During jury selection, some potential jurors can be removed “for cause” – that is, when a judge believes that a juror cannot be impartial in deciding the case. The lawyers trying the case also have a certain number of “peremptory strikes,” which allow them to reject jurors without providing a reason. However, the Supreme Court… Read More

The issue of gerrymandering will be front and center at the Supreme Court in March. On March 26, the justices will tackle two of the highest-profile cases of the term, involving partisan gerrymandering – the idea that state officials went too far in considering politics when redistricting, by drawing maps that favor one political party… Read More

Justices Samuel Alito and Elena Kagan appeared this afternoon before the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government of the House Committee on Appropriations. They were invited to discuss the Supreme Court’s budget requirements for fiscal year 2020, but they also fielded questions about cameras in the courtroom, law clerk diversity, partisan attacks on the… Read More

In 2016, Justice Anthony Kennedy provided the fifth vote to strike down a Texas law that required doctors who perform abortions to have “admitting privileges” – the right to admit patients – at a local hospital. But Kennedy retired last year. So when two doctors who perform abortions, along with an abortion clinic, came to… Read More

This morning the Supreme Court issued orders from last week’s conference, adding a new case involving fees in patent cases to its docket. Under federal law, an unsuccessful patent applicant who wants a court to review the denial of his patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has two options. He can go to… Read More

For nearly a century, a 40-foot-tall stone and concrete cross has stood on a traffic median in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, just a few miles from the Supreme Court. But seven years ago, a group of local residents filed a lawsuit seeking to have the cross removed. They argue that the presence of the cross… Read More

Today the Supreme Court gave an Alabama death-row inmate at least a temporary reprieve, sending the case back to the lower courts for them to consider whether the inmate’s dementia leaves him so incompetent that he cannot be executed. The vote was 5-3, with Chief Justice John Roberts joining the court’s four more liberal justices… Read More

This morning the Supreme Court heard oral argument in a dispute over the constitutionality of a federal law that requires convicted sex offenders to return to prison for at least five years – and possibly for the rest of their lives – if a judge finds that they have committed certain crimes. The defendant in… Read More

The Supreme Court heard oral argument today in a case involving whether a private nonprofit corporation that runs a public-access TV channel is a “state actor,” who can be sued for violations of the First Amendment. After roughly an hour of debate, there was no clear winner in the case: The justices who spoke appeared… Read More

This morning the Supreme Court issued orders from last week’s conference. The justices added just one new case to their merits docket for next term and issued an unsigned opinion that sent a ruling that was released after the death of one of the judges who participated in the case back to the U.S. Court… Read More