Covering the Supreme Court, lower courts, and the law

The Supreme Court on Friday set a hearing for Tuesday, April 23, on the controversy over the Trump Administration’s plan to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 census.  By placing that case in a 10 a.m. slot and by not having an argument in the 11 a.m. slot, the Justices gave themselves the… Read More

Arguing that President Trump is pushing the nation “toward a constitutional crisis of his own making,” a group of 16 states asked a federal court in California on Monday night to block the federal government from building a wall along the border between the U.S. and Mexico unless Congress explicitly approves money to pay for… Read More

Moving with unusual speed, the Supreme Court on Monday set the stage for acting soon – probably on Friday – on the constitutional controversy over asking everyone living in America about their citizenship, as part of the 2020 census. At issue at this point is whether the Justices will take up directly, without waiting for… Read More

Over the dissents of four Justices, the Supreme Court on Thursday night temporarily barred the state of Louisiana from enforcing a law that has the potential for making abortion unavailable to many and perhaps most women in the state.   The vote was not a final ruling that the law is unconstitutional, but only a temporary… Read More

An attempt by the state of Maryland to get a federal judge to uphold the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), in order to offset another federal judge’s earlier decision to strike down the entire law, faltered on Friday. The new decision by U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander of Baltimore found that Maryland’s… Read More

Lawyers on both sides of the constitutional controversy over asking everyone in America, during next year’s census, about their citizenship moved Thursday to set the stage for a final Supreme Court ruling before summer.  That was the aim of separate but related filings in the Supreme Court and in a federal trial court in New… Read More

The Trump Administration has now lost – even if only temporarily – the authority to enforce anywhere in the nation a set of sweeping new restrictions on women’s free access to birth-control devices and techniques under the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”). That was the result of a decision Monday afternoon by a federal trial judge… Read More

One day before the Trump Administration was to begin enforcing sweeping new limits on women’s access to free birth-control devices and techniques, a federal trial judge in California temporarily blocked the restrictions because of doubts about their legality.  The ruling is the latest chapter in the eight-year legal drama over the right to contraceptives created… Read More

Citing claims that the entire health care industry would face chaos if all of the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) were wiped out suddenly, a federal judge in Texas decided on Sunday night to put on hold his ruling that the law is unconstitutional.  The postponement is likely to last months, if not longer As a… Read More

Only hours before a crucial hearing in a federal trial court, the Trump Administration on Monday evening urged the Supreme Court to halt all further proceedings in the case, which tests the constitutionality of asking everyone in America about their citizenship, as part of the 2020 census.  The Court has refused twice before to block… Read More