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

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

With an order that ended a day marked by twists and turns in the dispute over Wisconsin’s plan to hold its primary election tomorrow, the Supreme Court tonight granted a request by the Republican National Committee and the Republican Party of Wisconsin to block a lower-court order that had extended the deadline for absentee ballots… Read More

The Supreme Court issued orders this morning from the justices’ conference last week, which was once again held with the justices – all of whom, according to the court’s Public Information Office, are healthy – participating by phone. The justices did not add any new cases to their docket for next term, nor did they… Read More