Covering the Supreme Court, lower courts, and the law

The Trump Administration, insisting that the presidential order limiting entry to the U.S. of foreign nationals from Mideast nations “is not a so-called ‘Muslim ban,’ ” urged the Supreme Court on Thursday evening to throw out without a decision two major cases pursued by challengers to the restrictions. The 84-page brief was the first document… Read More

UPDATED 10:32 p.m.  The three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court has decided, after all, to hold a hearing on this controversy.  In an order Wednesday evening, it set that hearing for August 28.) The Trump Administration’s legal team indicated on Wednesday that it will take the heated controversy over immigration back to the Supreme… Read More

Challengers to President Trump’s restrictions on immigrants from Mideast nations and limits on refugee arrivals accused the Administration on Thursday of continuing to defy the Supreme Court by insisting on more power to exclude foreign nationals than the Justices have given it. In a new filing in a federal appeals court, the state of Hawaii… Read More

The long-planned, and eagerly awaited, electronic publication of the filings in Supreme Court cases by the Court will arrive on November 13, the Court announced Thursday in a press release. For the first time, the Court itself will make the petitions and briefs available online, and without cost to the public. The Court has never… Read More

Noting that the Virginia transgender youth, Gavin Grimm, has graduated from high school, a federal appeals court on Wednesday sent his case back to a trial judge to decide if the controversy has come to an end because of the changed situation.  The school board involved in the case says the dispute is over, but… Read More

A federal appeals court on Tuesday night gave 17 states and the local Washington, D.C., government a right to join in a major constitutional lawsuit, to defend subsidies that reduce the cost of health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit took that action… Read More

Arguing that the Supreme Court did not really mean to allow more foreign nationals who have relatives in the U.S. to enter the country under President Trump’s executive order on immigration, the Trump Administration asked a federal appeals court on Thursday to reinstate the limits that government officials wanted. This bold argument came as Justice… Read More

Taking its first official stand on the issue, the Trump Administration argued in a federal court Wednesday that a 1964 civil rights law does not protect gays, lesbians and transgender people from discrimination in the workplace.  By implication, the position also suggests that the government will not support equal rights under a 1972 law on… Read More

In a decision that significantly broadens the right to carry a handgun outside one’s own home, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that a city or state may not constitutionally limit that right to individuals who have some specific need to protect themselves.  Such a limit may not even be imposed in a densely populated urban… Read More

The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the Trump Administration to allow grandparents and other family members who are foreign nationals from Mideast countries to enter the U.S., but told a lower court to review how many refugees can be excluded.   The Justices refused to decide the refugee issue themselves, referring that to the U.S. Court… Read More