This morning the Supreme Court issued orders from the justices’ private conference on Friday. The justices did not add any new cases to their docket for the term – they did that on Friday afternoon – nor did they call for the views of the U.S. solicitor general in any cases. But one order today… Read More

This morning the Supreme Court announced several proposed changes to its rules and invited the public to comment on those proposed revisions by the end of the month. If the changes are implemented, their effect would fall almost exclusively on lawyers and litigants before the court. The first of the four substantive proposed changes to… Read More

It has been over 18 years since the USS Cole was bombed while the ship was refueling in Yemen, killing 17 sailors and injuring 42 more. Next week the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in a lawsuit, filed by service members  who were injured that day (and their families), seeking to hold the government… Read More

The Supreme Court heard oral argument this morning in a dispute over immunity for the International Finance Corporation, an international organization that makes loans to private businesses to finance projects in developing countries. The plaintiffs in the case, a group of farmers and fishermen, live near a power plant in India that was financed in… Read More

Next week the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in the case of Russell Bucklew, a Missouri death-row inmate who argues that the state’s plan to execute him by lethal injection violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment because he suffers from a rare medical condition that could lead to his gagging on… Read More

This morning the Supreme Court issued additional orders from last Friday’s conference. The justices had announced three new grants from that conference on Friday, and (as expected) they did not add any more cases to their merits docket today. The justices asked the U.S. solicitor general to weigh in on two cases, and Justice Sonia… Read More

This afternoon the justices announced that they had granted review in three new cases, involving issues ranging from patent and bankruptcy law to the federal law governing sex offenders. The justices did not act on several high-profile petitions for review, including a dispute over a cross on public land in the Washington, D.C., suburbs and… Read More

In recent years, Supreme Court has cut back drastically on lawsuits that seek to hold corporations responsible in U.S. courts for alleged human rights violations abroad. Next week the justices will hear oral argument in a case involving immunity for international organizations, like the United Nations and the World Bank, that could also limit similar… Read More

UPDATE: This post has been updated to include statements from the eight associate justices and three retired justices. Retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court, announced today that she has been diagnosed with dementia, “probably Alzheimer’s disease,” and that as her “condition has progressed,” she is “no longer… Read More

The Supreme Court has once again been asked to weigh in on the case of a baker who refused to make a cake for a same-sex marriage celebration because doing so would violate the baker’s religious beliefs. Less than five months ago, the justices issued a narrow ruling in the case of Jack Phillips, a… Read More