Covering the Supreme Court, lower courts, and the law

If America had a “Founding Mother,” it surely was Abigail Adams, the wise and witty “best friend” to her husband John.  She is remembered for many things, but perhaps most often for a letter she wrote to John in March 1776, when he was serving in the Continental Congress, writing laws to govern colonial America…. Read More

Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., has ordered an investigation by Court staff of the source of last night’s leak of a draft opinion on the pending Mississippi abortion case. In doing so, the Court confirmed that the draft opinion was authentic, but cautioned that it is not final. It is not clear whether a… Read More

The last hearing of the Supreme Court’s current term will be held tomorrow, focusing on an attempt by the state of Oklahoma to overcome – at least partly – a devastating legal setback it had in the Court two years ago.  The state would have preferred that the Court use this new case to overrule… Read More

The Supreme Court’s hearings on Tuesday focus on basic disputes about federal courts’ monitoring of powers that the Constitution assigns elsewhere in government.  The first case is a test of federal court supervision of how Congress and the Executive Branch manage immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border.  The second case involves states’ resistance to federal courts’… Read More

Tomorrow, the Supreme Court turns from a new school prayer controversy in the first hearing of the day, to a second potentially deeply divisive controversy – a major dispute over the death penalty.  Frustrated for years that the process of capital punishment stretches out for years and years, the Court is more or less continually… Read More

The Supreme Court on Monday reopens two long-running controversies, core constitutional disputes that always divide the Court – and, in fact, divide the entire nation.  The first case being heard is about prayer at public schools, with the prospect that some of the Court’s longest-standing precedents on that issue are at risk of being overturned. … Read More

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will explore an issue that has lingered unanswered for decades: should it hold police accountable for failure to give “Miranda warnings” to suspects they want to question?  That’s the topic of the only hearing tomorrow. The “live” audio (no video) will be broadcast on the Quick Links on the Supreme… Read More

The Supreme Court continues its hearings on Tuesday with two cases that grew out of legal mistakes, requiring the Justices to consider how to remedy those missteps.  One involves an error by a federal agency on veterans’ benefits, the other by a federal court in a criminal case. Correction of legal errors, although generally desirable,… Read More

The Supreme Court returns to the bench tomorrow, to begin the final round of hearings in its current term.  Both cases on Monday have deep historic roots – the first in an 1819 ruling by the Court on state-federal relations, the second in the original Constitution and its clause dealing with the plight of people… Read More

At mid-afternoon Thursday, Ketanji Brown Jackson, a 51-year-old federal circuit judge, became “Justice-designate” Jackson when the Senate voted 53-47 to confirm her for the seat.  She will actually become a Justice, however, only this summer, perhaps in early July, because there will be no vacant seat for her to fill until then. She was chosen… Read More