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

Last week a group of state and local governments, led by New York, asked the Supreme Court to temporarily block the government from implementing the “public charge” rule governing the admission of immigrants to the United States. The motion followed a January ruling by a divided Supreme Court that granted a request by the Trump… Read More

This morning the Supreme Court issued orders from the justices’ private conference last week. The justices added one new case to their merits docket for next term, a case involving the interpretation of federal computer fraud laws. In Van Buren v. United States, the justices agreed to decide whether it is a federal crime for… Read More

In December the Supreme Court heard oral argument in a dispute arising out of the Anaconda Smelter, which refined copper ore in southwestern Montana but also became a major polluter and, eventually, a “Superfund” site whose cleanup was supervised by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The case pits Atlantic Richfield Co., which owned the smelter… Read More

In 1972, the Supreme Court ruled that the Sixth Amendment guarantees a right to a unanimous jury – but that defendants in state trials do not have such a right. Today, by a vote of 6-3, the justices reversed course, holding that the Sixth Amendment establishes a right to a unanimous jury that applies in… Read More

It has been one month since the Supreme Court announced on March 16 that, in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, it would cancel its March argument session, which was slated to include the disputes over access to President Donald Trump’s financial records. On April 3, the justices announced that their April argument session, which had… Read More

Over 700,000 young adults who were brought to the United States without documentation have obtained protection from deportation through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA. The Supreme Court sets aside approximately 50 seats at oral arguments for members of the general public. With 48 hours to go before the oral argument… Read More

In January, the Supreme Court – by a vote of 5-4 – granted a request by the Trump administration for permission to enforce the “public charge” rule, governing the admission of immigrants to the United States, while it appeals a pair of orders by a federal district court in New York. Today, a group of… Read More

The Supreme Court announced this morning that it will hear 10 oral arguments by telephone in May, in 13 cases that had previously been scheduled for argument in March and April but had been postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a one-page press release, the justices indicated that argument dates over six days in… Read More

UPDATE: In an unsigned order on Monday night, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit allowed medication abortions to go forward — the same relief that Planned Parenthood had sought in the Supreme Court — while litigation over the near-total ban on abortions in Texas continues. The ruling by the three-judge panel expressed… Read More

Long lines were a hallmark of high-profile oral arguments at the Supreme Court this term, in cases involving issues ranging from abortion to gun rights to employment protections for LGBT employees. Because the Supreme Court does not normally release the audio of its oral arguments until the end of the week, attending the oral argument… Read More