Covering the Supreme Court, lower courts, and the law

For the third time in modern history, the Supreme Court has interpreted in a narrow way the strongest law that Congress has ever passed to protect voting rights – protection that was created especially for minority citizens.  In a 6-to-3 ruling on Thursday, the last day of the current term for decisions, the Court once… Read More

One of the oldest constitutional understandings in America is that the government should remain neutral about religion, neither favoring it nor interfering with it. The idea is captured in a phrase that President Thomas Jefferson used in a letter to Baptists in Danbury, Conn., in 1802, assuring them that the Constitution’s First Amendment had built… Read More

The Supreme Court’s decision this morning, blocking the latest effort by conservative politicians and lawyers to end “Obamacare” (the Affordable Care Act), had two quite specific meanings.  First, the massive health insurance law remains intact today.  But, second, the constitutional battle over its long-term survival will go on, and the ultimate outcome is far from… Read More

A group of constitutional scholars (39 in all) has written to Congress to answer the claims that it would be unconstitutional for Congress to make the District of Columbia the 51st state, unless that is done by constitutional amendment.   It argued that Congress could do so constitutionally by passing a simple law, as was… Read More

Scandals have surrounded many presidents throughout American history, but no one who has occupied that office has ever been in as serious trouble with the law as Donald Trump could be now.  Three investigations of potential crimes are now moving ahead, two in New York and one in Georgia, and there is a real possibility… Read More

The moment that opponents of abortion have been awaiting for nearly five decades may have arrived at the Supreme Court this morning.  The Justices announced that they will decide a Mississippi case that could lead to the end of abortion as a constitutional right, or at least could allow the most stringent restriction so far… Read More

Americans seem to be getting more comfortable in public discussions of nudity or partial nudity, and many could be ready to accept more of it in public places.  It is a serious topic, especially when it involves constitutional demands to treat the sexes equally when government writes laws to control how much public nudity will… Read More

In a move that might postpone the day when the federal government moves in to try to stop abuses of America’s social media, Facebook’s internal review board ruled on Wednesday that its management properly blacked out President Trump, but the board said that the ban should not have been made indefinite. The decision, a historic… Read More

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hold the final hearing of the current term.  After that, the next scheduled hearing will be on October 4, on opening day of a new term.  The case on Tuesday could fit into the tense debate America is now having with itself over racial inequality in the criminal justice… Read More

Today, the Supreme Court ends its last two-week hearing session of the current term.  There are two cases set for today; this dispatch deals with the second one, possibly leading to an examination of states’ rights under the Constitution’s Eleventh Amendment.  The first case, on the free-speech rights of public school students, was discussed in… Read More