Covering the Supreme Court, lower courts, and the law

Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., appears to be leaning – if today’s Supreme Court hearing on abortion rights provides a reliable hint – toward fashioning a ruling that does not take away totally a woman’s constitutional right to end her pregnancy but leaves it much narrowed. The key to such a decision would be… Read More

On Tuesday morning, the Supreme Court will explore how far civil rights laws go to protect disabled individuals – American’s “invisible minority” – from discrimination.  That will be the first of two hearings tomorrow.  The second hearing, involving Medicare rules for reimbursing hospitals for drug costs, was reviewed as part of a discussion here yesterday. … Read More

NOTE TO READERS: Much of the public’s interest in the Supreme Court this week will be focused on the historic hearing on Wednesday on abortion rights.  However, the Court will hear other cases earlier in the week. The discussion below looks at two of those cases, putting them in a broader context of how law… Read More

(NOTE TO READERS:  This is the final of three articles about the Mississippi abortion case set for a hearing in the Supreme Court on December 1.  This discussion is about the details of that case – the issues and how they developed.  In the prior two articles, the focus was first on the process of… Read More

(NOTE TO READERS:  This is the second of three articles seeking to set the stage for next week’s historic Supreme Court hearing on abortion rights.  The discussion here recounts how a “right of privacy” became a constitutional right to an abortion.  The third article in this series will appear in this space tomorrow; it will… Read More

NOTE TO READERS:  This is the first of three articles on the Supreme Court’s potentially momentous hearing next week on the future of abortion rights under Roe v. Wade.  This discussion focuses on when and how the Court decides whether to overrule a prior constitutional ruling.  The second article, to appear in this space tomorrow,… Read More

It almost certainly is a long shot, but another way to push for Puerto Rico statehood seemed to emerge as a potentiality in the Supreme Court yesterday.  It would require a bit of constitutional wizardry to make that real.  (But, isn’t that the way we got a personal right to a gun under the Second… Read More

The Supreme Court on Wednesday holds a single hearing, an appeal by the city of Austin, Texas, seeking to revive a local law restricting billboard advertising.  The case, though, could have a wider meaning as the courts deal with new technologies under the First Amendment. The “live” audio (without video) can be heard at Quick… Read More

It used to be said of William Rehnquist when he was Chief Justice that he would cut off a lawyer in mid-syllable if that was necessary to enforce the Supreme Court’s time limits at its hearings.  The Supreme Court is now demonstrating, over and over, that time limits don’t really mean that much anymore. That… Read More

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear an appeal by the federal government in a case with major potential for a new look at how Congress treats the nation’s territories – especially, Puerto Rico.  In a second hearing, it will examine the restrictions that states may put on religious counselors who sit with a Death… Read More