Lyle Denniston

Nov 24 2019

Important week in court for Trump (UPDATED)

UPDATE Monday morning, 11/25/19:  The Supreme Court took no action, among its regular orders list, on either of the cases involving President Trump’s tax returns.  That does not rule out an order or orders at any time, later Monday or later in the week. ——————— The historic, months-long constitutional battle growing out of official investigations… Read More

Nov 4 2019

Trump tax returns case to reach Justices shortly

President Trump’s lawyers plan, within the next ten days, to go to the Supreme Court with a plea to rule – before the Justices’ current term ends this summer – that no court has power to order that his personal and business tax returns be handed over to a state criminal investigation. That appeal follows… Read More

Oct 21 2019

Might Justices rule this term on Trump tax returns fight?

Lawyers for President Trump and a state prosecutor in New York have reached an agreement to put before the Supreme Court in its current term the historic constitutional dispute over disclosure of the President’s tax returns.  The two sides notified the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City on Monday… Read More

Oct 4 2019

Where is the Supreme Court going on abortion?

Returning to an abortion rights issue that it had decided earlier but with a bench that is now changed, the Supreme Court agreed on Friday to hear new appeals on states’ power to limit the activities of doctors who terminate women’s pregnancies. The case has the potential to bring about a major shift in the… Read More

Sep 24 2019

UK Parliament shutdown ruled illegal

In a stinging rebuke of Britain’s new Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and a strong exertion of its own power, the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously nullified a government order to shut down Parliament for five weeks this month and next. “The effect [of the suspension] upon the fundamentals of our democracy was extreme,”… Read More

Sep 23 2019

UK Supreme Court to rule Tuesday

The United Kingdom’s Supreme Court will announce Tuesday morning its ruling on the legality of the order to shut down Parliament for five weeks this month.   One of the most important constitutional decisions in Britain’s modern history, the ruling will be orally announced on live television at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday (London time; 5:30 a.m. on… Read More

Sep 16 2019

Historic review of Brexit: 12 hours on TV

At 10:30 a.m. Tuesday (that’s London time; 5:30 a.m. on the U.S. East Coast), Britain’s highest court opens three days of televised hearings on Brexit in a historic constitutional test of the 700-year-old UK Parliament’s role as the most powerful entity in that country’s government. The fundamental issue at the core of 12 hours of… Read More

Aug 9 2019

A high-profile legal victory on transgender rights

The nation’s best-known transgender student, Gavin Grimm, has won his discrimination case against his old high school – for the second time. The new victory came on Friday, four years after he first filed his lawsuit, three years after his first court victory, more than two years after the Supreme Court opted not to decide… Read More

Jul 26 2019

Justices allow Trump Administration to move ahead on border wall

Splitting 5-4, the Supreme Court on Friday evening cleared the way for the Trump Administration to issue contracts and start building about 100 miles of 30-foot-high walls, brightly lit, along the U.S.-Mexico.  It acted without ruling that the government had the legal authority to do so. In a one-paragraph order, the Court put on hold… Read More

Jul 24 2019

In America, who do elected politicians represent?

No idea is more central to the entire history of America’s constitutional government than the belief that the people are capable of governing themselves.   And equally durable is the belief that the people govern themselves best through representatives that they choose at free elections.  To those representatives, the people give their consent to being governed…. 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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