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

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

One day after Wisconsin Republicans asked the Supreme Court to block a lower-court ruling that extended the deadline for voters to submit absentee ballots in the state’s primary election, Wisconsin Democrats urged the justices to stay out of the dispute and allow that ruling to stay in place for now. Blocking the district court’s order,… Read More

In an emergency filing arising from the COVID-19 crisis, the Republican National Committee and Wisconsin Republicans tonight asked the Supreme Court to block a lower-court order that extended the deadline for Wisconsin voters to submit absentee ballots in the state’s upcoming primary election until April 13 – six days after the election, which is scheduled… Read More

Five days after President Donald Trump announced that federal guidance on social distancing would remain in effect until April 30, the Supreme Court announced that its April argument session, which had been scheduled to begin on April 20 and run through April 29, would be postponed. Today’s notice followed the justices’ decision, announced on March… Read More

On an average argument day at the Supreme Court, there are 439 seats in the courtroom. Of those 439, only 50 – that is, just over 11 percent – are specifically set aside for members of the general public. The other 389 are divided among several different groups. The “public line” The line to obtain… Read More

They are the legal version of Willy Wonka’s golden ticket: the cards (in colors that change from day to day) distributed in front of the Supreme Court that give the people holding them access to one of the seats set aside for the public at that morning’s oral arguments. With only 50 seats guaranteed for… Read More

This morning the Supreme Court continued its virtual operations, releasing orders from the justices’ private conference last week. Following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines for COVID-19, and in a departure from tradition, only Chief Justice John Roberts was in the justices’ conference room again last week, with the rest of the justices… Read More