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

With less than a week to go before the end of June, there are now only three decisions remaining from the January and February sessions. All three of those cases involve high-profile issues: public funding for religious schools, the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s leadership structure and abortion. And although in recent years… Read More

With last week’s decisions in the Title VII and DACA cases, the Supreme Court has now released all of the opinions remaining from the 2019 argument sessions. There are now only 4 decisions remaining from the January and February sessions, three of which involve high-profile issues like school choice, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and… Read More

One week after finally denying review in a large batch of cases asking them to weigh in on issues relating to qualified immunity for police officers and the rights of gun owners, this morning the justices issued a relatively quiet list of orders from their private conference last week. The justices did not add any… Read More

With last week’s decisions in the Title VII and DACA cases, the Supreme Court has now released all of the opinions remaining from the 2019 sittings. The oldest outstanding decision is now Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, which was argued at the end of January 2020. Here is a list of the cases that… Read More

After the federal government announced that it plans to resume executions in July after a pause of nearly 20 years, the Supreme Court today put the dispute over the lethal-injection protocol that the government plans to use in those executions on a fast track. In an order issued this afternoon, the justices instructed the federal… Read More

It has been eight years since the Obama administration created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, which allows undocumented young adults who came to the United States as children to apply for protection from deportation. In 2017, the Trump administration announced that it would end the program, which it believed had… Read More

After just under three years (and three Supreme Court terms) on the job, Noel Francisco announced today that he would step down as the solicitor general of the United States, effective July 3, 2020. In a letter to President Donald Trump, Francisco wrote that he planned “to return to the private sector and spend more… Read More

Tonight the Supreme Court put a temporary hold on the execution of Texas death-row inmate Ruben Gutierrez, who had been scheduled to die at 7 p.m. EDT. In a short unsigned order, the justices granted a request by Gutierrez to stay his execution while it considers his petition to review his case on the merits…. Read More

With just over two weeks remaining before the deadline to request mail-in ballots for the upcoming primary runoff election, the Texas Democratic Party and a group of Texas voters have asked the Supreme Court to reinstate a ruling by a federal trial court that would allow all eligible voters in Texas to vote by mail… Read More

Yesterday the Supreme Court issued two opinions: One (covering three argued cases) holding that federal employment discrimination laws protect LGBT employees, and another holding that the U.S. Forest Service had the power to grant a right-of-way for a natural gas pipeline through lands traversed by the Appalachian Trail. As of today, the justices have 16… Read More