Covering the Supreme Court and the Judiciary in (mostly) Plain English

Nearly five years ago, the Supreme Court decided Spokeo v. Robins, the case of a Virginia man who alleged that an internet database company violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act when it published inaccurate information about him. The justices ruled that to have standing – that is, a legal right to sue – it is… Read More

The Supreme Court on Monday morning again postponed a decision on whether it will review a controversial Mississippi anti-abortion law, but the court indicated it will take up a procedural issue in a separate case on a Kentucky anti-abortion law. In an order list from the justices’ private conference on Friday, the justices took no… Read More

For the second year in a row, the Supreme Court will take the rare step of hearing oral argument in May. But this time the cause is not the COVID-19 pandemic, as it was last year, but instead the Biden administration’s change in position in Terry v. United States. In a brief order on Thursday,… Read More

Nearly eight years after two homemade bombs detonated near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring hundreds of others, the Supreme Court announced on Monday that it would review the case of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was sentenced to death for his role in the 2013 bombings. The U.S. Court of… Read More

Update (Monday, March 22, 6:30 p.m.): This post has been updated with expanded analysis. The Supreme Court heard oral argument on Monday in a clash between property rights advocates and union organizers. The dispute in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid centers on a nearly half-century-old California regulation that allows union organizers to enter the property… Read More

Just over one year after the Supreme Court closed its doors to the public because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the justices returned on Friday to something resembling a normal conference. The court’s public information office told reporters that for the first time since last spring, most of the justices met in person at the court… Read More

Over the past few years, the Roberts court has issued decisions that have expanded the rights of property owners who want to challenge government action and made it more difficult for public-employee unions to fund their operations. Property rights and union interests collide on Monday when the justices hear oral argument in Cedar Point Nursery… Read More

Yet another dispute is likely to disappear from the court’s docket after a change in position by the Biden administration. Acting Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar and lawyers for state and local governments and non-profit groups on Friday night asked the court to dismiss a trio of cases challenging regulations issued by the Trump administration in… Read More

The Supreme Court on Friday released the calendar for the justices’ April argument session. In contrast to the justices’ February and March argument sessions, each of which either featured or is scheduled to feature only six hours of argument after changes in position by the Biden administration led to cases being removed from the calendars,… Read More

Just over two weeks after the Supreme Court announced that it would review the Trump administration’s “public charge” rule, which governs the admission of immigrants into the United States, the case (as well as two others presenting the same question) was dismissed on Tuesday, at the request of the Biden administration and the opponents who… Read More