Covering the Supreme Court, lower courts, and the law

In a hearing Wednesday, the Supreme Court will become something of an art critic, evaluating whether a famous work by Andy Warhol was truly creative.  It would have to be, in order to be legal under U.S. copyright law.  At a second hearing, the Court will consider when a supervisor in a business has a… Read More

The Supreme Court is closed today for a legal holiday, but resumes its hearings tomorrow with one of the most important cases in years on the power of states under the Constitution to define their own way of life.  The sometimes bold and daring state of California, not surprisingly, is at the center of that… Read More

Former President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to restore full control to a Florida federal judge of the historic dispute over his access to thousands of government documents, giving him a chance to regain possession even of highly classified secret data. If the Justices grant the new Trump plea, it would push… Read More

In a hearing Tuesday, the Supreme Court will again examine two of the most contested issues in American politics: how to make voting equal for minorities and how to draw fair election districts.  In a second hearing, the Justices will examine military veterans’ right to disability benefits. The Court will broadcast “live” the audio of… Read More

Opening day of the Supreme Court’s new term on Monday will focus on hearings about two kinds of property rights: the right to build on private property when that might lead to pollution of a nearby waterway (a modern dispute about the environment) and the right of state governments to take ownership of private financial… Read More

On Friday night, the Biden Administration’s Justice Department asked a federal appeals court to speed up its review of a federal case over government seizure of secret documents from former President Donald Trump’s Mar a Lago resort in Florida. The after-hours filing with the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals was clearly aimed at shutting down… Read More

The Supreme Court, joined by a history-making new Justice but deeply immersed in controversy that has put its future in serious question, begins a new term on Monday. With the public allowed back into the Court’s hearings for the first time in two and a half years, the spectators will see the first black woman… Read More

A year and eight months after Donald Trump left the White House, carrying with him a large trove of documents that he had no right to take, the controversy is still far from being sorted out.  Here are the most important questions still unanswered: Why did he take what he took?  Where did he put… Read More

Voters in Kansas, among the most conservative in the nation, bluntly ordered their state legislature on Tuesday not to take away a woman’s right to abortion – guaranteed since 2019 under the state constitution. As of early this morning, with 96.7 percent of the votes counted, a measure proposed by the legislature seeking authority to… Read More

A constitutional right that has some of its origins in the famous Great Charter (“Magna Carta”) in 13th Century England has been a source over many decades of some of the most important rights enjoyed by Americans.  It is the somewhat opaque “right of due process,” a basic guarantee that protects people from arbitrary government… Read More