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

Last week a Virginia transgender student who identifies as a boy and wants to be allowed to use the boys’ bathroom at his local high school filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to stay out of the dispute. The brief was filed just fifteen days – half of the thirty days available to him… Read More

When early voting starts in Ohio next month, it will not include “Golden Week” – a window at the start of the early voting period in which voters can both register to vote and vote on the same day. The state implemented Golden Week in the wake of the 2004 presidential election, when many Ohio… Read More

Ten days after the Supreme Court rejected North Carolina’s request to enforce the state’s new voter identification requirement for the November presidential elections, today the Justices also declined to step into a battle between Michigan and a group of non-profits and individuals challenging the state’s elimination of “straight-ticket voting” – which allows voters to cast… Read More

[UPDATE: On Monday, September 12, Ohio Democrats filed their reply to the state’s brief opposing the Democrats’ request to halt the Sixth Circuit’s ruling and preserve “Golden Week.”] Emphasizing that Ohio actually offers its citizens a longer window in which to vote than most states, today state officials urged the Justices to turn down a… Read More

Less than three months after the Supreme Court unanimously struck down his conviction on federal corruption charges, today the Department of Justice announced that it would not seek to retry either former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell or his wife, Maureen, who was convicted on similar charges. In a terse three-sentence statement, the Department of Justice… Read More

UPDATED:  Today Justice Elena Kagan asked the state to file a response to the request by Ohio Democrats.  The response is due on Thursday, September 8, by 3 p.m. Eastern. One day after the Supreme Court rejected North Carolina’s request to allow the state to enforce parts of its controversial election law, including the requirement that… Read More

The Supreme Court released its November argument calendar today. The Justices will hear ten hours of oral argument over six days: two hours each on Monday and Tuesday, followed by one hour on Wednesday, during the two weeks of the sitting. All of the cases in the November sitting (which begins on October 31) were… Read More

A closely divided Court today denied North Carolina’s request to allow the state to enforce three provisions of its controversial 2013 election law when voters go to the polls for this fall’s general elections. The state needed five of the eight Justices to agree to halt a lower court’s ruling that blocked the law, but… Read More

Urging the Justices to resolve the dispute over the use of school bathrooms by trangender students “once and for all,” today a Virginia school board asked the Supreme Court to examine a decision by a federal appeals court in favor of a transgender student who identifies as a boy and wants to be allowed to… Read More

Earlier this year, the Court threw out former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell’s conviction on federal corruption charges and sent the case back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Both sides then asked the court of appeals to put the case on hold for thirty days. The court of appeals agreed, instructing… Read More