Covering the Supreme Court, lower courts, and the law

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hold one of its longest hearings of the current term, and the time probably will be needed: four separate cases, being heard together, will draw the Justices into deep controversy over a lengthy list of fundamental constitutional questions.  All of those issues come down to this: who will raise… Read More

The Supreme Court is the place to get answers to some historic legal questions.  But, occasionally, the Court uses its ultimate authority just to settle some very basic, nuts-and-bolts legal questions.  That’s what it will be doing at two hearings on Tuesday, exploring who has a right to  sue to enforce rights. The Court will… Read More

On Monday, the Supreme Court continues its November sitting with hearings on the constitutional legitimacy of the way two federal agencies – part of the “Fourth Branch” of government – use their power to regulate business activity.  This is not new for the Court: it has been wrestling with this question since the 1890s. The… Read More

The Supreme Court, without any publicly noted dissents, opened the way Tuesday for a state grand jury in Georgia to question U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham about whether he made efforts to help former President Donald Trump try to overturn the 2020 presidential election. In a one-page order, the Court said that the South Carolina Republican… Read More

The Supreme Court will hold a single hearing on Wednesday, continuing the never-ending task of determining how to give legal meaning to laws passed by Congress.  This case involves a law designed to stop international money-laundering. The Court will broadcast “live” the audio (no video) of the hearing on its homepage, supremecourt.gov  To listen, click… Read More

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hold two hearings focusing on a familiar but strange reality about the Court and crime: If the Justices issue a decision that expands the rights of criminal suspects or of convicted criminals, that doesn’t always apply as the law of the land, binding everywhere.  The two cases seek ways… Read More

Very few Supreme Court decisions in American constitutional history can match the dramatic intensity and cultural breadth of its 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, ending racial segregation in the nation’s public schools.  But, with an anxious nation once again asking itself what it should be doing now about race, the Supreme Court… Read More

Seeking shelter under a hallowed legal tradition that has its origins in the “Glorious Revolution” in England (1688-1689), Republican Senator Lindsey Graham is now asking the U.S. Supreme Court to keep him out of a witness chair in Atlanta, GA.  A local prosecutor wants to question the South Carolina Senator, under oath, as she builds… Read More

For ten weeks, the legal controversy over former President Donald Trump’s claim that he owns White House records that he took home with him has been unfolding in five different courts, including the Supreme Court, and is still weeks away from being decided.  It is highly complex, from a legal standpoint, but can be explained… Read More

Acting quickly and with no dissents noted, the Supreme Court refused on Thursday to give former President Donald Trump access to secret documents that the FBI had taken from his Mar a Lago resort in Florida in August.  The action, done with no explanation, was not a surprise. As a result, those classified materials will… Read More