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

Yesterday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit rejected the Trump administration’s request to reinstate the president’s March 6 executive order, often known as the “travel ban,” which put a temporary hold on visas for travelers from six Muslim-majority countries and suspended the admission of refugees into the United States. Today the federal… Read More

This morning the justices added an important new case to their docket for next fall, on the constitutionality of the administrative process available to challenge patents that have already been issued. The court also summarily reversed a lower court’s decision in favor of a Virginia inmate who was sentenced to life in prison for a… Read More

It was a hollow victory for Luis Ramon Morales-Santana at the Supreme Court today. Six of the eight justices who heard his case agreed with the 55-year-old that U.S. laws violate the Constitution by making it easier for children who are born overseas to an unmarried mother who is a U.S. citizen to acquire citizenship… Read More

Yesterday the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts released financial disclosure reports for eight of the nine justices of the Supreme Court. (The court’s newest justice, Neil Gorsuch, received an extension to submit his report.) As in years past, the forms issued yesterday reveal that, regardless of their ideological leanings, the justices – even those… Read More

It is settled law that public employees who do not belong to the union that represents them cannot be required to pay fees that the union would use for political activity like union organizing. But in 1977, the Supreme Court ruled that public employees who do not belong to a union can be required to pay… Read More

The Supreme Court added an important new case on the use of cellphone data by law enforcement to its docket for its next term. The justices announced this morning that they would review the case of Timothy Carpenter, who was accused of being the mastermind behind a series of armed robberies (ironically, stealing new smartphones)… Read More

Arguing that lower courts “openly second-guessed” President Donald Trump’s determination that national security concerns require a freeze on new visas for travelers from six Muslim-majority countries (Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen), last night the federal government asked the Supreme Court to step into the legal dispute over the constitutionality of the executive order… Read More

Today the Supreme Court added one new case to its docket for the fall, a challenge to Ohio’s efforts to keep its voter registration lists up to date. But for the 11th conference in a row, the justices did not act on a Colorado baker’s First Amendment challenge to the state’s public accommodations law. Other… Read More

Three years ago, a unanimous Supreme Court threw out a lawsuit that sought to hold a German car company liable in California for the actions of its Argentinian subsidiary, which allegedly worked with security forces in Argentina during the country’s “Dirty War” to kidnap, torture and kill some of the subsidiary’s workers. Today the court,… Read More

[UPDATED at 10:12 a.m. on Friday, May 26, to include a press release by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who indicated that the Trump administration intends to ask the Supreme Court to step in.] A divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit today largely upheld a federal district judge’s ruling blocking the implementation of… Read More