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

The Supreme Court on Monday turned down a plea to reinstate an Ohio man’s conviction for attempted murder. Justice Clarence Thomas dissented from the court’s announcement that it would not intervene in the case, in an eight-page opinion joined by Justice Samuel Alito. Thomas was sharply critical of the Cincinnati-based U.S. Court of Appeals for… Read More

The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to pause the briefing in four cases slated for argument during the 2024-25 term. In filings by Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris, the government told the justices that, with the change in administrations from former President Joe Biden to President Donald Trump, government officials had determined… Read More

The Supreme Court on Friday afternoon added three more cases – two of which will be argued together – to its docket for the 2024-25 term. In a brief unsigned order, the justices agreed to review a ruling by the Oklahoma Supreme Court that rejected an effort by a Catholic online school to become the… Read More

At oral arguments earlier this week the Supreme Court was skeptical of the Food and Drug Administration’s effort to block a North Carolina-based company from challenging the denial of its application to market e-cigarettes in the conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, based in Louisiana. During 72 minutes of oral arguments, almost… Read More

The Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon granted the federal government’s request to be allowed to enforce a federal anti-money-laundering law while the government’s appeal moves forward in the conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. In a brief unsigned order, the justices put on hold an order by a federal trial judge in… Read More

The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave Brenda Evers Andrew another chance to challenge her death sentence and conviction for the murder of her estranged husband. Andrew, who was sentenced to death in 2004, has long maintained that she is innocent, and her boyfriend James Pavatt, who confessed to the killing, insisted that she was not… Read More

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Tuesday in a clash over whether a North Carolina-based company can challenge the Food and Drug Administration’s denial of its application to market e-cigarettes in the conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, based in Louisiana. The company, R.J. Reynolds Vapor Company, joined a lawsuit… Read More

The Supreme Court will decide whether a group of Maryland parents can opt to have their children exempted from LGBTQ-themed storybooks. The justices on Friday afternoon granted Mahmoud v. Taylor, in which a coalition of parents from Montgomery County, Md., contend that requiring their children to participate in instruction that violates their religious beliefs violates… Read More

This post was updated on Jan. 17 at 12:44 p.m. The Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously upheld a federal law that will require TikTok to shut down in the United States unless its Chinese parent company can sell off the U.S. company by Jan. 19. In an unsigned opinion, the justices acknowledged that, “for more… Read More

The Supreme Court on Wednesday was divided over a challenge to a Texas law that requires pornography sites to verify the age of their users before providing access. Last year a federal appeals court in New Orleans allowed the state to enforce the law, holding that it was rationally related to the government’s interest in… Read More