This morning the justices issued orders from last week’s private conference. They added two new cases to their merits docket for next term and asked the Acting Solicitor General to file a brief expressing the views of the United States in a third case. But, once again, they did not act on Masterpiece Cake Shop… Read More

Over 95% of criminal cases in the federal system end in a plea bargain, rather than going to trial. One such case is that of Jae Lee, who in 2009 pleaded guilty to possession of ecstasy with the intent to distribute it. Lee was sentenced to one year and one day in prison – considerably… Read More

We often refer to the Supreme Court as a “hot bench”: Questions fly fast and furious from all the justices, often allowing the lawyers to get out only a few sentences (if that many) before fielding the next question. However the bench that heard today’s oral argument in Howell v. Howell, a dispute over military… Read More

Next week the justices will hear oral argument in Howell v. Howell, a dispute between a divorced couple over the wife’s share of the husband’s military retirement pay. The former spouses, John and Sandra Howell, divorced in 1991. As part of the divorce, John – who served in the U.S. Air Force for 20 years… Read More

President Donald Trump has announced that he plans to nominate Noel Francisco, who is currently serving as the acting solicitor general after originally being named the principal deputy solicitor general, to serve as the solicitor general. The announcement comes nearly a month after Charles Cooper, a prominent Washington lawyer who was regarded as the front… Read More

Last night Texas executed Rolando Ruiz, who was convicted of the 1992 murder for hire of Theresa Rodriguez, whose husband wanted to collect on her $400,000 life insurance policy. The Supreme Court declined to step in to block Ruiz’s execution. But Justice Stephen Breyer – who has recently expressed doubt about whether the death penalty… Read More

In other news at the court, the justices today issued a summary opinion in the case of a Nevada death-row inmate who alleged that the judge in his state trial was biased. The justices had relisted the case of Michael Rippo, who was convicted and sentenced to death for two 1992 murders, five times before… Read More

A Colorado man who was required to register as a sex offender after being convicted of unlawful sexual contact with two teenage girls will get a shot at a new trial, a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled today. Miguel Peña-Rodriguez had asked a state trial court for a new trial after two jurors told his… Read More

The Supreme Court may eventually hear the case of a transgender teen who wants to be able to use the boys’ bathrooms at his Virginia high school, but it will not do so this term. In the wake of a February 22, 2017, document from the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice that revoked the… Read More

This week 31 members of the Supreme Court bar — lawyers who argue regularly before the court — sent the Senate Judiciary Committee a letter expressing their “strong support” for Judge Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump’s nominee to fill the vacancy left on the court by last year’s death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Characterizing themselves… Read More