Bloomberg Law Weekend Law: SCOTUS Deadlock, Social Media Suit & Interim Appts
May 23, 2025
Joining the conversation are Stephanie Barkley, a Georgetown Law Professor specializing in religious liberty, Eric Goldman from Santa Clara University Law, and Ann Joseph O'Connell, a Stanford Law expert on political appointments. They tackle the Supreme Court deadlock on religious charter school funding and its separation of church and state issues. The discussion also explores the legal battles against social media platforms linked to violent acts and the complexities surrounding interim appointments in the U.S. justice system, examining their implications for executive authority.
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SCOTUS Deadlock on Religious Charter Schools
- The Supreme Court's 4-4 deadlock in the Oklahoma religious charter school case leaves uncertainty around state obligations to fund religious charter schools.
- Justice Barrett's recusal made Chief Justice Roberts the pivot, highlighting complex state involvement compared to prior church/state funding cases.
Constitutional Nuances in Religious School Funding
- The Establishment Clause prevents the government from running religious programs, while the Free Exercise Clause prohibits discrimination against religious schools.
- Outcomes depend on whether schools are government or private, highlighting constitutional complexity in school funding.
Challenges in Applying Product Liability to Algorithms
- Social media platforms face lawsuits claiming their algorithms act as dangerous products causing radicalization.
- Courts usually exclude intangible services like algorithms from product liability, complicating liability claims against platforms like Facebook.