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

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Wednesday in the case of a 76-year-old Texas woman, Sylvia Gonzalez, who was arrested on charges that she had violated a state law that prohibits tampering with government records. The charges against her were dropped, but Gonzalez brought a federal civil rights claim against three city officials,… Read More

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that a lawsuit filed by an Oregon man who was placed on the No Fly List can go forward even after the government has removed him from the list and pledged not to return him to it “based on the currently available information.” In a unanimous decision authored by… Read More

The Supreme Court on Monday appeared sympathetic to the National Rifle Association’s claim that a New York official violated the group’s right to freedom of speech when she urged banks and insurance companies that worked with the NRA to cut ties with the group. During just over an hour of oral arguments, justices of all… Read More

After nearly two hours of oral argument on Monday, a majority of the justices appeared sympathetic to the Biden administration’s argument that a federal court in New Orleans went too far in an order that would limit the government’s ability to communicate with social media companies about their content moderation policies. The lawsuit before the… Read More

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Monday in a dispute over a lower court’s order that would limit the federal government’s abilities to communicate with social media platforms about their content moderation policies. When that case has finished, the justices will move quickly into a closely related dispute, in which the National Rifle… Read More

The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that public officials who post about topics relating to their work on their personal social media accounts are acting on behalf of the government, and therefore can be held liable for violating the First Amendment when they block their critics, only when they have the power to speak on… Read More

Less than one month after hearing oral arguments in a pair of challenges to controversial laws in Texas and Florida that would regulate how large social media companies control content posted on their sites, the Supreme Court will hear argument in a challenge by the Biden administration to a federal court’s order that would limit… Read More

Amid the debate over free speech on university campuses, the justices on Monday set aside a decision by a federal appeals court in a case involving whether so-called “bias-response team policies” – procedures created by universities to solicit, track, and investigate reports of bias – chill students’ speech. The order in Speech First v. Sands… Read More

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that states cannot disqualify former President Donald Trump from the ballot for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol. In an unsigned opinion, a majority of the justices held that only Congress – and not the states – can enforce Section 3 of the… Read More

The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to decide whether former President Donald Trump can be tried on criminal charges that he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election. In a one-page unsigned order, the justices ordered a federal appeals court to continue to keep on hold its ruling rejecting Trump’s claims of immunity… Read More