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

Today the Supreme Court released the calendar for its January sitting, which begins on January 8. The justices will kick off the new year with not one but two interstate disputes over water: Texas v. New Mexico, involving the apportionment of the waters of the Rio Grande River, and Florida v. Georgia, involving the allocation… Read More

This morning the justices issued orders from last week’s conference. They added three new cases to their merits docket for the term, including two high-profile First Amendment cases, and they denied review in an Alabama death-penalty case, over a lengthy dissent by Justice Sonia Sotomayor that was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena… Read More

The fate of a high-profile challenge to the long-term detention of immigrants facing deportation without a bond hearing appeared less certain tonight, with the announcement – made over a month after oral argument – that Justice Elena Kagan would no longer participate in the case. In a letter sent to lawyers for the two sides… Read More

This morning the Supreme Court issued orders from its November 3 conference. For the second week in a row, the justices did not add any new cases to their merits docket for the term. However, they did issue two summary decisions, without briefing on the merits or oral argument, reversing rulings by federal appeals courts… Read More

“Jane Doe,” the 17-year-old pregnant teenager who was caught trying to enter the United States illegally, had an abortion nine days ago, on October 25. A ruling by the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit the previous day had cleared the way for Doe’s abortion after the federal government –… Read More

This morning the Supreme Court issued orders from its conference last Friday, but the justices did not add any new cases to their merits docket for the term. The justices declined to take up the property-rights question presented by a California case, 616 Croft Avenue v. West Hollywood, that they had considered at four consecutive… Read More

The Supreme Court’s November sitting – which begins on Monday, October 30 – shrank today to six cases, which will be argued over five days. Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute, a challenge to the procedure that Ohio uses to remove inactive voters from its voter-registration lists, had been scheduled for oral argument on Wednesday, November 8, but… Read More

The Supreme Court formally removed the second of two challenges to President Donald Trump’s March 6 executive order from its docket today. The March 6 order, sometimes known as the “travel ban,” had blocked travel to the United States by nationals of six Muslim-majority countries and suspended the admission of refugees into the United States…. Read More

This morning the Supreme Court issued orders from its October 13 conference. The justices added four new cases to their merits docket for the term, and several justices commented on some of the cases in which the court denied review. The highest-profile grant of the day came in United States v. Microsoft Corp., in which… Read More

The Supreme Court was divided today on whether corporations can be held liable in U.S. courts under a federal law dating back over two centuries. After an hour of oral argument by three excellent advocates, and five years after they considered the question for the first time, several of the justices appeared to be ready… Read More