Amy Howe

Oct 31 2023

Justices weigh rules for when public officials can block critics on social media

The Supreme Court on Tuesday struggled to define precisely when public officials who block their critics on their personal social-media accounts are acting on behalf of the government and therefore can be held liable for violating the First Amendment. As Justice Neil Gorsuch put it, the justices had a “profusion of possible tests” before them,… Read More

Oct 30 2023

Justices consider liability for officials who block critics on social media

On Tuesday the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a pair of cases involving liability for public officials who block critics on their personal social-media accounts. The two cases, O’Connor-Ratcliff v. Garnier and Lindke v. Freed, are the first in a series of disputes this term arising out of the relationship between government and… Read More

Oct 30 2023

No grants from Friday’s conference

The Supreme Court on Monday morning issued orders from the justices’ private conference last week. The justices did not add any new cases to their merits docket for the 2023-24 term, and they did not act on several of the high-profile petitions for review that they considered on Friday. The justices denied review in one… Read More

Oct 13 2023

Justices grant four new cases, including Chevron companion case

The Supreme Court has added a second case asking it to overrule its landmark 1984 decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council to its docket for the 2023-24 term. The announcement came on a list of orders released on Friday afternoon from the justices’ private conference earlier in the day. The court will hear… Read More

Oct 12 2023

Purdue Pharma, tax cases headline December argument session

The Supreme Court will hear oral argument on Dec. 4 in the challenge to the legality of the bankruptcy plan for Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of the highly addictive opioid painkiller OxyContin. The argument in the Purdue Pharma case is one of eight cases scheduled for seven hours of oral argument in the court’s December… Read More

Oct 11 2023

Justices question finding that S.C. district was unconstitutional racial gerrymander

The Supreme Court on Wednesday was skeptical of a lower court’s decision that a congressional district on the South Carolina coast was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. After over two hours of oral argument, a majority of the court seemed inclined to rule for the state in a dispute that centers on the often close correlation… Read More

Oct 10 2023

Court to hear argument in racial gerrymandering challenge to S.C. congressional district

The Supreme Court will hear oral argument on Wednesday in a dispute over the congressional map that South Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature enacted in the wake of the 2020 census. A federal court threw out the map earlier this year, holding that one district on the South Carolina coast was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander – that… Read More

Oct 10 2023

Court won’t hear case seeking to overrule NYT v. Sullivan

The Supreme Court did not add any new cases to its docket on Tuesday morning. In a list of orders from the justices’ private conference last week, the justices denied review in approximately 180 cases – including one asking the court to overrule one of its landmark decisions on freedom of the press. In Blankenship… Read More

Sep 11 2023

Alabama returns to the Supreme Court over allegedly discriminatory voting map

It was déjà vu all over again at the Supreme Court on Monday, as Alabama asked the justices to intervene in a dispute over the state’s congressional map. The last time it made such a request, in January 2022, Alabama won the battle but lost the war: A divided Supreme Court temporarily blocked a lower… Read More

Aug 15 2023

Biden administration recommends grant in challenges to social-media laws

The Biden administration on Monday urged the Supreme Court to take up a pair of challenges to the constitutionality of controversial social-media laws in Florida and Texas. In a brief filed at the justices’ request, U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told the court that the laws, which were enacted in response to beliefs that social-media… Read More

Amy L Howe
Until September 2016, Amy served as the editor and reporter for SCOTUSblog, a blog devoted to coverage of the Supreme Court of the United States; she continues to serve as an independent contractor and reporter for SCOTUSblog. Before turning to full-time blogging, she served as counsel in over two dozen merits cases at the Supreme Court and argued two cases there. From 2004 until 2011, she co-taught Supreme Court litigation at Stanford Law School; from 2005 until 2013, she co-taught a similar class at Harvard Law School. She has also served as an adjunct professor at American University’s Washington College of Law and Vanderbilt Law School. Amy is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds a master’s degree in Arab Studies and a law degree from Georgetown University.
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Recent ScotusBlog Posts from Amy
  • Justices to hear major tax case
  • Court conflicted over Purdue Pharma bankruptcy plan that shields Sacklers from liability
  • Opioid maker Purdue’s bankruptcy case comes before Supreme Court
More from Amy Howe

Recent Posts

  • Justices dismiss “civil rights tester” case
  • Oral argument suggests narrow ruling to uphold disputed tax
  • Justices to hear major tax case
  • Court conflicted over Purdue Pharma bankruptcy plan that shields Sacklers from liability
  • Opioid maker Purdue’s bankruptcy case comes before Supreme Court
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