Lyle Denniston

Feb 8 2024

Trump very likely will stay on ballot

With the nation’s Chief Justice warning of “pretty daunting consequences” if the Supreme Court were to ban Donald Trump from seeking the Presidency, the Court left little doubt on Thursday that it will allow his candidacy to continue. After two hours and eight minutes with all nine Justices examining the historic case of Trump v…. Read More

Feb 7 2024

A guide to Trump hearing tomorrow

Constitutional and political history will be made tomorrow, and Americans will be able to witness it as it happens.  It will be the Supreme Court’s hearing in the case testing whether Donald Trump will be disqualified from running for President.  The final decision will come days, weeks or months later; no one knows exactly when…. Read More

Feb 6 2024

Trump’s immunity claim fails

A federal appeals court in Washington, reaching back in constitutional history to 1803, ruled unanimously on Tuesday that former President Donald Trump is not immune to criminal prosecution for his role in trying to stay in office in 2021 after his defeat in 2020. Since that outcome was not a surprise, given the unprecedented sweep… Read More

Feb 1 2024

The Court’s hard choices on Trump

In a risky rendezvous with history one week from today, the Supreme Court faces exceedingly hard choices: Can it – and should it – ban Donald Trump from American politics?  The Justices will explore those questions at a hearing with deep political and constitutional meaning. The Court almost certainly has the power to take Trump… Read More

Jan 17 2024

Historic test for the Court today

The Supreme Court finishes its current round of hearings today with two cases that might simultaneously make Congress’s writing of new laws harder and make federal government agencies noticeably weaker.  If that is the outcome, it would be one of the biggest shifts in government power since the 1930s, making this one of the Court’s… Read More

Jan 16 2024

Magna Carta in a modern setting

Today, the Supreme Court confronts again the modern meaning of that famous declaration of liberty, England’s eight-century-old Magna Carta.  A group of 120 Texans and five companies in that state are relying on that ancient document (and one of its echoes in the U.S. Constitution) to try to force their state to pay them compensation… Read More

Jan 15 2024

The Court and investors’ right to know

The Supreme Court is on a holiday today, but it returns to the bench Tuesday to examine a dispute over investors’ right to know corporate information that might influence the value of their investments. That is the issue in the Court’s first hearing of the day.  (A discussion of the second hearing will appear in… Read More

Jan 10 2024

Putting data in the witness chair?

The Supreme Court’s hearing today looks at an important question in criminal law: allowing data to take the place of a human witness’s testimony on the stand.  It is a new form of an old constitutional issue. Wednesday’s hearing:  Jason Smith v. Arizona   This hearing, the only one of the day, starts at 10 a.m…. Read More

Jan 9 2024

Protecting property rights

Today, the Supreme Court takes a new look at a decades-old idea: private individuals may not be forced to give up constitutional rights in order to get a government benefit.  That kind of quid-pro-quo has been outlawed since the late 1900s.  The Justices will hold a second hearing today, to examine a technical dispute about… Read More

Jan 7 2024

That “other” Supreme Court returns

Much of the nation may now be following the Supreme Court as it explores the historic constitutional and political consequences of the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol – especially the consequences for former President Donald Trump. But there is “another” Court, so to speak – one not focused on Trump – and… 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.

Recent Posts

  • Court steps into tariff fight
  • Court allows immigrant raids to go on
  • Court urged to speed tariff review
  • Will the Court uphold Trump’s tariffs?
  • Trump loses on tariffs
PREV 1 … 11 12 13 … 84 NEXT
Site built and optimized by Sound Strategies