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

During almost two-and-a-half hours of debate on Wednesday, nearly all of the court’s conservative majority expressed skepticism about a challenge to Tennessee’s ban on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender teenagers. Three transgender teens, their families, and a Memphis physician, along with the Biden administration, contend that the law violates the Constitution’s guarantee of… Read More

The Supreme Court on Tuesday appointed a former clerk to Chief Justice John Roberts to defend a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in an immigration case after the Biden administration declined to do so. The announcement that the court had appointed Stephen Hammer, an associate in the Dallas office… Read More

A long-running dispute reached the Supreme Court again on Tuesday over efforts by survivors of the Hungarian Holocaust to receive compensation for property that was seized by the Hungarian government during its extermination campaign in collaboration with the Nazis. The survivors and their heirs brought their suit in U.S. court. At issue in the case… Read More

The Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear a challenge to a Tennessee law that bans the use of puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender teens. The dispute could be one of the most significant decisions of the term. And with similar laws in 23 other states, the court’s ruling is likely to have broader… Read More

The Supreme Court on Monday morning heard oral arguments in a challenge to the Food and Drug Administration’s rejection of two companies’ applications to sell fruit-, candy-, and dessert-flavored liquids for use in e-cigarettes. A lawyer for the FDA urged the justices to leave the denials in place, citing the health and addiction risks of… Read More

It has been nearly 80 years since World War II officially ended in Europe. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the latest chapter in efforts by the victims of the war’s atrocities to recover confiscated property. At issue is whether a lawsuit by survivors of the Hungarian Holocaust, seeking to recover… Read More

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Monday in a dispute over the Food and Drug Administration’s rejection of two companies’ applications to sell flavored liquids for use in e-cigarettes. A federal appeals court in Louisiana set aside the FDA’s orders denying applications by Triton Distribution and Vapetasia, complaining that the agency had sent… Read More

The Supreme Court declined on Monday morning to hear the case of a Texas woman seeking compensation for damage to her home inflicted by a SWAT team pursuing a fugitive. The denial of review in Baker v. McKinney came on a list of orders from the justices’ private conference on Friday. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined… Read More

The justices on Friday created the prospect of another major ruling on the role of administrative agencies and Congress’s ability to delegate power to those agencies. At the Biden administration’s request, the court agreed to review a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit that invalidated parts of a program by… Read More

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Feb. 26 in a case involving the showing that plaintiffs in “reverse discrimination” cases must make, followed by oral arguments on March 4 in a lawsuit brought by the Mexican government against U.S. gun manufacturers, seeking to hold them liable for gun violence in Mexico. The court… Read More