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

UPDATED: Shortly before 9 p.m. EST, the Supreme Court cleared the way for Woods’ execution. In a brief order, the full court denied Woods’ petition for review and his request to put his execution on hold. The justices vacated the earlier order, entered by Justice Clarence Thomas, that temporarily blocked Woods’ execution. The justices also… Read More

This morning the Supreme Court heard oral argument in a challenge to a Louisiana law that would require doctors who perform abortions to have the right to admit patients at nearby hospitals. Like many cases involving hot-button issues, the drama inside the courtroom was matched by protests and rallies outside the Supreme Court. But unlike… Read More

In 2016, the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that (among other things) required doctors who perform abortions in that state to have the right to admit patients at nearby hospitals. In that case, Justice Anthony Kennedy joined the court’s four more liberal justices in concluding that the law made it harder for women… Read More

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is headed by a single director, who is appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate to serve a five-year term. Once that director is in office, she can only be removed by the president for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” This morning both a California… Read More

This morning the Supreme Court issued orders from the justices’ private conference last week. The court granted four petitions for review, including two consolidated cases (discussed in a separate post) involving the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate. All the cases granted today are expected to be argued next fall, with a decision… Read More

Just as it did almost eight years ago, the Supreme Court will once again weigh in on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate. The justices announced today that they had granted two petitions involving the ACA – one by California and a group of states, the other by Texas and a different… Read More

In 1991, James McKinney and his half-brother killed two people while robbing the victims at their homes. McKinney was sentenced to death, but in 2015 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit threw out his death sentences. In 2018, the Arizona Supreme Court resentenced McKinney, once again imposing the death penalty. Today a… Read More

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction requires that a child who is abducted from her “habitual residence” be returned to that country, so that the courts there can resolve any custody issues between the child’s parents. As a result of this “automatic return” rule, the determination of the child’s “habitual… Read More

It has been 10 years since 15-year-old Sergio Hernandez was shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent, Jesus Mesa, while Hernandez was playing on the Mexican side of the border. The Hernandez family filed a lawsuit in federal court, seeking to hold Mesa responsible for their son’s death, but today the Supreme Court,… Read More

The congressional commission that investigated the 2008 financial crisis concluded that the United States’ consumer-protection system was “too fragmented to be effective.” In response to that finding, in 2010 Congress created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as part of the Dodd-Frank Act. The CFPB – whose website describes the bureau as a “U.S. government agency… Read More