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

The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a request from former President Donald Trump to block the disclosure of his tax returns to a congressional committee. The brief order clears the way for the House Committee on Ways and Means to obtain six years’ worth of federal tax returns for Trump and his companies. The court… Read More

Telling the justices that a lower-court ruling blocking the Biden administration’s student-debt relief program “leaves millions of economically vulnerable borrowers in limbo,” the administration came to the Supreme Court on Friday, asking the justices to allow the $400 billion program to go forward while challenges to it continue in the lower courts. The 40-page filing… Read More

For the fourth time in 24 hours, the Supreme Court declined to block an execution. On Thursday morning, the justices rejected a plea from Oklahoma inmate Richard Fairchild, who had asked the justices to put his execution on hold to give him time to appeal a state court’s ruling on his mental competency. But in… Read More

The Supreme Court rejected a request from Texas inmate Stephen Barbee to postpone his execution, scheduled for Wednesday evening, after a judge ruled that the state was not adequately protecting inmates’ religious rights in the execution chamber. Texas agreed to allow Barbee’s minister to touch him and pray out loud during the lethal injection. But… Read More

The Supreme Court refused to block the lethal injection of Murray Hooper, a 76-year-old inmate who was scheduled to be executed in Arizona on Wednesday. Hooper had asked the justices to intervene in light of what he characterized as new evidence showing that he was wrongfully convicted, but Arizona prosecutors dismissed his contention as “entirely… Read More

The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for a cellphone provider to turn over call records for Dr. Kelli Ward, the chair of the Arizona Republican Party, to the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Ward had asked the justices to block a subpoena addressed to T-Mobile, arguing that… Read More

Over a blistering dissent from Justice Clarence Thomas, the Supreme Court on Monday declined to review a ruling by a federal appeals court that granted a new evidentiary hearing to a death-row inmate who says his trial was tainted by juror bias. In a 14-page opinion, Thomas – joined by Justices Samuel Alito and Neil… Read More

The Supreme Court announced on Thursday afternoon that it will weigh in on what it means to commit identity theft. After holding their private conference a day early because Friday is a federal holiday, the justices released a one-sentence order list that added one new case to their merits docket for the 2022-23 term: Dubin… Read More

The Supreme Court on Thursday morning released its calendar for the January argument session. After hearing arguments during the first three months of the 2022-23 term in blockbuster cases involving affirmative action, voting, the Indian Child Welfare Act, and tension between free speech and state nondiscrimination laws, the justices will begin 2023 on a quieter… Read More

The Supreme Court appeared divided on Wednesday over the constitutionality of a 1978 law that regulates the adoption of Native American children. After more than three hours of oral argument, several justices expressed doubt about specific provisions of the wide-ranging law, even if they did not appear inclined to strike down the law in its… Read More