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

The Supreme Court on Monday morning added two new cases, involving the Sixth Amendment right to counsel and restitution orders, to its docket for the 2025-26 term. The announcement came as part of a list of orders from the justices’ private conference on Friday, April 4. The court did not act on several requests for… Read More

The Supreme Court on Friday afternoon put on hold an order by a federal judge in Massachusetts that would have required the Department of Education to reinstate more than $65 million in grants that it terminated in February because they funded programs that included diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. In an unsigned three-page opinion, a… Read More

Lawyers for two different groups of states, as well as lawyers representing immigrants’ rights groups and several pregnant women, urged the Supreme Court on Friday to leave in place three orders by federal judges that prohibit the federal government from implementing an executive order by President Donald Trump ending birthright citizenship – the guarantee of… Read More

A group of nonprofits challenging the layoffs of thousands of probationary employees urged the Supreme Court to leave in place an order by a federal judge in San Francisco that would require the federal government to reinstate more than 16,000 employees who were fired by six agencies in February. “It strains credulity that returning employees… Read More

The Supreme Court on Wednesday was divided over whether Planned Parenthood has a legal right under federal civil rights laws to challenge the order by South Carolina’s governor barring abortion clinics, including Planned Parenthood, from participating in Medicaid. During more than 90 minutes of oral arguments, the justices struggled to determine whether the Medicaid law… Read More

The Supreme Court on Wednesday largely upheld the Food and Drug Administration’s denials of two companies’ applications to sell flavored liquids for use in e-cigarettes. In a unanimous ruling, the justices threw out a ruling by the conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit holding that the FDA had improperly pulled a “regulatory… Read More

Lawyers for alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua urged the Supreme Court on Tuesday to leave in place an order by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., that prohibits the federal government from removing them, or anyone else, from the United States under the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century law that until… Read More

The Supreme Court on Tuesday appeared inclined to allow a lawsuit by U.S. victims of terrorist attacks in Israel against the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization to go forward. A majority of the justices appeared skeptical of contentions by the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization that a law allowing those victims… Read More

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Wednesday in a case that, at first glance, appears to involve only a technical interpretation of the federal Medicaid Act. But the dispute has drawn widespread attention because of the context in which it came to the justices: an attempt by South Carolina to exclude Planned Parenthood… Read More

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Tuesday in the latest chapter of the justices’ efforts to lay out rules for personal jurisdiction – whether courts have the power to hear a case against certain defendants. Tuesday’s case is a particularly high-profile dispute, and one that the federal government says has national security and… Read More