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

In his 2015 book, “The Court and the World,” Justice Stephen Breyer discusses what he describes as the “new challenges imposed by an ever more interdependent world.” As the Supreme Court “is called upon to consider foreign realities,” he observes, it will face a variety of “institutional challenges” – including how to “obtain the information… Read More

In late February, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in a battle between the United States and the computer giant Microsoft. In 2013, the federal government had served a warrant on Microsoft at the company’s Washington state headquarters, seeking information about an email account that the government believed was being used for drug trafficking. Microsoft… Read More

This morning the Supreme Court issued orders from last week’s private conference. The justices did not add any new cases to their merits docket for their next term, which begins in October, but they did ask the U.S. solicitor general to weigh in on four cases. Two of the cases in which the U.S. solicitor… Read More

The Supreme Court added one new case to its merits docket for next term, bringing the total number of cases slated for oral argument in the fall to eight. The grant came in Stokeling v. United States, in which the justices will once again interpret a provision of the Armed Career Criminal Act, which imposes… Read More

The Supreme Court heard oral argument today in a challenge to Maryland’s 6th congressional district, which stretches north and west from the Washington, D.C., suburbs. For two decades, the predominantly Republican district was represented in Congress by Republican Roscoe Bartlett, but in 2011, redistricting altered the political composition of the 6th district; the following year,… Read More

With the cherry blossoms (sort of) getting ready to bloom, and the Supreme Court slated to issue opinions tomorrow, it’s time for another non-botanical pastime in Washington and beyond: Reading the tea leaves to try to predict which justices might be writing the remaining opinions on the court’s merits docket. Unfortunately, it’s too early to… Read More

This morning the Supreme Court issued orders from the justices’ private conference last week. The court did not add any new cases to its merits docket for next term, nor did it call for the views of the U.S. solicitor general in any cases. Today’s order list may have been most noteworthy for what it… Read More

In October, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in a case alleging that Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled legislature had drawn the state’s redistricting plan to put Democrats at a disadvantage – a claim known as “partisan gerrymandering.” The plaintiffs challenging that plan argued that it violated their constitutional right to be treated equally under the law, but… Read More

Over the objection of four justices, the Supreme Court tonight blocked Missouri from executing Russell Bucklew, who was scheduled to die tonight. Bucklew was convicted for the 1996 murder of Michael Sanders, who was living at the time with Bucklew’s former girlfriend, Stephanie Ray. Bucklew kidnapped and raped Ray, and he wounded a state trooper… Read More

The Supreme Court heard oral argument today in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra, a highly anticipated case that combines two often controversial topics: the First Amendment and abortion. The question before the justices today was whether a California law that directs “crisis pregnancy centers” to provide their patients with specific kinds… Read More