The Supreme Court on Friday issued orders from its so-called “long conference” – the justices’ private conference in the last week of September, at which they met for the first time since the end of June to add new cases to their docket. This year the long conference yielded 12 new grants, on topics ranging… Read More
Justices take major Florida and Texas social media cases
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to weigh in on the constitutionality of controversial laws in Texas and Florida that would regulate how large social media companies like Facebook and X (formerly known as Twitter) control content posted on their sites. The laws were enacted in 2021 in response to legislators’ beliefs that the companies… Read More
Consumer watchdog funding fight goes before justices
In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Congress consolidated the task of enforcing federal consumer finance laws into one agency. It created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to protect consumers in the marketplace and, in part, regulate predatory financial products, like the high-risk mortgages that had contributed to the crash. As part of its… Read More
Court denies Alabama’s request to use voting map with only one majority-Black district
The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Alabama’s request to allow it to use a congressional map in the 2024 elections that a lower court had concluded likely violates the Voting Rights Act. The brief unsigned order, from which there were no public dissents, came less than four months after a divided Supreme Court agreed that… Read More
Alabama voters tell justices to stay out of election map dispute
Lawyers for Alabama voters urged the justices to stay out of a dispute over the state’s congressional map. Eight days after the state asked the Supreme Court to temporarily block lower-court rulings holding that a map drawn earlier this year likely violates the Voting Rights Act, the voters told the justices that the state’s appeal… Read More
Biden asks justices to block limits on collaboration with social media companies
UPDATE: On Sept. 22, Justice Samuel Alito temporarily extended the stay of the lower court’s order until the end of the day on Wednesday, Sept. 27. The Biden administration on Thursday afternoon asked the Supreme Court to temporarily block a lower court’s order that would limit its ability to communicate with social media companies over… Read More
Alabama returns to the Supreme Court over allegedly discriminatory voting map
It was déjà vu all over again at the Supreme Court on Monday, as Alabama asked the justices to intervene in a dispute over the state’s congressional map. The last time it made such a request, in January 2022, Alabama won the battle but lost the war: A divided Supreme Court temporarily blocked a lower… Read More
Federal government and drug manufacturer ask court to review ruling restricting access to abortion medication
The Biden administration and a drug manufacturer on Friday night asked the Supreme Court to review a decision by a federal appeals court that would significantly restrict access to a drug used in medication abortions, which account for over half of all abortions performed in the United States. The filings created the prospect that the… Read More
Alito rebuffs calls for recusal in upcoming tax dispute
Justice Samuel Alito on Friday rebuffed a call from Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee for him to recuse himself from a tax dispute because of his links to an attorney in the case. Alito contended that when – as in this case – “there is no sound reason for a Justice to recuse, the… Read More
Supreme Court sets seven cases for November argument session
A major Second Amendment dispute and a challenge to the constitutionality of efforts by public officials to block constituents on social media headline the Supreme Court’s November argument calendar, which was released on Wednesday. The session, which begins on Oct. 30, is a relatively light one, with the justices scheduled to hear oral arguments in… Read More