Trying energetically to avoid any punishment by a federal judge who has complained of ethical lapses by Justice Department lawyers during the big immigration case, the Obama administration on Monday reluctantly agreed that it would accept some mild forms of sanctions.

The Supreme Court turned aside on Monday a plea to require jurors to satisfy the toughest legal test before they may vote to impose the death penalty.  Without comment, the Justices denied rehearing in a Louisiana case that they had passed up last Term, thus rejecting a new attempt by lawyers to turn it into a sequel to the Justices’ important Sixth… Read More

The Obama administration’s two levels of defense of its broad new immigration policy — one, a continued attempt to put the policy into effect, the other, a move to head off a federal judge’s ethical complaints against federal lawyers in the case — are moving along even in the slow court days of summer.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers in the public corruption cases of the former governor of Virginia and his wife — Robert F. McDonnell and Maureen G. McDonnell — are working toward an August 29 deadline on where to go next with both prosecutions.

Analysis The newest version of a civil rights movement – claims of equality for transgender people – has been building toward the Supreme Court at a very fast pace. On Wednesday, the Justices took their first action on the issue in a significant case, and the signals were mixed.

Signaling that the Supreme Court may be willing to take up the first significant test case on transgender rights, the Justices split 5-to-3 on Wednesday in blocking a lower court ruling on access of students to high school restrooms.  The Court’s order is here.

Analysis Reading a Supreme Court ruling of last January in a widely expansive way, a divided Delaware Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down that state’s death penalty law.  It ruled that the Supreme Court’s most recent ruling on death sentencing requires that the ultimate choice of life or death can only be made by a jury,… Read More

This post also appears on Constitution Daily, the blog of the National Constitution Center. The New England Patriots professional football team opened this year’s pre-season training camp this week in Foxborough, Mass., with one lingering issue settled: their star quarterback, Tom Brady, is not going to ask the Supreme Court to give him legal permission… Read More