When a case comes to the Supreme Court, the justices are usually interpreting U.S. laws – either the U.S. Constitution or a federal statute. But in today’s global economy, resolving cases brought under U.S. law in U.S. courts can also require an understanding of foreign laws. And that’s not always easy, especially when the foreign… Read More

The 2010 census brought good news for Texas. In the 10 years since the last census, it had gained nearly four million residents, which translated into four more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Those changes would require the state’s Republican-controlled legislature to draw new maps for both Congress and the statehouse, which it… Read More

Nearly seven years ago, the Supreme Court agreed to decide whether corporations can be sued under the Alien Tort Statute, an 18th-century law that allows foreigners to bring lawsuits in U.S. courts for serious violations of international human-rights laws. The justices ultimately did not resolve the corporate liability question in that case, ruling instead that… Read More

This morning the Supreme Court added two new cases, consolidated for one hour of oral argument, to its docket for next term. Today’s grants mean that the justices will once again grapple with the Armed Career Criminal Act, which requires longer sentences for repeat offenders who commit crimes with guns and have been convicted of… Read More

When the Supreme Court convenes next week to hear oral argument in the challenge to President Donald Trump’s September 2017 proclamation – often referred to as the “travel ban” – restricting travel to the United States by citizens of eight countries, many of the reporters covering the hearing will be at the court for the… Read More

On Wednesday, April 25, the justices will take the bench for the final oral argument scheduled for this term. Fittingly, the case on their docket that day is one of the biggest of the year: Trump v. Hawaii, the challenge to the latest iteration of President Donald Trump’s efforts to restrict travel to the United… Read More

Since October, the Supreme Court has heard oral argument in two major redistricting battles, involving allegations of partisan gerrymandering in Wisconsin and Maryland. When the justices take the bench next Tuesday, they will hear oral argument in a third redistricting dispute, this time involving allegations that Texas lawmakers drew federal congressional and state legislative districts… Read More

In his 2015 book, “The Court and the World,” Justice Stephen Breyer discusses what he describes as the “new challenges imposed by an ever more interdependent world.” As the Supreme Court “is called upon to consider foreign realities,” he observes, it will face a variety of “institutional challenges” – including how to “obtain the information… Read More

In late February, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in a battle between the United States and the computer giant Microsoft. In 2013, the federal government had served a warrant on Microsoft at the company’s Washington state headquarters, seeking information about an email account that the government believed was being used for drug trafficking. Microsoft… Read More

This morning the Supreme Court issued orders from last week’s private conference. The justices did not add any new cases to their merits docket for their next term, which begins in October, but they did ask the U.S. solicitor general to weigh in on four cases. Two of the cases in which the U.S. solicitor… Read More