In a one-sentence order issued this afternoon, Justice Samuel Alito blocked an order by a federal district court in Texas that had invalidated two congressional districts in that state. Officials in Texas had asked the district court to put its order on hold to give it time to appeal to the Supreme Court, but the… Read More

In June, the Supreme Court agreed to review a ruling by a three-judge federal district court striking down the redistricting plan that Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled legislature adopted after the 2010 census. Today the state of Texas asked the Supreme Court to step into another redistricting dispute, this time a long-running battle over that state’s congressional redistricting… Read More

The Supreme Court is currently in its summer recess, and the justices are not scheduled to meet to review new cases until September 25, when their “long conference” – at which they will consider the approximately 2,000 petitions that have accumulated since the end of June – will take place. But in a relatively unusual… Read More

On September 25, the justices will meet for their first conference after their summer recess, which is also known as the “long” conference. At that conference, they will consider more petitions than they do at any time of the year (usually somewhere around 2,000) but will grant relatively few – last year, the number was… Read More

In just a little over a month, the justices will meet to consider the many petitions for review that have accumulated since the Supreme Court’s summer recess began at the end of June. This post is the first in a series that will take a closer look at some of the petitions that have been… Read More

There was high drama at the Supreme Court last night, in the case of an Alabama death-row inmate who sought a last-minute stay of his execution, which was originally scheduled for 6 p.m. CST yesterday. Although the court would twice put a temporary hold on the executions, his flurry of filings was ultimately to no… Read More

Today the Supreme Court announced a new briefing schedule for Gloucester County School Board v. G.G., the case of a transgender student who identifies as a boy and wants to be able to use the boys’ bathroom at his Virginia high school. The revised schedule extends the time for each side to file its main… Read More

“It is a very tough matter,” observed Justice Stephen Breyer, summarizing the questions with which the justices were grappling today. Federal law permits (and sometimes requires) states to consider race when drawing district lines, to create legislative districts in which a majority of voters are members of a minority group, but at the same time… Read More

Following yesterday’s dismissal of Visa v. Osborn and Visa v. Stoumbos, the Supreme Court today issued a new calendar for its December sitting, which begins on November 28. The two Visa cases, which had been consolidated for one hour of oral arguments, had been scheduled for argument on Wednesday, December 7 — the only argument… Read More

With less than two days to go before the polls open, legal battles over the 2016 presidential election continued at the Supreme Court this evening. The Ohio Democratic Party asked the justices to reinstate a federal district court’s order that barred the campaign of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump from attempting to intimidate voters in… Read More