Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had two cancerous growths removed from her left lung today, the Supreme Court’s public information office announced. After the surgery, which was performed at New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center,there was no sign of any other growths in her lung, and Ginsburg is resting comfortably in her hospital room. The… Read More
Immigration groups and Republican officials urge justices to deny stay in asylum case
Last week the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to block a ruling by a federal judge in San Francisco in a challenge to a new U.S. policy on asylum, announced last month as thousands of migrants moved from Central America towards the U.S. border. The rule would prohibit immigrants who enter the United States… Read More
Virginia House of Delegates asks justices to intervene in redistricting dispute
Last month the Supreme Court announced that it would, for the second time, review a case from Virginia challenging the legislative districts drawn in 2011 for the state’s House of Delegates as the product of unconstitutional racial gerrymandering – the idea that legislators relied too much on race when drawing the maps. Today Virginia legislators… Read More
Government returns to Supreme Court on military transgender ban
Last month the Trump administration asked the justices to allow it to bypass the courts of appeals and immediately take up three cases (here, here and here) challenging the government’s ban on service in the military by most transgender individuals. Today the administration was back at the Supreme Court, giving the government a back-up option:… Read More
Government asks justices to intervene on asylum ban
Last month President Donald Trump blasted a ruling by a federal judge in San Francisco that blocked the government from enforcing a rule that would prohibit immigrants who enter the country illegally from requesting asylum. Trump criticized U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar, who issued the order, as an “Obama judge” and predicted that the government… Read More
Justices to consider constitutionality of cross-shaped war memorial on public land: In Plain English
Over the years, the Supreme Court has sometimes struggled to explain when and why religious symbols are permitted in the public sphere and when they are not. Sometime early in 2019, the justices will hear oral argument in a dispute over the constitutionality of a cross that sits on a traffic median in the suburbs… Read More
One new grant, one dissent from the denial of review
Last week the justices added one new case to their merits docket for the term – a relatively obscure maritime-law case. Somewhat unexpectedly, they added another new case today that will almost certainly have a much higher profile, at least in the legal world: Kisor v. Wilkie, in which the Supreme Court will consider whether… Read More
One new grant today
This afternoon the justices issued an initial set of orders from their private conference today. They added just one new case, involving maritime law, to their merits docket for the term; they did not act on any of the higher-profile cases that they considered this morning, involving issues ranging from partisan gerrymandering to the death… Read More
Argument analysis: Majority appears ready to uphold “separate sovereigns” doctrine
When Terance Gamble was pulled over by police in Alabama three years ago for having a faulty headlight, he probably didn’t think that prosecutors would make a federal case out of it. And he certainly wouldn’t have imagined that his case would make national headlines – not so much for its own sake, but because… Read More
Government files invitation briefs, recommends just one grant
In the past few days, the federal government has filed a bevy of briefs expressing the views of the United States on issues ranging from the interpretation of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act to California’s ban on foie gras. The justices often pay close attention to the government’s recommendations; if they follow that practice here,… Read More