The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a request from former President Donald Trump to block the disclosure of his tax returns to a congressional committee. The brief order clears the way for the House Committee on Ways and Means to obtain six years’ worth of federal tax returns for Trump and his companies. The court… Read More
Biden administration asks justices to revive student-debt relief plan after lower court blocked it
Telling the justices that a lower-court ruling blocking the Biden administration’s student-debt relief program “leaves millions of economically vulnerable borrowers in limbo,” the administration came to the Supreme Court on Friday, asking the justices to allow the $400 billion program to go forward while challenges to it continue in the lower courts. The 40-page filing… Read More
Justices allow another execution to proceed, rejecting final appeal of Oklahoma man
For the fourth time in 24 hours, the Supreme Court declined to block an execution. On Thursday morning, the justices rejected a plea from Oklahoma inmate Richard Fairchild, who had asked the justices to put his execution on hold to give him time to appeal a state court’s ruling on his mental competency. But in… Read More
Justices green-light Texas execution of man who raised religious-rights claim
The Supreme Court rejected a request from Texas inmate Stephen Barbee to postpone his execution, scheduled for Wednesday evening, after a judge ruled that the state was not adequately protecting inmates’ religious rights in the execution chamber. Texas agreed to allow Barbee’s minister to touch him and pray out loud during the lethal injection. But… Read More
Court allows Arizona to execute man who claimed that state withheld evidence
The Supreme Court refused to block the lethal injection of Murray Hooper, a 76-year-old inmate who was scheduled to be executed in Arizona on Wednesday. Hooper had asked the justices to intervene in light of what he characterized as new evidence showing that he was wrongfully convicted, but Arizona prosecutors dismissed his contention as “entirely… Read More
Justices will review scope of identity theft in case involving Medicaid fraud
The Supreme Court announced on Thursday afternoon that it will weigh in on what it means to commit identity theft. After holding their private conference a day early because Friday is a federal holiday, the justices released a one-sentence order list that added one new case to their merits docket for the 2022-23 term: Dubin… Read More
Seven mostly low-profile cases are slated for oral arguments in January
The Supreme Court on Thursday morning released its calendar for the January argument session. After hearing arguments during the first three months of the 2022-23 term in blockbuster cases involving affirmative action, voting, the Indian Child Welfare Act, and tension between free speech and state nondiscrimination laws, the justices will begin 2023 on a quieter… Read More
Closely divided court scrutinizes various provisions of Indian Child Welfare Act
The Supreme Court appeared divided on Wednesday over the constitutionality of a 1978 law that regulates the adoption of Native American children. After more than three hours of oral argument, several justices expressed doubt about specific provisions of the wide-ranging law, even if they did not appear inclined to strike down the law in its… Read More
In challenge to Indian Child Welfare Act, court will weigh the rights of states and the role of race
In 2012, the late Justice Antonin Scalia called a dispute arising from the adoption of Native American twins in a Mississippi state court the most difficult case he had encountered in his time on the Supreme Court. In that case, the Supreme Court ruled that under the Indian Child Welfare Act, a 1978 federal law… Read More
Justices grant review in cases on patents, trademarks, and water rights for Native Americans
The Supreme Court on Friday added four new cases to its docket for the 2022-23 term. The new grants include a patent-law dispute, a case involving the applicability of U.S. trademark laws outside the United States, and a pair of cases – which will be argued together – involving the Navajo Nation’s rights to water… Read More