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

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

Today the Supreme Court held an investiture ceremony for Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh took the oath of office on October 6, shortly after he was confirmed, and he began to participate in the Supreme Court’s cases two days later, so this morning’s six-minute ceremony is largely a formality, at which the court will officially receive… Read More

The Supreme Court heard oral argument today in a lawsuit alleging that the Republic of Sudan provided support to the al Qaeda terrorists who bombed the USS Cole in 2000, killing 17 sailors and injuring 42 others. The question before the court was not whether Sudan can be held liable; a federal court has already… Read More

The Supreme Court heard oral argument this morning in the case of Russell Bucklew, who was scheduled to die by lethal injection earlier this year. The court has already rejected several broad challenges to the constitutionality of lethal injection as a method of execution, but the justices put Bucklew’s execution on hold back in March… Read More

This morning the Supreme Court issued orders from the justices’ private conference on Friday. The justices did not add any new cases to their docket for the term – they did that on Friday afternoon – nor did they call for the views of the U.S. solicitor general in any cases. But one order today… Read More

This morning the Supreme Court announced several proposed changes to its rules and invited the public to comment on those proposed revisions by the end of the month. If the changes are implemented, their effect would fall almost exclusively on lawyers and litigants before the court. The first of the four substantive proposed changes to… Read More

It has been over 18 years since the USS Cole was bombed while the ship was refueling in Yemen, killing 17 sailors and injuring 42 more. Next week the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in a lawsuit, filed by service members  who were injured that day (and their families), seeking to hold the government… Read More

The Supreme Court heard oral argument this morning in a dispute over immunity for the International Finance Corporation, an international organization that makes loans to private businesses to finance projects in developing countries. The plaintiffs in the case, a group of farmers and fishermen, live near a power plant in India that was financed in… Read More