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

After just under three years (and three Supreme Court terms) on the job, Noel Francisco announced today that he would step down as the solicitor general of the United States, effective July 3, 2020. In a letter to President Donald Trump, Francisco wrote that he planned “to return to the private sector and spend more… Read More

Tonight the Supreme Court put a temporary hold on the execution of Texas death-row inmate Ruben Gutierrez, who had been scheduled to die at 7 p.m. EDT. In a short unsigned order, the justices granted a request by Gutierrez to stay his execution while it considers his petition to review his case on the merits…. Read More

With just over two weeks remaining before the deadline to request mail-in ballots for the upcoming primary runoff election, the Texas Democratic Party and a group of Texas voters have asked the Supreme Court to reinstate a ruling by a federal trial court that would allow all eligible voters in Texas to vote by mail… Read More

Yesterday the Supreme Court issued two opinions: One (covering three argued cases) holding that federal employment discrimination laws protect LGBT employees, and another holding that the U.S. Forest Service had the power to grant a right-of-way for a natural gas pipeline through lands traversed by the Appalachian Trail. As of today, the justices have 16… Read More

The justices revived the case of Terence Andrus, a Texas inmate who was sentenced to death for the 2008 shootings of two people during an attempted carjacking in a grocery-store parking lot. The lawyer who was appointed to defend Andrus didn’t meet with him for almost eight months, and then only met with him outside… Read More

The Supreme Court added two new merits cases to its docket for next term, even as the issues that it declined to take up dominated today’s orders from the justices’ private conference last week. The justices also asked the federal government for its views on a dispute between Texas and California over the latter’s ban… Read More

After considering a major case involving immigration — this time, an effort by the federal government to invalidate one of California’s so-called “sanctuary state” laws — at 12 consecutive conferences, the justices declined to add the case to their docket. Passed in 2017, S.B. 54 (known as the California Values Act) prohibits state and local… Read More

In late April the Supreme Court sent a challenge to the constitutionality of New York City’s ban on the transport of handguns outside the city back to the lower court without ruling on whether the ban was constitutional. By a vote of 6-3, the justices concluded that the case was moot – that is, no… Read More

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination “because of sex.” Today the Supreme Court, by a vote of 6-3, ruled that even if Congress may not have had discrimination based on sexual orientation or transgender status in mind when it enacted the landmark law over a half century ago, Title… Read More

This morning federal death-row inmates asked the Supreme Court to temporarily block a lower-court ruling that upheld new federal regulations for carrying out the death penalty. The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which is scheduled to go into effect tomorrow, would allow the federal government to resume… Read More