Mr. Chief Justice, may it please the court.

I'm John Carlo Canoparo.

I'm Zach Smith.

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.

Welcome back to another episode of SCOTUS 101, where another week closer to the end of the

court's term as the justices continue to work their way through the cases that were argued

this past year.

You're ready to get right to it, G.C.?

I sure am.

I'll start us off with the orders.

The court requested that the government file a brief in the Harvard admissions case. That's the case alleging that Harvard's admission

standards discriminate against Asian Americans. That the court's solicited briefs in that case

from the government might show that the justices are interested in the case, but it also means that a decision about whether the court will take the case will now be severely delayed.

The government almost certainly won't file its brief until the court's next term has gotten underway.

And moving on to opinions this week, we got two of the big ones.

The Obamacare case, round three, and the Catholic Adoption Services case.

Starting with the Affordable Care Act, this was Texas v. California and California versus Texas, a seven to two decision by Justice Breyer, joined by everyone except Justice Alito and Gorsuch, and the court held that

none of the plaintiffs had standing to challenge the individual mandate. You'll probably

recall that in NFIB versus Sebelius, the court said that the individual mandate, which

requires you to buy health insurance or face financial penalties, was constitutional

only because it was a tax.

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