Covering the Supreme Court, lower courts, and the law

In a stark new illustration of the seemingly never-ending troubles of the system of war crimes courts at Guantanamo Bay, a federal civilian court on Tuesday nullified nearly 500 orders that had been issued by a military judge there because of ethical lapses. The ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals… Read More

The Pentagon on Tuesday afternoon gained clear and definite legal permission to impose significant new limitations on military service for transgender individuals, under a new policy that is set to formally begin in 17 days — on April 12.   With the legality of the new restrictions still not decisively settled in any federal court, the… Read More

The Trump Administration has now filed its request to the appeals court, the D.C. Circuit, to “take all appropriate steps” to enable the Pentagon to go ahead with enforcing its new transgender policy.  The request sought one of three alternatives: to clarify that a federal judge’s order barring the policy is no longer in effect,… Read More

The Trump Administration remains legally barred from putting into effect its strict new limits on transgender individuals continuing to serve in the military or enlisting anew, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled on Tuesday.   It will not be free to do so at least until March 29, the judge said.  Under normal court procedures,… Read More

The Supreme Court on Friday broadened the scope of its review of the legality of adding a question about citizenship to next year’s census, telling lawyers to add their views on whether that move would be unconstitutional. The case up to now has been only a test of whether asking everyone in America about their… Read More

Without waiting for the courts to decide if it can do so legally, the Trump Administration has issued orders to put into effect next month its strict new limitations on service in the military by transgender individuals. The policy will affect those already in uniform as well as those seeking to enlist. On Tuesday night,… Read More

(Later on Friday, the Trump Administration filed a document with the federal judge in Washington, D.C.., explaining why it understood that it was no longer barred from carrying out the policy.  That filing can be read here.  Transgender rights groups plan to challenge that point.) Taking the position that it is now legally free to… Read More

Moving to protect its constitutional power over the nation’s purse, the House of Representatives on Tuesday evening voted by a large majority to reject President Trump’s move to defy Congress’s refusal to provide extra money to pay for a U.S.-Mexico border wall that he intends to move ahead with on his own. The vote was… Read More

Three years after Congress most recently refused to make women eligible to be drafted into the military, a federal judge in Houston ruled on Friday that the registration system unconstitutionally discriminates against men. Changes in military service for women, the judge decided, have ended the binding effect of a four-decades-old ruling by the Supreme Court… Read More

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