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

The Supreme Court on Friday night left in place a ruling by Pennsylvania’s highest court that requires election boards in the state to count provisional ballots submitted by voters whose mail-in ballots had been deemed invalid. The brief unsigned order came just four days before election day. Recent polls show former President Donald Trump and… Read More

The Supreme Court will hear an important First Amendment case on Jan. 15, 2025. During their January argument session, which begins on Jan. 13 and continues until Jan. 22, the justices will also consider questions involving the Americans with Disabilities Act, federal laws prohibiting false statements to influence financial institutions, and claims under the Fourth… Read More

The Supreme Court on Wednesday temporarily blocked an order by a federal judge that would have required Virginia to return more than 1600 people to the voter rolls. U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles found that since early August the state had canceled the registration of more than 1,600 voters – at least some of… Read More

The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to order the removal of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s name from ballots in Wisconsin and Michigan. Kennedy suspended his campaign in August and endorsed former President Donald Trump. But election officials in Wisconsin and Michigan rebuffed Kennedy’s request to withdraw his name from the ballot. That led to litigation… Read More

The Republican National Committee and the Republican Party of Pennsylvania came to the Supreme Court on Monday, asking the justices to block a ruling by Pennsylvania’s highest court requiring election boards to count provisional ballots submitted by voters whose mail-in ballots had been deemed invalid. The RNC and the Pennsylvania Republicans argue that the state… Read More

The Supreme Court on Monday allowed a federal law intended to standardize anti-doping and safety regulations in horse racing to remain in place while a challenge to that law plays out. The conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, based in New Orleans, ruled in July that key parts of the law are… Read More

Virginia election officials on Monday asked the Supreme Court to block a ruling by a federal judge that would bar them from reviving a program put in place in August by the state’s Republican governor intended to remove suspected noncitizens from the state’s voting rolls. U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles on Friday ordered the… Read More

The justices on Monday added four new cases, involving the venue for challenges to the Environmental Protection Agency’s actions under the Clean Air Act and federal sentencing law, to its docket for the 2024-25 term. The justices also declined to take up a challenge to the structure of the Consumer Product Safety Commission and a… Read More

The Supreme Court’s December argument session will feature the challenge to Tennessee’s ban on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender minors, as well as a case by survivors of the Hungarian Holocaust seeking compensation for the seizure of the property by the Hungarian government and a dispute over the Food and Drug Administration’s efforts… Read More

The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to stop the execution of Robert Roberson, who was scheduled to be killed by lethal injection in Texas Thursday night for the 2002 death of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki. Prosecutors had argued that Nikki suffered from shaken baby syndrome, a diagnosis for certain brain injuries that has since been… Read More