I'm Elizabeth Lattery 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 I'm joined by my boss and SCOTUS 101 fact checker, John Malcolm.

Welcome back to SCOTUS 101.

Great to be with you, Elizabeth.

Before we get into what's been going on at the court, I wanted to mention that we are still selling SCOTUS 101 mugs. So show your love for the podcast and get a limited edition mug while they last. You can get them at shop.heritage.org. And listeners, we are still offering a 30% off discount code and free shipping. You'll want to enter four bananas. That's all one word, the number four, and bananas, all lowercase at checkout to get your discount.

All right, now on to the show. The court is officially on its summer recess, but before hitting the road for their summer vacations, the justices released decisions in a number of

highly anticipated cases this week, including cases involving agency deference, adding a citizenship

question to the census, and partisan gerrymandering. First, though, I want to mention that this

week, Justice's Clarence Thomas and Sonia Sotomayor both celebrated their birthdays, so here's

wishing them a very happy

belated birthday. All right, let's dig into what happened at the court this week. First up is

Murphy v. Carpenter. The court did not issue an opinion in this case and instead asked for

re-argument next term. This is the case where a member of the Creek Nation challenged his conviction

in Oklahoma State Court for mutilating

and murdering his romantic rival. Carpenter argued the state lacked a jurisdiction to prosecute him

because the crime took place within the boundaries of what he says is an Indian reservation.

The state of Oklahoma does not agree. If the Supreme Court buys Mr. Carpenter's argument,

it would transform 19 million acres of eastern Oklahoma into Indian country.

Justice Gorsuch was recused from the case, so it seems the remaining eight justices could not come to a ruling, even after asking for additional briefing following the oral argument last December.

The case will be re-argued sometime when the justices return in October.

So the first merits decision we'll discuss is the partisan gerrymandering case,

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