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

Update: Justice Elena Kagan has called for a response in the case; it is due on Thursday, May 28, by 8 p.m. On Wednesday, two Chicago-area churches asked the justices to allow them to hold services on Pentecost as well. The Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church and Logos Baptist Ministries, which are both Romanian-American Christian churches,… Read More

Today the Supreme Court denied a request by the federal government to put a temporary hold on an order by a federal court that could lead to the release or transfer of over 800 inmates from a federal prison where nine inmates have died from COVID-19. The inmates’ victory, however, appeared to be mostly procedural… Read More

This morning the Supreme Court issued orders from the justices’ private conference last week. The justices did not add any cases to their merits docket for next term, nor did they seek the views of the federal government in any new cases. And perhaps most notably, the justices did not act on any of the… Read More

Just a few hours after the Supreme Court granted his request to temporarily block the release of grand jury materials from the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco was back at the court with a new filing. This time the filing was on behalf of the federal Bureau of Prisons… Read More

Today the Supreme Court blocked the disclosure to the House Judiciary Committee of grand jury materials from the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The Department of Justice had asked the court 13 days ago to put the release of the materials on hold while it appeals a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals… Read More

This morning the Supreme Court issued orders from the justices’ private conference last week. The justices did not add any new cases to their argument calendar for next term. Perhaps most significantly, they did not act at all on the 10 gun rights cases that they had considered for a second time at last week’s… Read More

It has been over two decades since al Qaeda operatives detonated bombs outside the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing over 200 people and injuring thousands more. The victims and their family members later filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., seeking to hold Sudan responsible for its role in providing support… Read More

This morning the Supreme Court heard oral argument in a pair of challenges to the constitutionality of so-called “faithless elector” laws – state laws that penalize or remove a presidential elector who does not vote for the candidate he has pledged to support. Six presidential electors, who hail from Washington and Colorado, argue that the… Read More

Yesterday the Supreme Court heard oral argument in a set of cases that Deputy Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall, who argued on behalf of the federal government, described as “truly historic.” At issue was whether President Donald Trump could prevent the disclosure of his financial records, including his tax returns, to state prosecutors and congressional committees…. Read More

The battle over efforts to obtain President Donald Trump’s tax returns reached the Supreme Court in two oral arguments today. Over a year ago, committees in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives and a Manhattan district attorney issued subpoenas for the president’s financial records to the president’s longtime accountant and lenders, but the president has tried… Read More