John Roberts And The Supremes: The 2015-16 Greatest Hits

Time for a perennial favorite: a top-ten countdown! Today the subject is the current term of the Supreme Court of the United States. Now that the Court has adjourned, it's time to look back on an eventful year, made even more so by the death of Justice Scalia and the effects of the persistent vacancy created by Scalia's death.

10: Birchfield v. North Dakota. Here the Court held that the Fourth Amendment permits warrantless breath tests incident to arrests for drunk driving but not warrantless blood tests.

9: Zubik v. Burwell: The Court remanded several cases involving religious nonprofit organizations' objections to the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive-coverage mandate, in light of a possible compromise solution involving automatic contraceptive coverage without employer request.

8: Evenwel v. Abbott: In this Texas case, the Court unanimously held that states may apportion legislative districts according to total population rather than voter-eligible population.

7: Montgomery v. Louisiana: Here the Court held that its decision in Miller v. Alabama, 132 S. Ct. 2455 (2012) (juvenile homicide-offender may not be sentenced to life without parole absent consideration of juvenile's special circumstances) is retroactive.

6: Hurst v. Florida: Under Florida's death-penalty scheme, the jury makes a recommendation to the trial judge about whether the death penalty should be imposed, and the trial judge must give the recommendation "great weight" but retains the ultimate decisionmaking authority. The Court held that this system is unconstitutional, because the jury must find, in binding fashion, each fact necessary to impose the death sentence.

5: Luis v. United States: In this case, the Court held that a federal statute permitting the pretrial freezing of certain criminal defendants' assets is unconstitutional as applied to "untainted" property needed to retain criminal defense counsel.

4: Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association: Here...