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

This morning the Supreme Court issued orders from the justices’ private conference last week. The justices did not add any new cases to their argument calendar for next term. Perhaps most significantly, they did not act at all on the 10 gun rights cases that they had considered for a second time at last week’s… Read More

It has been over two decades since al Qaeda operatives detonated bombs outside the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing over 200 people and injuring thousands more. The victims and their family members later filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., seeking to hold Sudan responsible for its role in providing support… Read More

This morning the Supreme Court heard oral argument in a pair of challenges to the constitutionality of so-called “faithless elector” laws – state laws that penalize or remove a presidential elector who does not vote for the candidate he has pledged to support. Six presidential electors, who hail from Washington and Colorado, argue that the… Read More

Yesterday the Supreme Court heard oral argument in a set of cases that Deputy Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall, who argued on behalf of the federal government, described as “truly historic.” At issue was whether President Donald Trump could prevent the disclosure of his financial records, including his tax returns, to state prosecutors and congressional committees…. Read More

The battle over efforts to obtain President Donald Trump’s tax returns reached the Supreme Court in two oral arguments today. Over a year ago, committees in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives and a Manhattan district attorney issued subpoenas for the president’s financial records to the president’s longtime accountant and lenders, but the president has tried… Read More

This morning the Supreme Court heard oral argument in a pair of cases filed by two teachers in southern California, who sued the Catholic schools where they worked after they learned that their contracts wouldn’t be renewed. The Catholic schools have urged the courts to throw out the teachers’ cases, relying on a doctrine known… Read More

UPDATE: On Friday Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily blocked the release of the grand jury materials and ordered the House Judiciary Committee to respond by Monday, May 18, at 3 p.m. EDT. The committee had not opposed the temporary hold, known as an administrative stay, to give the court time to review the government’s request…. Read More

In 2013, officials with ties to Chris Christie, then the governor of New Jersey, altered the traffic pattern on the George Washington Bridge in an effort to punish the mayor of nearby Fort Lee, New Jersey, for his failure to support Christie’s reelection bid. The change in the traffic pattern led to four days of… Read More

This post is based extensively on data collected by Casey Quinlan, Kalvis Golde and Katie Bart. On many days at the Supreme Court, members of the general public hoping to obtain a coveted spot at oral argument are not the only ones waiting in line on the sidewalk outside the court. Especially on days when… Read More

The Supreme Court heard oral argument this morning in the latest chapter of the battle over the Affordable Care Act’s “birth-control mandate,” which generally requires employers to provide their female employees with health insurance that includes access to certain forms of contraceptives. In 2017, the Trump administration issued new rules that expanded an exemption from… Read More