What’s New in Public Law

–Wilson Seraine da Silva Neto, PhD Candidate in Law & Economics at the Faculty of Law, University of Lisbon.

In this weekly feature, I-CONnect publishes a curated reading list of developments in public law.

“Developments” may include a selection of links to news, high court decisions, new or recent scholarly books and articles, and blog posts from around the public law blogosphere.

To submit relevant developments for our weekly feature on “What’s New in Public Law,” please email iconnecteditors@gmail.com.

Developments in Constitutional Courts:

1. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a program providing subsidized internet and phone service to underserved communities across the United States by a 6-3 vote.
2. The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to send a group of immigrants currently being held on a U.S. military base in the east African country of Djibouti to South Sudan.
3. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a group of Maryland parents who challenged their school district’s decision to deny them the ability to opt their elementary-aged children out of instruction featuring storybooks that address gender identity and sexual orientation.
4. The U.S. Supreme Court limited the ability of lower-court judges to block executive branch policies nationwide, opening the door for a majority of states to at least temporarily enforce President Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship.
5. Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal (TK) has ruled that the government’s decision to halve the number of hours that Catholic catechism classes are taught in schools is unconstitutional because it was not agreed with the church.
6. Thailand’s Constitutional Court has suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra over the leak of a recording of a phone call with Cambodia’s former leader Hun Sen, setting off further rumbles of political turbulence.

In the News:

1. The U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari to determine whether the New Jersey Transit Corporation (NJ Transit) qualifies as an “arm of the state” entitled to interstate sovereign immunity in negligence lawsuits filed outside New Jersey.
2. Outgoing Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti called a meeting of political party leaders after the Constitutional Court ordered MPs to end their long-running deadlock and inaugurate a new parliament within 30 days.
3. The Zambian government plans to amend the Constitution to, inter alia, enlarge the National Assembly and increase the number of Members of Parliament nominated by the President.
4. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review whether state laws can ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s and girls’ sports.
5. The India Supreme Court Collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai, has recommended the appointment of 39 individuals as judges across nine High Courts.

New Scholarship:

1. David Sobreira, How Courts Die (2025) (analyzes six cases (Venezuela, Turkey, Hungary, Poland, El Salvador, and Israel) which have experienced processes or attempts to tame their courts and presents ideas on how a system can be improved to protect Supreme and Constitutional Courts).
2. Sergio Verdugo, Constitutional Conventions, Mutations, and Liars. What Can Civil Law Jurisdictions Learn from the Debates about Constitutional Conventions? (2025) (argues that the Constitutional Mutation framework can exacerbate the accountability deficits associated with informal constitutional change.
3. Marcelo Dias Varella, The Principle of Sustainable Development (2025) (analyzes the values that make up today’s international environmental law, based on the environment-economic growth binomial and explores what sustainable development is and some ideas on how to measure it).
4. Martin Loughlin, Constitutionalism Revived (2025) (examines development of the use of the term ‘constitutionalism’, explains its significance and assesses its consequences).
5. Grégoire Webber, L’article 33 de la Charte canadienne et le pouvoir déclaratoire du tribunal (2025) (examines the interpretation of section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and questions the traditional distinction between a “preventive” or “curative” use of this provision)

Call for Papers and Announcements:

1. The University of Coimbra Institute for Legal Research invites you to the Seminar Intra EU mobility – Social Security and residence that will be held on 7 November 2025 at Colégio da Trindade, Coimbra.
2. The University of Coimbra Institute for Legal Research invites you to the Short Course for Translators/Interpreters of the Court of Justice of the European Union that will be held from 27 to 31 October 2025 at Colégio da Trindade, Coimbra
3. The University of Coimbra Institute for Legal Research invites you to the IV International Meeting on Environmental Democracy: Democratic Transitions that will be held on 23 and 24 October 2025, in a hybrid format.
4. The X Workshop of the Jean Monnet Network – BRIDGE Watch Seminar invite scholars and researchers from all academic backgrounds to submit scientific articles for presentation. Complete articles must be submitted by September 12, 2025, at 23:59, Chile time (GMT-4).
5. The Lisbon Public Law Research Center invites you to the event Augmented Justice: A Case of Legitimate Authority that will be held on 18 July, in-person at University of Lisbon or online.

Elsewhere Online:

1. Robert McCoy, Sotomayor Warns No One Is Safe After Birthright Citizenship Ruling, New Republic
2. Sonia A. Rao and Mattathias Schwartz, Trump Rivals May Bring More Class-Action Suits. How Do They Work?, The New York Times
3. John Fritze and Devan Cole, Why Roberts and Gorsuch may decide the Supreme Court’s blockbuster transgender sports case, CNN
4. Alexis Coe, Is the Supreme Court the Best Way to Get Justice?, The New York Times
5. Max Krahé and Michael W. Müller, The Limits of Limiting Democracy, VerfassungsBlog
6. Or Bassok, Democracy Washing: The Israeli Supreme Court’s Selective Activism, Verfassungsblog