Covering the Supreme Court and the Judiciary in (mostly) Plain English

The Supreme Court on Wednesday morning agreed to take up a dispute over whether a South Carolina woman can bring a lawsuit challenging that state’s decision to end Planned Parenthood’s participation in its Medicaid program. The court’s announcement that it will hear arguments next spring in Kerr v. Planned Parenthood came at approximately 11 a.m…. Read More

The Supreme Court will hear two hours of oral arguments on Jan. 10 in TikTok’s appeal to block enforcement of a federal law that would require TikTok to shut down in the United States unless its parent company can sell off the U.S. company by Jan. 19. In a one-page unsigned order issued on Wednesday… Read More

UPDATED: A group of TikTok users filed a separate application on Monday afternoon, also asking the court to block enforcement of the law. Social media giant TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, on Monday asked the justices to block a federal law that would require TikTok to shut down in the United States unless ByteDance… Read More

The Supreme Court on Monday morning declined to take up a challenge to New York’s caps on the price that its low-income residents pay for broadband internet access. The denial of review in New York State Telecommunications Association v. James came on a list of orders released from the justices’ private conference on Friday. After… Read More

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to review a decision by the Wisconsin Supreme Court rejecting efforts by Catholic Charities to seek an exemption from the state’s unemployment tax. Catholic Charities contends that both it and the four agencies that operate under its umbrella qualify for the exemption because they are operated “primarily for religious… Read More

Members of the public who want to attend oral arguments at the Supreme Court can now apply through an online lottery to obtain advance reservations for seats at those arguments. The Supreme Court announced in a press release on Thursday afternoon that it has launched a pilot lottery program, beginning with seats for the court’s… Read More

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a request from a Kentucky utility company to temporarily block an Environmental Protection Agency rule governing the disposal of coal ash while a challenge to it moves forward in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The denial came just under six months after the… Read More

At oral arguments on Monday it was not clear how the Supreme Court will rule in the case of a Philadelphia-area government contractor found guilty of fraud after it failed to comply with a contract provision intended to promote diversity. In Kousisis v. United States, the justices are considering whether the federal wire fraud laws… Read More

The Supreme Court on Monday morning declined to take up several hot-button issues, including a challenge by parents to a school district’s plan to provide support for transgender and non-binary students, a dispute over the admissions policy used during the 2021-22 school year for three of Boston’s elite public high schools, and the case of… Read More

The Supreme Court on Friday afternoon agreed to decide whether a 2019 law that seeks to give U.S. courts the power to hear claims by victims of terrorism against the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority violates the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of fair treatment. Fuld v. Palestine Liberation Organization and United States v. Palestine… Read More