Lyle Denniston

Jan 6 2024

2024: The Court, law and politics

The images of savage violence at the nation’s Capitol remain as vivid today, three years after that January 6.  Those were scenes of an attempt, unprecedented in American history, to prevent a new President from taking office.  Now, 2024 begins to unfold, possibly the year of reckoning, legal and political, for that assault on the… Read More

Jan 5 2024

Court to review Trump candidacy

In a move without parallel in American history, the Supreme Court agreed on Friday evening to examine Donald Trump’s claim that the Constitution does not bar him from again seeking the Presidency. While the Court’s one-page order gave no reliable hint of how the case would come out in the end, two things stood out… Read More

Dec 28 2023

Trump ruled off Maine ballot

In a ruling likely to be challenged in state courts, Maine’s secretary of state decided on Thursday that Donald Trump is constitutionally disqualified from seeking the Presidency.  This is the first decision against his candidacy by a state official in charge of elections. Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, using powers given to her office by… Read More

Dec 28 2023

Trump candidacy case reaches the Court

Predicting a “national disaster” in politics next year if Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy is barred, Colorado’s Republican leaders on Wednesday night asked the Supreme Court to rule speedily on the historic constitutional controversy. The nation, the new appeal argued, could wind up with 51 different state approaches to Trump’s eligibility unless the Justices overturn the… Read More

Dec 22 2023

New risk of Trump trial delay

Adding a few weeks of delay to federal courts’ decision on ex-President Donald Trump’s attempt to avoid a criminal trial for the January 6 2021 violence at the Capitol, the Supreme Court on Friday opted to stay on the sidelines of that controversy, at least for now. In a one-sentence order issued in early afternoon,… Read More

Dec 19 2023

Trump disqualified — for now

For the first time in history, a court has barred a major presidential candidate from the ballot for failing to meet the Constitution’s requirements.  Former President Donald Trump was disqualified today by the highest state court in Colorado. The decision came this evening in the Colorado Supreme Court, by a vote of 4-to-3.  The order… Read More

Dec 11 2023

Speedy appeal on Trump immunity

UPDATE: Later Monday, the Court agreed to expedite a decision on whether to grant review of the immunity issues, and gave Trump’s team nine days to file a response.  It could even act on the next step before Christmas. Without waiting for a lower court to rule, the special January 6 prosecutor asked the Supreme… Read More

Dec 6 2023

New look at workers’ rights

(Note:  Information on how to listen to today’s case is at the end of this report.) The Supreme Court finishes today the current round of hearings by examining the rights of workers to be treated equally when their employer transfers them to a different job, or refuses a transfer request.  That may be a fairly… Read More

Dec 5 2023

When is income actually income?

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court takes a new look at the 110-year-old Sixteenth Amendment – the grant of power to Congress to impose a tax on income.  The Court is focusing on when a gain is actually income subject to tax. Today’s hearing:  Moore v. United States The Constitution and the power to tax:  One… Read More

Dec 4 2023

The Court and the opioid epidemic

(Note: Information on how to listen to this hearing today is at the end of the report.) On Monday, the Supreme Court examines a $40,000,000,000 (trillion) fight over legal blame for the quarter-century-long epidemic of drug addiction and deaths due to opioid overdose.  The federal government took the case to the Court to try to… Read More

Lyle Denniston continues to write about the U.S. Supreme Court, although he “retired” at the end of 2019 following more than six decades on that news beat. He was there for three revolutions – civil rights, women’s rights, and gay rights – and the start of a fourth, on transgender rights. His career of following the law began at the Otoe County Courthouse in his hometown, Nebraska City, Nebraska, in the fall of 1948. His online, eight-week, college-level course – “The Supreme Court and American Politics” – is available from the University of Baltimore Law School, and it is free.

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