Supreme Court Grants Certiorari in Unusual Summer Order
On July 20, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a rare summer certiorari grant in the case Jouppi v. Alaska (25-246), which had been conferenced on June 29 but not acted upon until nearly three weeks later. The case asks whether courts considering the Excessive Fines Clause should evaluate the gravity of the underlying offense in the abstract or the specific defendant's wrongdoing. The petition was filed in August 2025 and was held pending the resolution of Pung v. Isabella County, decided June 23. The unusual timing—a grant issued during the summer recess—prompted analysis from SCOTUSBlog, which identified only a few prior instances of summer cert grants, including Chafin v. Chafin (2012) and Johnson v. Arteaga-Martinez (2021). The article speculates on possible reasons for the delay, including internal deliberations or calendar scheduling, and notes the author plans to publish an essay arguing for elimination of the Court's summer recess.
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