Another day of Supreme Court excitement.

The place to hang out is SCOTUSblog, which live-blogs it, or here, where I quote, paraphrase, and snark, and you can comment.

UPDATE 1: Koontz, written by Alito. "The government's demand for property from a land use permit applicant must satisfy the Nolan and Dolan requirements even when it denies the permit." 5-4 in the most predictable 5-4 pattern.

UPDATE 2: Next, a case we talked about here, Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl. This, too, is written by Justice Alito. "Assuming for the sake of argument that the biological father is a parent under the Indian Child Welfare Act, neither of the two sections at issue bars the termination of his parental rights." Thomas and Breyer have concurring opinions. Scalia has a dissenting opinion, for himself alone. Sotomayor also dissents, with Ginsburg and Kagan. And Scalia joins the Sotomayor dissent in part.

UPDATE 3: Here's the PDF for Adoptive Couple. To jump to what Scalia says:

The Court’s opinion, it seems to me, needlessly demeans the rights of parenthood. It has been the constant practice of the common law to respect the entitlement of those who bring a child into the world to raise that child. We do not inquire whether leaving a child with his parents is “in the best interest of the child.” It sometimes is not; he would be better off raised by someone else. But parents have their rights, no less than children do. This father wants to raise his daughter, and the statute amply protects his right to do so. There is no reason in law or policy to dilute that protection.

UPDATE 4: Huge: "Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional. Its formula can no longer be used as a basis for subjecting jurisdictions to preclearance." This is Shelby County, written by Chief Justice Roberts. "Thomas concurs. Ginsburg dissents, joined by Breyer Sotomayor, and Kagan.... Section 4 is unconstitutional in light of current conditions. In 1966, the formula was rational in both practice and theory." [ADDED: It's 5-4, again, the typical conservative/liberal split, and Thomas — along with Scalia, Kennedy, and Alito — joins the Chief.]

UPDATE 5: Here's my discussion of the oral argument from last March: "[C]ongressional support for reauthorizing the act has increased over the years, even though the need for it has lessened.... Scalia is saying the Court needs to act because there is a dysfunction in the political process that keeps Congress from looking rationally at the actual need for the remedy that made so much sense back in 1965. Breyer's response is: Congress is still in the middle of doing what was once badly needed, it's not obvious that the endpoint has been reached, and therefore it's not time yet for the Court to act." Apparently, the majority decided it was time.

UPDATE 6: That's it — and that's plenty! — for today. Here's the PDF of the opinion in Shelby County. I'll start a new post for that case, and I will also try to get to Adoptive Couple before long.