Testing the limits

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: Three Supreme Court decisions handed down last week.

First, Galette v New Jersey Transit Corporation.

A unanimous court held that the public transportation system cannot claim sovereign immunity from lawsuits that arise from accidents in which it’s involved.

Two men in separate accidents in different states sued, and the transit corporation claimed immunity from the lawsuits as “an arm of the state.”

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson hinted at the outcome during argument in January:

JACKSON: New Jersey could have set this up as an agency and perhaps would’ve preserved the kind of arguments you’re talking about but, instead, it chose corporation.

Another reminder that the chosen legal structure of an entity matters. The two injured men may now proceed with their lawsuits.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: The second decision is in Mirabelli v Bonta, a win for parents and teachers of public school children.

The court found that state policies requiring teachers to keep parents in the dark about their child’s gender transition at school are likely to be unconstitutional.

This one came to the court on an emergency basis, meaning the case isn’t finally resolved on the merits.

So, the legal fight on the merits can now proceed.

REICHARD: Lastly, Urias-Orellana v Bondi, a unanimous decision that strengthens decisions of the Board of Immigration Appeal in asylum cases.

In this case, a Salvadoran national claimed grounds for asylum in the U.S., but an immigration judge found his story did not meet the legal threshold for persecution.

Chief Justice John Roberts said as much during oral argument in December:

ROBERTS: The sort of findings that we typically leave to a district court or another fact finder involving credibility, weighing of facts, and all that sort of thing, to—to reach a particular determination, it seems to me a prototypical case for the BIA.

This ruling limits the scope of federal judicial review over BIA decisions with regard to persecution.

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