WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court term that ended Monday was marked by accomplishment and anticipation. The court continued its work on two signature projects of Chief Justice John Roberts: defending free speech and curbing big lawsuits. And it dropped occasional hints about the blockbusters on the horizon.
The First Amendment dominated the term, with the court ruling for funeral protesters, the makers of violent video games, drug marketers and politicians who decline public financing. The U.S. commitment to free expression, the court said, cuts across politics and commerce, requires tolerance of offensive speech and forbids the government from stepping in when powerful voices threaten to dominate public debate.
In cases involving the nation’s largest private employer, Walmart, and the nation’s second-largest cellphone company, AT&T, the court tightened the rules for class actions and made it easier for companies to do away with class actions entirely by using form contracts.
All of the decisions this term were scrutinized for clues about the arc of the Roberts court as it settles into a period of consolidation and awaits a series of colossal cases, notably the challenges to the health care law championed by President Barack Obama. This term was significant, but the next one may include the most important clash between the court and a president since the New Deal.
In the just-completed term, the court’s commitment to free speech and its growing business docket sometimes intersected, as in the cases on drug marketing and video games.
“For the conservatives,” said Lee Esptein, a professor of law and political science at Northwestern, “the First Amendment continues to trump other values, especially if they can help business in the process.”
On Monday the court agreed to hear another First Amendment case of interest to the business community, this one concerning the Federal Communications Commission’s indecency rules.
Business groups said their success in the court during the term was mixed as the court repeatedly ruled for plaintiffs in employment and securities cases.
But business groups won the most consequential cases, including what a U.S. Chamber of Commerce lawyer called “the triple crown of this year’s business docket.”
The lawyer, Robin Conrad, executive vice president of the chamber’s litigation unit, was referring to the Walmart and AT&T cases and one rejecting a suit from six states against several power companies over emissions.
carbon dioxide emissions.
