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

On Dec. 1, the Supreme Court agreed to fast-track a challenge, brought by six states, to the Biden administration’s student-loan debt relief program. On Monday, the justices agreed to take up another challenge to the program, this time filed by two student-loan borrowers. Both cases will be argued in late February or early March. Biden… Read More

The Supreme Court called for oral argument in a dispute between New York and New Jersey over New Jersey’s efforts to withdraw from a 1953 agreement involving seaport security. That announcement came on the list of orders from last week’s conference, released on Monday morning. In late June, the justices granted New York’s request to… Read More

The Supreme Court on Friday afternoon agreed to hear four new cases, including a First Amendment challenge to a federal law that prohibits encouraging illegal immigration. The justices issued an order list from their conference on Friday morning – the last regularly scheduled conference of the year. In United States v. Hansen, the justices agreed… Read More

The Supreme Court on Wednesday signaled that it may not be ready to adopt a sweeping interpretation of the Constitution, known as the “independent state legislature” theory, that would give state legislatures broad power to regulate federal elections without interference from state courts. Although some justices appeared receptive to that theory during nearly three hours… Read More

The Supreme Court on Monday announced changes to its rules, which govern litigation before the court and its operations. Although the changes were largely technical, the new rules, which go into effect on Jan. 1, 2023, do contain some significant substantive changes – most notably, the elimination of the consent requirement for amicus briefs. Under… Read More

The Supreme Court will hear oral argument on Wednesday in a case that UCLA law professor Richard Hasen has called the “800-pound gorilla” of election law. The case, Moore v. Harper, is a test of the “independent state legislature” theory – the idea that the Constitution gives state legislatures nearly unfettered authority to regulate federal… Read More

The Supreme Court heard oral argument on Monday in the case of Lorie Smith, a website designer and devout Christian who wants to expand her business to include wedding websites – but only for opposite-sex couples. Smith is challenging a Colorado law that prohibits most businesses from discriminating against LGBTQ customers. Requiring her to create… Read More

The Supreme Court on Monday will revisit a long-simmering tension between legal protections for LGBTQ people and the rights of business owners who oppose same-sex marriage. The case, 303 Creative v. Elenis, is a challenge by a Colorado website designer to a state law that bars businesses that are open to the public from discriminating… Read More

This post was updated on Dec. 2 at 3:53 p.m. The Supreme Court will fast-track a challenge to the Biden administration’s student-debt relief program and hear oral argument in February, the court said Thursday. The $400 billion program will remain on hold in the meantime due to lower-court rulings that have blocked the government from… Read More

One day after the Supreme Court refused to block the execution of Missouri inmate Kevin Johnson, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson released an opinion, joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, explaining the pair’s dissent from Tuesday’s ruling. In Jackson’s view, the justices should have put Johnson’s execution on hold because he had shown that the Missouri Supreme… Read More