollingsworth v. Perry about whether the “Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the State of California from defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman” or not.
The last of these cases is the biggest one, representing one-half of the court cases that will bring same-sex marriage into the spotlight. The other, United States V. Windsor, which we’ve been following pretty closely since late September of last year, will be heard the day after second seder.
It seems like it’s going to be a little tough to pull a Sandy Koufax for Passover this year. But I suppose if any of the Jewish justices want to emulate a television courtroom drama, they could always call for “Seder in the court.”
(Sorry.)
Adam Chandler was previously a staff writer at Tablet. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Slate, Esquire, New York, and elsewhere. He tweets @allmychandler.
