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

It has been nearly 25 years since Brett Kavanaugh arrived at the Supreme Court as a law clerk for Justice Anthony Kennedy. A few years later, Kavanaugh was back at the court as an advocate, arguing (unsuccessfully) that Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel for the Whitewater investigation, should have access to notes taken by a… Read More

James Ho may have been confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit late last year, but today the Supreme Court ruled that a case that he filed before taking the bench, on behalf of a Kansas woman who alleged that police officers violated her civil rights when they tried to stop… Read More

Justice Anthony Kennedy announced today that he would retire from the Supreme Court, effective July 31. In a letter to President Donald Trump, Kennedy wrote that “it is the highest of honors to serve on this Court,” and he expressed his “profound gratitude for having had the privilege to seek in each case how best… Read More

[Editor’s Note: This post was updated with additional analysis at 1:55 p.m.] This morning the Supreme Court announced that government employees who are represented by a union but do not belong to that union cannot be required to pay a fee to cover the union’s costs to negotiate a contract that applies to all employees…. Read More

This morning the Supreme Court ruled in favor of crisis pregnancy centers – nonprofit groups that oppose abortion – in their challenge to a California law that was passed out of concern that the centers were holding themselves out as full-service reproductive health clinics and providing pregnant women with inaccurate or incomplete information about their… Read More

[Editor’s Note: This post was expanded with additional analysis at 2:04 p.m.] The Supreme Court today handed a major victory to the Trump administration. By a vote of 5-4, the justices rejected a challenge to President Donald Trump’s September 2017 order – often referred to as the “travel ban” – restricting immigration to the United… Read More

This morning the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Texas in a dispute alleging that the state’s lawmakers had drawn redistricting maps to discriminate against some of the state’s black and Hispanic residents. By a vote of 5-4, the justices threw out almost all of a ruling by a three-judge federal district court that would… Read More

[This post was updated at 2:39 p.m. to provide more details on, among other things, the cases that the justices granted today.] Three weeks ago, the justices threw out a ruling against a Colorado baker who had refused on religious grounds to make a custom wedding cake for a same-sex couple. By a vote of… Read More

Today the Supreme Court ruled that the simultaneous service of military officers on both the criminal courts of appeals (CCAs) for the armed forces and the United States Court of Military Commission Review (CMCR) does not violate a longstanding rule that bars active-duty military officers from holding a second job that requires presidential nomination and… Read More

[NOTE: This post was updated with additional analysis at 1:22 p.m.] Over 40 years ago, the Supreme Court outlined what has come to be known as the “third-party doctrine” – the idea that the Fourth Amendment does not protect records or information that someone voluntarily shares with someone or something else. Today the Supreme Court… Read More