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

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a provision of a 2017 corporate tax reform law, known as the mandatory repatriation tax, that taxes the undistributed profits from U.S. shares of foreign corporations in which Americans own a majority. An American couple had challenged the constitutionality of the one-time tax, which was imposed on earnings after… Read More

The Supreme Court returns to the bench on Thursday to release more opinions in argued cases. With 11 days remaining in June, the justices have just over 20 decisions (depending on whether they issue one or two opinions to address some questions) remaining. Here are summaries of the as-yet-undecided cases, along with a few tea… Read More

The justices on Monday morning added four new cases to their docket for the 2024-25 term. In a list of orders from the justices’ private conference last week, the court agreed to tackle issues ranging from the burden of proof for an employer hoping to rely on an exemption from the Fair Labor Standards Act… Read More

The Supreme Court on Friday struck down a rule that banned bump stocks, issued by the Trump administration after a 2017 mass shooting at a concert in Las Vegas. By a vote of 6-3, the justices rejected the federal government’s argument that rifles equipped with bump stocks are machine guns, which are generally prohibited under… Read More

This article was updated on June 13 at 2:20 p.m. The Supreme Court on Thursday threw out a lawsuit seeking to roll back access to mifepristone, one of the two drugs used in medication abortions. In a unanimous decision, the court ruled that the doctors and medical groups challenging the expansion of access to the… Read More

The justices will return to the bench on Thursday and Friday of this week to issue opinions in argued cases. Depending on exactly how you count them (for example, will the court eventually issue one or two opinions in the challenges to social media laws in Texas and Florida?), the court has somewhere around 28… Read More

The Supreme Court on Monday added two cases to its argument schedule for the 2024-25 term. In a list of orders from their private conference last week, the justices agreed to weigh in on a case involving the calculation of Medicare payments as well as a securities-fraud case against social media giant Meta. The justices… Read More

Justice Clarence Thomas revealed on Friday that conservative billionaire Harlan Crow paid for two trips in 2019, involving a hotel stay in Bali, Indonesia, and at a private club in Sonoma County, Calif. The news came as part of the justices’ annual financial disclosures, which are filed in mid-May and released in early June each… Read More

The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the federal government must provide additional funding to cover some administrative costs incurred by Native American tribes that operate their own health-care programs. By a vote of 5-4, with Justice Neil Gorsuch – perhaps the strongest ally of Native Americans on the court – providing the deciding vote,… Read More

In a list of orders released on Monday morning, the Supreme Court added one new case to its argument docket for the 2024-25 term. With roughly one month remaining before the justices’ summer recess, during which they traditionally do not grant new petitions for review, the justices now have only 10 cases on their schedule… Read More