Less than two weeks after the Supreme Court heard oral argument in a case urging the justices to overturn their landmark rulings in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the state of Arizona asked the court to allow it to enforce a law that bars doctors from performing abortions if the sole reason… Read More
Court rejects religious challenge to New York’s vaccine mandate for health care workers
The Supreme Court on Monday turned down two requests to block New York’s vaccine mandate for health care workers. Two groups of health care workers are challenging the mandate, arguing that it violates their constitutional right to freely exercise their religion. But over the public dissents of three conservative justices, the court denied the workers’… Read More
Justices agree to take up new cases on arbitration issues and international child custody
The Supreme Court on Friday added three new cases to its docket for the 2021-22 term. After the court’s rulings in a pair of cases challenging a Texas law that bans almost all abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy on Friday morning, the new grants on Friday afternoon had a decidedly lower profile. The… Read More
Court leaves Texas’ six-week abortion ban in effect and narrows abortion providers’ challenge
Nearly six weeks after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases challenging a Texas law that bans almost all abortions in the state, the justices on Friday limited – but did not fully eliminate – the ability of abortion providers to continue their challenge in the lower courts. The court ruled that the… Read More
Justices won’t block Oklahoma execution
The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a request from an Oklahoma death-row inmate to put his execution on hold while questions about the constitutionality of the state’s lethal-injection protocol are resolved. Bigler Jobe Stouffer has been sentenced to die on Thursday morning for the 1985 murder of schoolteacher Linda Reeves. Lawyers for the 79-year-old inmate… Read More
Conservative justices scoff at Maine’s exclusion of religious schools from tuition-assistance program
The Supreme Court heard oral argument on Wednesday in a challenge to a Maine program that pays tuition for some students to attend private school when their own school district does not operate a public secondary school. Two Maine couples argue that the state’s refusal to provide funds for students to attend schools that provide… Read More
Separation of church and school? Justices will weigh Maine’s ban on funds for religious education
On Wednesday the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in a challenge to a Maine program that pays for some students to attend private schools. Two families that want to send their children to Christian schools in the state argue that the state’s exclusion of schools that provide religious instruction from the program violates the… Read More
Majority of court appears poised to uphold Mississippi’s ban on most abortions after 15 weeks
This post was updated on Dec. 1 at 5:15 p.m. It has been nearly 30 years since the Supreme Court’s decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which reaffirmed the constitutional right to abortion that the court first recognized in Roe v. Wade. Only one justice who participated in Casey is still on the court now:… Read More
Roe v. Wade hangs in balance as reshaped court prepares to hear biggest abortion case in decades
When he ran for president in 2016, then-candidate Donald Trump promised to nominate Supreme Court justices who would vote to end the constitutional right to an abortion. During his four years in office, Trump placed three justices – Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett – on the court, cementing a 6-3 conservative majority…. Read More
Court will consider effort by North Carolina legislators to intervene to defend state voter-ID law
In a surprise pre-Thanksgiving order, the Supreme Court on Wednesday added one new case to its merits docket for the 2021-22 term. In Berger v. North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, the justices will weigh in on an effort by Republican legislators in the state to intervene to defend the state’s voter-ID law. The… Read More