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

In 2011, Robert McCoy was tried on three counts of first-degree murder for the 2008 shooting deaths of Christine and Willie Young – the mother and stepfather of McCoy’s estranged wife, Yolanda – and Gregory Colston, Yolanda’s son, in Bossier Parish, Louisiana. Although McCoy steadfastly maintained that he was innocent, his attorney took a different… Read More

The Supreme Court heard oral argument today in a challenge to a practice that Ohio uses to maintain its voter-registration lists. Under Ohio law, a voter who does not vote for two years is sent a notice, which asks him to confirm that he is still eligible to vote. If the voter does not return… Read More

The Supreme Court spent the first hour of oral arguments yesterday debating the Fourth Amendment, privacy rights and rental cars. The Fourth Amendment was also the focus of the second hour, when the justices heard oral argument in Collins v. Virginia. In Collins, the question before the court was the scope of the “automobile exception”… Read More

The Fourth Amendment and vehicle searches dominated oral arguments at the Supreme Court today. First up was Byrd v. United States, in which the justices are considering whether the driver of a rental car who was not included as an authorized driver on the rental agreement, but had the renter’s permission to use the car,… Read More

In 2006, Congress – relying on its power under Article I of the Constitution to regulate the armed forces – created the United States Court of Military Commission Review. That court, known as the CMCR, hears appeals from military commissions, such as the one created at Guantanamo to try enemy combatants. Federal law outlines two… Read More

This morning the Supreme Court issued orders from last Friday’s conference. The justices did not add any new cases to their merits docket, but they did issue a summary ruling in the case of a Georgia death-row inmate and called for the views of the U.S. solicitor general in three cases. The summary decision came… Read More

Less than a year after it issued an order suspending immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries, the Trump administration went to the Supreme Court tonight, asking the justices to uphold the third version of that order, often known as the “travel ban.” Unlike the earlier version of the order, the government explained, which was “premised… Read More

In November 2015, U.S. Navy veteran Larry Harmon went to the polls near his home in Ohio to vote. He learned, however, that he would not be able to do so because he had been removed from the state’s voter rolls. Harmon had lived in the same place for more than 16 years, but he… Read More

As a general rule, the Fourth Amendment requires police to have a warrant to conduct a search. But the courts have carved out a variety of exceptions to that general rule, including one known as the “automobile exception”: It allows police to search a vehicle without a warrant if the vehicle is “readily mobile” and… Read More

When you rent a car, there are often extra charges – as much as $13 per day – to have an additional authorized driver on your rental agreement. These fees can add up, but there could soon be another reason to pay them: Depending on how the Supreme Court rules in the upcoming case of… Read More