And by “started,” I mean as recently as last term, when it was February before the justices heard oral arguments from a female attorney who was not a lawyer for either the federal government or a state government. As I reported last month, the October Term 2016 got off to a much better start, with… Read More

The Supreme Court added five new cases to its docket this afternoon. Among the new grants was Gloucester County School Board v. G.G., the case of a transgender student who identifies as a boy and wants to be allowed to use the boys’ bathroom at his Virginia high school. The announcement that the justices would… Read More

Under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, a federal law enacted in 1976, foreign countries normally cannot be sued in U.S. courts unless one of only a few specific exceptions applies. One of those exceptions, known as the “expropriation” exception, applies to situations in which a foreign government has nationalized privately owned property. It allows lawsuits… Read More

In the court of public opinion, Stacy and Brent Fry have probably already won. Who would deny their adorable daughter, who was born with cerebral palsy, the opportunity to bring her equally winsome service dog to school with her, to help her with everything from opening and closing the doors to using the bathroom independently?… Read More

The Supreme Court released its December calendar today. During their December sitting, which begins on November 28, the justices will hear eight hours of oral argument over six days: two one-hour arguments on both Monday, November 28, and Monday, December 5, and one one-hour argument on each of the four remaining days – November 29-30… Read More

When the third and final presidential debate began last night in Las Vegas, anticipation among Supreme Court watchers was high: The Commission on Presidential Debates had announced that fifteen of the debate’s ninety minutes would be devoted to the court. And, indeed, the court was the very first topic to which moderator Chris Wallace, of… Read More

On Monday the federal government filed, at the court’s invitation, a brief in Howell v. Howell, a dispute between a divorced couple over the wife’s share of the husband’s military retirement pay. When the government recommends that the justices review a case, it generally does so in part because it believes that the lower court’s… Read More

The Supreme Court issued orders from its October 14 conference this morning. The justices did not add any new cases to their merits docket for this term, and they did not act on a Virginia school board’s request for review of a lower court’s decision that would allow a transgender student who identifies as a… Read More

The justices could be on the verge of adding another patent case to their merits docket for this term. Last week the federal government recommended that the court grant review in Impression Products v. Lexmark International, a case involving the scope of the “patent exhaustion” doctrine. Although the federal government’s advice is not dispositive, studies… Read More

Today the Supreme Court issued a revised argument calendar for its November session, which begins on October 31. Ivy v. Morath, which had originally been scheduled as the second case on Monday, November 7, was removed from the calendar, leaving only one case – National Labor Relations Board v. SW General – on that day.