Justice Samuel Alito did not report any reimbursements for travel-related expenses in 2023, according to a financial disclosure form made public on Friday. The form also revealed that Alito accepted concert tickets worth $900 from a German princess. Each justice is required to file a financial disclosure every year by May 15 with the Administrative… Read More
Court denies Oklahoma request to reinstate federal funds in dispute over abortion referrals
The Supreme Court on Tuesday denied a request from Oklahoma to reinstate over $4 million in funding for family-planning projects while the state’s challenge to the termination of the grant by the federal Department of Health and Human Services continues in the lower courts. Federal law requires states to provide abortion counseling and referrals as… Read More
Special Counsel Jack Smith revises indictment against Trump
Just under two months after a divided Supreme Court ruled that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution for their conduct in office, Special Counsel Jack Smith charged former President Donald Trump in a revised indictment alleging that Trump conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The court’s July 1 ruling, written by… Read More
Justices allow Arizona to enforce proof-of-citizenship law for 2024 voter registration
A divided Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon granted a request from the Republican National Committee and the Republican leaders of Arizona’s legislature to reinstate a state law that requires residents to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote using a form provided by the state. The court turned down a request, however, to reinstate… Read More
Supreme Court blocks temporary enforcement of expanded protections for transgender students
The Supreme Court on Friday rejected the Biden administration’s request to be allowed to temporarily enforce most of an April 2024 rule implementing Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits sex discrimination in education programs that receive federal funding, while its appeals continued. Friday’s ruling leaves in place for now decisions by… Read More
Supreme Court rejects Missouri’s request to block Trump’s New York gag order, sentencing
The Supreme Court on Monday turned down a plea from Missouri to block New York from imposing a gag order and sentencing former President Donald Trump in his criminal proceedings there until after the 2024 elections. After a six-week trial, Trump was convicted in May in a New York state court on 34 counts of… Read More
Biden proposes Supreme Court reforms
President Joe Biden on Monday proposed three reforms to the Supreme Court. Stressing that he has “great respect for our institutions and the separation of powers,” but contending that “[w]hat is happening now is not normal,” Biden pointed to the court’s recent decision finding that former presidents have broad immunity for crimes that they commit… Read More
Justices appoint former clerk to argue First Step Act cases
The Supreme Court on Friday afternoon appointed a former clerk to Justice Samuel Alito (who also served as a clerk to then-Judge Neil Gorsuch on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit) to defend a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in a pair of cases involving the… Read More
Court schedules first cases for 2024-25 term
The Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the Biden administration’s efforts to regulate so-called “ghost guns” in the first week of the 2024-25 term in October, followed the next day by an unusual death-penalty case – in which the state’s attorney general supports the condemned man’s efforts to overturn his conviction and sentence. Garland… Read More
Roberts court hands major wins to Trump, conservative movement in 2023-24 term
Former President Donald Trump loomed large over the Supreme Court’s 2023-24 term. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee for 2024 brought two cases to the justices and fared well in both; Trump could also benefit from the decision in a third case, brought by a defendant charged in the Jan. 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol…. Read More