Covering the Supreme Court, lower courts, and the law

The Supreme Court, selecting the first round of new cases to be heard in the Term opening formally next Monday, agreed on Thursday to rule on the constitutionality of a federal law that bars trademarks that would send an offensive message about someone.   A federal appeals court struck down the law, finding it violated… Read More

With no sign of any dissent, the Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to temporarily bar the Securities and Exchange Commission from continuing to use its administrative law judges to review claims of fraud in the investment markets.  Without explanation, the Court turned down a request by a New York City investment firm to stop an… Read More

Unable to attract a single judge’s sympathy in a federal appeals court, the Obama administration now faces a choice of trying once more to persuade the Supreme Court to salvage Amtrak’s role in managing how the nation’s trains use the tracks.  The passenger rail service scored sort of a victory at the Court the last… Read More

The Supreme Court, acting with no sign of dissent, moved in on Wednesday to interrupt at least temporarily  a series of lower court rulings that would bar employee benefit companies from claiming that they operate “church plans” and thus are exempt from federal regulatory laws — including the one providing birth control access.  The Court’s… Read More

The Supreme Court refused on Tuesday morning to reinstate even temporarily an extra five days of voting in Ohio this year — the so-called “Golden Week” that the state legislature eliminated three years ago. No dissents were noted in the brief and unexplained order. In a separate case, the Court refused to block a Senate investigating… Read More

A New York City investment firm facing charges at the Securities and Exchange Commission has asked the Supreme Court to bar that agency from continuing to use its administrative law judges to handle cases.  Those judges, the firm contended, are the kind of government officials who must be chosen by the president and confirmed by the… Read More

Amid a significant disagreement about federal power to oversee state voter registration rules, a divided federal appeals court late Friday temporarily blocked a demand in three states — but enforced only in one (Kansas) — that voters seeking to cast ballots for the presidency or Congress must show documents proving they are U.S. citizens. The 2-to-1 order by… Read More

Over the dissents of two Justices, the Supreme Court on Friday morning allowed Michigan voters to cast a straight-ticket ballot — a single vote that applies to every candidate from one party.  In a brief order, the Justices turned down a request by state officials to block such balloting.  The order is here. Justices Samuel… Read More

The federal government’s high-profile criminal case against the former governor of Virginia and his wife on public corruption charges ended abruptly on Thursday afternoon as Justice Department officials said they will ask a judge to dismiss all charges and bar their revival. The case against Robert F. McDonnell and Maureen G. McDonnell apparently was undermined by a… Read More

With a brief respite just granted by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., an online publisher on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court to clarify that the First Amendment assures a right to newsgathering for those who put on the Internet content created by someone else.  The application is here; the Chief Justice’s order is here. A federal… Read More