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

The Supreme Court released its December calendar today. During their December sitting, which begins on November 28, the justices will hear eight hours of oral argument over six days: two one-hour arguments on both Monday, November 28, and Monday, December 5, and one one-hour argument on each of the four remaining days – November 29-30… Read More

When the third and final presidential debate began last night in Las Vegas, anticipation among Supreme Court watchers was high: The Commission on Presidential Debates had announced that fifteen of the debate’s ninety minutes would be devoted to the court. And, indeed, the court was the very first topic to which moderator Chris Wallace, of… Read More

On Monday the federal government filed, at the court’s invitation, a brief in Howell v. Howell, a dispute between a divorced couple over the wife’s share of the husband’s military retirement pay. When the government recommends that the justices review a case, it generally does so in part because it believes that the lower court’s… Read More

The Supreme Court issued orders from its October 14 conference this morning. The justices did not add any new cases to their merits docket for this term, and they did not act on a Virginia school board’s request for review of a lower court’s decision that would allow a transgender student who identifies as a… Read More

The justices could be on the verge of adding another patent case to their merits docket for this term. Last week the federal government recommended that the court grant review in Impression Products v. Lexmark International, a case involving the scope of the “patent exhaustion” doctrine. Although the federal government’s advice is not dispositive, studies… Read More

Today the Supreme Court issued a revised argument calendar for its November session, which begins on October 31. Ivy v. Morath, which had originally been scheduled as the second case on Monday, November 7, was removed from the calendar, leaving only one case – National Labor Relations Board v. SW General – on that day.

This afternoon the justices issued additional orders from their October 7 conference, adding three new hours of oral argument to their merits docket for the term. And if there is a public perception that the justices have been avoiding controversial issues since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia earlier this year, today’s order list belied… Read More

Today the justices heard oral argument in the case of Miguel Pena-Rodriguez, a Colorado man who was convicted of assaulting two teenage sisters at a racetrack. After the jury issued its verdict, Pena-Rodriguez’s lawyers learned that one juror, a former police officer, had made racially derogatory comments about Pena-Rodriguez and the witness who provided his… Read More

The Supreme Court did not add any new cases to its merits docket this morning. The most noteworthy part of this morning’s order list was a per curiam decision in Bosse v. Oklahoma, a death penalty case. Twenty-five years ago, in Payne v. Tennessee, the court ruled that the Constitution does not bar a jury… Read More

Today the justices heard oral argument in the case of Bassam Salman, the Chicago grocery wholesaler who was convicted of insider trading after he made thousands of dollars trading on stock tips from Michael Kara. Michael obtained the tips from his brother Maher Kara, a Citigroup investment banker who was married to Salman’s sister. The… Read More