I'm Elizabeth Slattery and I'm Tiffany Bates and welcome to SCOTUS 101 where we break down what's happening at the Supreme Court, what the justices are up to, and other things related to our favorite branch of government.

This week we're talking about a few oral arguments the court heard, women in the Supreme Court, and we interview former Attorney General Ed Meese.

So Tiffany, what's happening at SCOTUS this week?

Yes, it is a busy week at the court.

So this week, the court nixed one of the two travel ban cases.

Since the challenge provision expired, the court said it was no longer a live case or controversy, which, of course, the Constitution requires in order for a case to be heard

by a court.

So it sent the Fourth Circuit case back down to that court with orders

to vacate the decision as moot. Now, Justice Sotomayor dissented, she would have dismissed the

case as improvidently granted, which would have kept the lower court order in place. Yes, which would

have been a very different result in this case. So the Ninth Circuit decision is still in play for

now, but it's likely to meet the same

fate for similar reasons.

The court also heard this week the National Association of Manufacturers versus Department

of Defense.

So this is a case involving what court has jurisdiction to hear a challenge to the waters of the

U.S. rule.

So to give you background on this, the Clean Water Act authorizes the EPA and the Army

Corps of Engineers to regulate navigable water.

So in a huge power grab, the Obama administration issued a rule defining waters of the United

States to include streams, rivers, marshes, essentially any body of water,

no matter how remote the connection to navigable water.

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