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

Telling the justices that “the courthouse door has been barred to New York’s landlords” “for more than sixteen months and counting,” a group of New York landlords asked the Supreme Court to block a state moratorium on residential evictions put in place at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. A federal district court dismissed the… Read More

Less than a month after the Supreme Court refused to disturb a federal moratorium on evictions imposed by the Centers for Disease Control because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the state of Florida on Friday asked the justices to block the COVID-related restrictions that the CDC has outlined for cruise ships to follow before returning to… Read More

When the justices meet for their next regularly scheduled conference, on September 27, they will face thousands of petitions for review. They will grant only a handful of those petitions – last year, seven new cases, for a total of four hours of argument time. Between now and the end of September, I will take… Read More

Although the Supreme Court only recently finished releasing opinions from its 2020-21 term, it is already looking ahead to the new term that will begin this fall. On Tuesday the court released the schedule for the justices’ October argument session, which begins on Oct. 4 and runs through Oct. 13. The justices will hear oral… Read More

Just before departing for their summer recess, the justices on Friday added 10 new cases to their docket for next term, including a high-profile dispute involving public funding for private schools that provide religious instruction. The busy order list was in some ways was a microcosm of the 2020-21 term as a whole. Although the… Read More

This post was updated on July 1 at 6 p.m. The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down California’s requirement that charities and nonprofits operating in the state provide the state attorney general’s office with the names and addresses of their largest donors. The 6-3 ruling in Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta was a major… Read More

This post was updated on July 1 at 5:45 p.m. On the last day before its summer recess, the Supreme Court issued a major decision on voting rights that will make it more difficult to contest election regulations under the Voting Rights Act. By a vote of 6-3, the justices upheld two Arizona voting provisions… Read More

The Supreme Court on Tuesday denied a request by a group of Alabama real estate agents to block a federal moratorium on evictions that was imposed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Justice Brett Kavanaugh provided the key vote to leave the moratorium in place, joining Chief Justice John Roberts and the court’s three liberal justices…. Read More

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court issued three more opinions in argued cases and announced that it would issue all of the remaining decisions (or, using its standard language for this announcement, “all remaining opinions ready”) on Thursday, July 1, at 10 a.m. Eastern.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court issued three more opinions in argued cases. The justices also announced that they would issue the remaining opinions on Thursday, July 1, at 10 a.m. Eastern. There are only two cases left to be decided: Arizona Republican Party v. Democratic National Committee and Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee (argued Mar…. Read More