Thirty-one years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that a defendant who can show that his mental health is likely to play an important role at trial is entitled to help from a psychiatrist if he cannot afford it. Next week the justices will consider exactly what that holding meant – and in particular, whether it… Read More

Last week, Missouri Governor Eric Greitens announced that the state had reversed course on the policy at the heart of Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer: Going forward, the state’s Department of Natural Resources can award grants to religious groups to fund programs like the recycled rubber playground surfaces for which Trinity Lutheran applied… Read More

During his March confirmation hearing, then-Judge Neil Gorsuch repeatedly professed his belief that judges should adhere to the plain language of a law, without considering other factors such as the law’s history or what Congress might have intended when it enacted the law. After his first oral argument as a Supreme Court justice, it became… Read More

[Author’s note: An earlier version of this preview ran on August 8, 2016. The post has been updated to reflect events that occurred after the post was originally published.] One year, three months, and four days after the justices originally agreed to review it, the court will finally hear oral argument in a dispute that began… Read More

By a vote of 54-45, the Senate today confirmed Judge Neil Gorsuch to be the 113th justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. The confirmation ended the battle over the vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia on February 13, 2016. Shortly after Scalia’s death, Senate Republicans vowed to block any nominee that then-President Barack… Read More

This morning the justices added two new cases to their merits docket for next term, but once again they did not act on perhaps the most closely watched case on their cert docket – a challenge by a Colorado man who objects to having to create cakes for same-sex weddings. Today’s two grants involve very… Read More

Most oral arguments at the Supreme Court focus heavily on principles of law. But today in Turner v. United States and Overton v. United States, the discussion focused instead almost exclusively on the facts – such as the size of the garage in which the body of 48-year-old Catherine Fuller was found and the scenarios… Read More

This morning the Supreme Court heard oral argument in the case of Jae Lee, a Korean immigrant who was charged with possession of ecstasy with intent to distribute it. Lee accepted a plea bargain after his attorney told him that he would not be deported. That advice turned out to be, as Justice Elena Kagan… Read More

A Texas death-row inmate will get a shot at a new sentence after the Supreme Court ruled today that a state court applied the wrong standards to conclude that he was not intellectually disabled and therefore could be executed. Bobby James Moore was convicted and sentenced to death for shooting a supermarket employee during a… Read More

In 1984, there were 175 murders in the District of Columbia. But the October 1984 murder of Catherine Fuller, a 48-year-old mother of six, was particularly infamous. When she was found in a pool of her own blood in a garage off an alley, Fuller had been robbed, badly beaten, and sodomized with an unknown… Read More