The 2018 Texas Senate race between Republican Ted Cruz and Democrat Beto O’Rourke was one of the closest races in Texas in 40 years, with O’Rourke falling short of unseating Cruz by roughly 200,000 votes out of 8.3 million cast. It was also expensive, with the candidates collectively raising more than $100 million. On Wednesday,… Read More
Boston’s refusal to fly a Christian flag over city hall raises First Amendment questions
When it hears oral argument on Tuesday in Shurtleff v. City of Boston, the Supreme Court will return to the role of religion in public spaces. The question comes to the court in an important free speech case arising from Boston’s practice of allowing outside groups to fly their flags on one of the three… Read More
Court will take up five new cases, including lawsuit from football coach who wanted to pray on the field
In a term in which the justices are already slated to weigh in on disputes over public funding for private schools that teach religion, the role of spiritual advisers in the execution chamber, and the flying of a religious flag on a city flag pole, the Supreme Court on Friday added another religion case to… Read More
Fractured court blocks vaccine-or-test requirement for large workplaces but green-lights vaccine mandate for health care workers
With COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations reaching a new record high as a result of the Omicron variant, the Supreme Court on Thursday put the Biden administration’s vaccine-or-test mandate for large employers on hold, while litigation over its legality continues in the lower courts. Over a dissent from the court’s three liberal justices, the court ruled… Read More
Justices add new cases on bankruptcy, workers’ comp, and relief from final judgments
The Supreme Court on Monday morning added three new cases — involving bankruptcy law, civil procedure, and workers’ compensation — to its docket for the 2021-22 term. But the orders that the justices issued from their private conference on Jan. 7 were just as noteworthy for what they did not do: The court did not… Read More
Court seems poised to block vaccine-or-test policy for workplaces but may allow vaccine mandate for health care workers
The Supreme Court heard oral argument on Friday in two sets of challenges to the Biden administration’s authority to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. For over two hours of debate, the justices were skeptical of the administration’s attempt to impose a vaccine-or-test mandate for workers at large employers. In the second case, which lasted for roughly… Read More
Biden vaccine policies face Supreme Court test amid nationwide COVID-19 surge
With over 100,000 Americans hospitalized for COVID-19 as a result of the highly contagious Omicron variant, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument Friday in two sets of challenges to the Biden administration’s authority to take action to combat the pandemic. In the first case, National Federation of Independent Business v. Department of Labor, the… Read More
Texas clinics ask justices to order 5th Circuit to send abortion case back to district court
Telling the Supreme Court that Texas officials “are not entitled to a second bite at the apple,” a group of abortion providers asked the justices to order a federal court of appeals to send their challenge to Texas’s restrictive anti-abortion law promptly back to the friendlier confines of a federal district court in that state…. Read More
Roberts to Congress on court reforms: We’re on it
Chief Justice John Roberts began his 2021 year-end report, as he so often does, with an anecdote from history to set the stage. But by the end of the first page, the message of Roberts’ report, which he released as usual on the final day of the year, was clear. In a year when a… Read More
Trump asks justices to block the release of documents related to Jan. 6 riot
Former President Donald Trump came to the Supreme Court on Thursday, asking the justices to block the release of White House records to the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The committee is seeking documents that would show Trump’s communications and activities in the lead-up to the riot. Trump argues… Read More