Upcoming cases

Church-state separation: A Missouri church is challenging its exclusion from a state program that reimburses groups for installing rubberized surfaces on playgrounds. State officials said a provision of the Missouri Constitution bars them from giving public money to a church. Disparaging trademarks: The Obama administration is defending the decision to deny trademark protection to an AsianAmerican band called the Slants because the term is offensive to Asians. The outcome of the case also could affect the Washington Redskins football team in its fight to preserve trademark protection. Texas death penalty appeals: Two inmates on Texas’ death row are seeking to have their death sentences overturned. Inmate Duane Buck, who is AfricanAmerican, contends his lawyers failed him by calling as an expert witness a psychologist who testified that black people were more likely to commit violence. Inmate Bobby Moore argues that he is ineligible to be executed because he is intellectually disabled. Two appeals that have been filed but not yet acted on also could be heard this term: Transgender rights: A Virginia school district is appealing a lower court ruling requiring it to allow a transgender boy to use the boys’ bathroom at his high school. The Supreme Court has put the ruling on hold. Voter ID: Texas is asking the high court to overturn a lower court ruling that found that the state’s 2011 law requiring photo identification to vote discriminated against minorities and the poor. Appeals in voter ID cases from north Carolina and Wisconsin also could reach the court.