Covering the Supreme Court, lower courts, and the law

A single Supreme Court Justice, taking the smallest, temporary yet significant step to deal with a major legal controversy, agreed on Friday afternoon to allow the abortion bill (mifepristone) to remain available nationwide at least for five more days. Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., acting alone in his capacity as the Justice handling emergency requests… Read More

The Biden Administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday morning to act swiftly to keep the abortion pill available across the nation, to prevent “profound disruption and grave harm.” If the Court does not react in a matter of hours, lower court rulings will go into effect tonight with the practical effect that medical abortions… Read More

A federal appeals court, in a temporary ruling issued late Wednesday night, allowed a drug company to continue to supply an abortion pill but only under tight restrictions that the federal drug control agency had relaxed over the past seven years. If the ruling stands, it would mean that women would have to make a… Read More

Tomorrow, the Supreme Court examines a constitutional right put in the Bill of Rights out of Americans’ revulsion at the infamous treason trial of Sir Walter Raleigh in England.  The Court also will hold a second hearing Wednesday, on the power of the federal tax collector to probe private records when seeking to collect a… Read More

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will be drawn deep into constitutional history, as it explores the limit on where one may be tried for a crime.   A second hearing will seek to unravel lower court disagreements on federal judges’ sentencing powers. The Court will broadcast “live” the audio (no video) of the hearings on its… Read More

The Supreme Court continues tomorrow its recent study of laws that protect “intellectual property” – creative inventions of the mind or the laboratory.  This time, the Court will be applying in a modern setting a legal principle it spelled out in 1888, when it upheld the patents on Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of the telephone…. Read More

The Supreme Court on Wednesday completes this week’s hearings with a single case, another look at trademark law.  This time, the case grows out of a dispute over a humorous spoof of the famous trademarks on Jack Daniel’s whiskey. The Court will broadcast “live” the audio (no video) of the hearing on its homepage, supremecourt.gov … Read More

The Biden Administration, implying that the Supreme Court may have jumped too hastily into the middle of a historic constitutional dispute over federal elections, told the Justices on Monday that they may now have lost the power to decide it. The government’s position, filed by the Justice Department legal office that the Court regularly relies… Read More

In world commerce, the U.S. is a dominant player — but do its laws apply to businesses in other countries?  That is the issue the Supreme Court will consider in a hearing on Tuesday.  In a second case, it will take its first look at the get-rich-quick scheme of investing in cryptocurrency, focusing on one… Read More

The Colorado River, vital to life in America’s parched West, is in crisis: it is – literally – running out of water after two decades of drought.  On Monday, the Supreme Court will examine the latest legal dispute over how to ration what is left of that dwindling resource. The Court will broadcast “live” the… Read More