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

This post was updated on June 28 at 4:22 p.m. The Supreme Court on Friday threw out the charges against a former Pennsylvania police officer who entered the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks. By a vote of 6-3, the justices ruled that the law that Joseph Fischer was charged with violating, which… Read More

This post was updated on June 28 at 3:46 p.m. In a major ruling, the Supreme Court on Friday cut back sharply on the power of federal agencies to interpret the laws they administer and ruled that courts should rely on their own interpretion of ambiguous laws. The decision will likely have far-reaching effects across… Read More

When the justices return to the bench on Friday morning, they will have seven decisions left to release before their summer recess. (This assumes that the court issues two opinions in the challenges to Texas and Florida laws that would regulate large social-media companies.) The justices are not expected to issue all seven opinions on… Read More

As we enter the homestretch of the Supreme Court’s term, the justices have just seven (in all likelihood) opinions to release. With the announcement of the court’s opinions in SEC v. Jarkesy and Harrington v. Purdue Pharma on Thursday, the justices have now issued all of their opinions from 2023. Only two cases – which… Read More

The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a multi-billion-dollar bankruptcy plan for Purdue Pharma, the maker of the opioid OxyContin, cannot move forward. By a vote of 5-4, the justices granted the federal government’s request to block the plan on the ground that it shields members of the Sackler family, which principally owns the company… Read More

The Supreme Court on Thursday temporarily blocked a rule issued by the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce air pollution from power plants and other industrial facilities in 23 states. By a vote of 5-4, the justices granted a request from three states, as well as several companies and trade associations affected by the rule, to… Read More

The Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for emergency abortions to go forward, at least for now, in Idaho. Less than 24 hours after Bloomberg News reported on the brief and accidental release of an opinion on the Supreme Court’s website, the justices officially announced that they had dismissed a pair of cases, Moyle v…. Read More

The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that a federal anti-bribery law does not make it a crime for state and local officials to accept a gratuity for acts that they have already taken. Writing for a six-justice majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh explained that state and local governments already regulate gifts to officials, and so the… Read More

The Supreme Court on Wednesday threw out a lawsuit seeking to limit the government’s ability to communicate with social media companies about their content moderation policies. By a vote of 6-3, the court ruled that that the plaintiffs did not have a legal right, known as standing, to bring their lawsuit. Writing for the majority,… Read More

This post was updated on June 26 at 4:08 p.m. Bloomberg News has reported that the Supreme Court briefly accidentally posted an opinion on its website that would allow emergency abortions to go forward in Idaho. The court’s Public Information Office has issued a statement that the opinion in a pair of cases, Moyle v…. Read More