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

On November 16, the Supreme Court announced that it would hear oral argument in February in a dispute over evidence in the challenge to the Trump administration’s decision to bring back a question about citizenship on the 2020 census. Yesterday the federal government took the unusual step of sending a letter to the Supreme Court… Read More

The Supreme Court heard oral argument this morning in a dispute between technology giant Apple and a group of iPhone users over the sale of apps from Apple’s App Store. The iPhone users are seeking massive damages from Apple, complaining that the company is violating federal antitrust laws by requiring the users to buy apps… Read More

It is rare to ask the Supreme Court to hear a case before a federal appeals court has had an opportunity to weigh in. But yesterday the Trump administration made its second such request in less than 20 days, this time urging the justices to take up three cases (here, here and here) challenging the… Read More

Next week the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in the case of Tyson Timbs, an Indiana man who lost his Land Rover after his conviction on state drug charges. A state trial court agreed with Timbs that requiring him to forfeit his car went too far, violating the Eighth Amendment’s ban on “excessive fines,”… Read More

When the justices return from their Thanksgiving vacation next week, they will hear oral argument in a would-be class action filed against the technology giant Apple by iPhone users. The iPhone users argue that Apple is violating federal antitrust laws by requiring them to buy apps only from Apple’s App Store, at inflated prices. But… Read More

The Supreme Court issued more orders this morning from the justices’ private conference last Friday. The justices had added two new cases to their merits docket for the term last week and were not expected to grant any more today – and they did not. Instead, the overwhelming majority of today’s orders denied review of… Read More

The Supreme Court announced this afternoon that it would hear oral argument in February in a dispute over evidence in the challenge to the government’s decision to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 census. The order is the latest chapter at the court for the case; the justices had previously rejected the government’s… Read More

This morning the justices issued orders from last week’s private conference. They added two new cases to their merits docket for the term and denied review in a group of capital cases from Florida, with the latter spurring three separate (and sometimes strongly worded) opinions. The justices will once again return to the subject of… Read More

In my latest podcast, I look back at some of the events of the week of November 5 at the Supreme Court, including the first opinion of the term, the formal investiture of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and the announcement that 85-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had broken three ribs in a fall at her office.

Three days ago, the federal government went to the Supreme Court, asking the justices to weigh in on a dispute over the Trump administration’s decision to end a program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals even before the federal courts of appeals – and in particular the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th… Read More