Update (Oct. 20, 6:15 p.m.): This post has been updated to reflect Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s action on Thursday evening. Justice Amy Coney Barrett on Thursday denied a Wisconsin taxpayers group’s bid to block the Biden administration’s student-loan forgiveness program while litigation over the program continues in a lower court. Barrett acted alone, without referring… Read More
December argument session will feature divisive cases on election law, First Amendment
The Supreme Court’s December argument session will feature two of the highest-profile cases of the 2022-23 term: a free-speech claim by a website designer who opposes same-sex marriage and a case involving the power of state legislatures to set rules for federal elections. That news came with the release of the court’s December argument calendar… Read More
Court declines to take up petition seeking to overturn Insular Cases
The Supreme Court will not reconsider the Insular Cases, a widely criticized and racist group of early 20th-century decisions holding that the residents of U.S. territories do not automatically enjoy all of the rights protected by the Constitution. The announcement came on a list of orders released on Monday morning from the justices’ private conference… Read More
Court denies Trump’s request to intervene in Mar-a-Lago documents case
The Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon rejected a request from former President Donald Trump to allow a special master to review about 100 documents, marked as classified, that the FBI seized from Trump’s home. The ruling came in an unsigned one-sentence order; there were no dissents recorded. The documents at the center of the dispute… Read More
Justices vacate lower court’s ruling in Pennsylvania ballot-counting case that is now moot
The Supreme Court on Tuesday invalidated a lower-court ruling in a Pennsylvania election dispute that the losing candidate conceded three and a half months ago. When the dispute was before the justices earlier this year, Justice Samuel Alito had suggested that the lower court’s ruling on ballot counting “broke new ground” and could affect the… Read More
Justice Department urges court to stay out of Mar-a-Lago documents dispute
The Biden administration on Tuesday urged the Supreme Court to reject former President Donald Trump’s request to reinstate a district judge’s order that would allow a special master to review about 100 classified documents seized from Trump’s home. The Justice Department called Judge Aileen Cannon’s order, which a federal appeals court put on hold last… Read More
Justices wrestle with statute of limitations in Rodney Reed’s effort to revive DNA lawsuit
The Supreme Court on Tuesday heard the case of a Texas death-row inmate seeking DNA testing for evidence that he believes will clear him. A federal appeals court threw out Rodney Reed’s federal civil rights lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Texas law governing DNA testing, explaining that Reed had filed his suit too late…. Read More
California law on sale of pork raises concerns about interstate moral disputes in a “balkanized” nation
A case about a California animal-welfare law became a springboard on Tuesday for the justices to explore how individual states might try to impose their moral views on their neighbors. As they considered the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 12, the justices wondered aloud how the case would affect hypothetical state efforts to ban products from… Read More
Court to hear battle over animal welfare, the dormant commerce clause — and the price of bacon
In 2018, California voters approved Proposition 12, a ballot initiative that its supporters describe as the country’s strongest law to protect farm animals. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in a challenge to the constitutionality of the law. The challengers, two groups that represent farmers and pork producers, contend that the law… Read More
A man on death row is seeking DNA testing. The justices will decide whether he missed a key deadline.
On Tuesday the justices will hear oral argument in the case of Texas death-row inmate Rodney Reed, who is seeking DNA testing for evidence that he believes will clear him. The question before the court is a procedural one, focusing on the deadline for Reed to file a federal civil rights claim challenging the constitutionality… Read More