Covering the Supreme Court, lower courts, and the law

Tuesday will bring a study of health law at the Supreme Court, in two unrelated cases.  The first hearing arises out of the opioid epidemic; it focuses on prosecution of doctors for over-prescribing pain-killing drugs.  The second examines the legal duty of health insurance plans to cover treatment of patients with kidney disease. The “live”… Read More

The Supreme Court’s hearings this week begin on Monday with four combined cases raising core questions about how the federal government today regulates air pollution in a strategy to reduce global warming as a hazard to human health and the environment. The “live” audio (no video) can be heard at Quick Links on the Supreme… Read More

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear a plea by a group of conservative state governments seeking to revive a Trump Administration anti-immigrant policy that actually has its origins in a dark era in American history, 140 years ago.  The case is the only one scheduled for hearing tomorrow. The “live” audio (no video) can… Read More

The Supreme Court, on holiday today, resumes public hearings tomorrow after a mid-term recess.  Tuesday’s hearings focus on the rights of Native Americans.  One case deals with tribes’ authority to operate gambling enterprises, the other is a test of constitutional protection of individual tribal members from being tried twice for the same criminal acts. The… Read More

Picking up on a hint from two conservative Supreme Court Justices, a federal judge in Arkansas ruled Thursday that individual voters and private groups promoting their rights cannot sue in federal court to enforce the last significant part remaining of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.  Only the U.S. Attorney General can do so, the judge… Read More

With the ongoing debate over putting a women’s equality guarantee into the U.S. Constitution now being renewed in all three branches of the national government, advocates now face months of uncertainty on what this year will bring.  Even so, they are seeking to stir up new interest in an issue that, for almost 99 years,… Read More

By the slimmest of margins, the Supreme Court on Monday evening gave a hint, and it could be a strong one, that its conservative majority is prepared to consider eliminating any consideration of race in drawing up new election district maps for congressional seats. By a vote of 5-to-4, the Court allowed the state of… Read More

Without hard facts to go on, many Americans now have the impression that there will be a vacancy on the Supreme Court, and quite soon.  But nothing of consequence can happen on that until there is an explicit statement that it is definitely going to happen. The topic here, of course, is the widely reported… Read More

About seven years ago, a lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston boldly called for “the outright prohibition of racial preferences in university admissions.”  A parallel case was filed the same day in North Carolina, seeking the same goal. A news story at the time noted that affirmative action in the selection of college entrants… Read More

Forty-nine years ago today, a Texas woman using the name “Jane Roe” to protect her privacy won her case in the Supreme Court and access to abortion became a right protected by the Constitution.  In Texas today, and elsewhere, the Roe v. Wade anniversary finds that right to be in peril perhaps as never before… Read More