Covering the Supreme Court, lower courts, and the law

Next month, just after Joe Biden is set to win the final vote count for President, the Supreme Court will take a serious look at a constitutional dispute left over from the election campaign.  The Court’s clerk on Wednesday sent to all of the Justices’ chambers, for discussion in private on January 8, two appeals… Read More

The Supreme Court, in the most important court ruling in the frenzied post-election effort to stop Joe Biden from becoming President, cleared the way Friday evening for the Electoral College to elect him when it meets on Monday. In three brief but historic sentences, at least five Justices (and maybe more), put an end to… Read More

Today, the Supreme Court finishes up the current series of public hearings for the December sitting, with a 90-minute session on the financial woes of the two giants in the home mortgage field, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  After nearly collapsing in the housing market crisis of 2008, the two sort-of-private entities have been watched… Read More

Bypassing all lower courts, the state of Texas is moving directly in the Supreme Court with what may be the boldest constitutional challenge in the history of presidential elections: stop four other states from casting their electoral votes for Joe Biden next Monday. Texas’s aim emerged clearly in scores of pages of legal documents. It… Read More

The Supreme Court continues on Tuesday its “live” broadcasts of the audio portion of its hearings on pending cases. The first case, dealing with Facebook as a target of a robocall lawsuit, marks the second time in recent months that the Court has explored the scope of the 1991 ban on robocalling. The second case… Read More

Continuing its “live” broadcasts of the audio portion of its hearings, the Supreme Court will be spending Monday morning on two major cases with potentially major impact on United States relations with foreign nations.  The governments of Hungary and Germany are seeking to block lawsuits against them in U.S. courts, for property seizures or transfers… Read More

The Supreme Court finishes up this week’s hearings with a single, one-hour review of an important issue on the constitutional rule that juries must vote unanimously in order to convict someone of a serious crime.  The hearing’s audio portion is expected to be broadcast “live” at C-SPAN.org/supremecourt Hearing begins at 10 a.m.: Edwards v. Vannoy… Read More

Continuing with its remote hearings by telephone, with the “live” broadcasts of the audio portion, the Supreme Court on Tuesday will look into child slavery in Africa and into a federal tax dispute that has its origins back in the Civil War era.  The broadcasts are expected to be available online at C-SPAN.org/supreme court First… Read More

The Supreme Court resumes its public hearings tomorrow, opening a week of lawyers’ debates in five cases. The most important dispute is coming up first on Monday. It involves a long-running controversy over who gets counted in the census. The second hearing of the day involves legal limits on computer searches on the Internet. The… Read More

At three minutes before midnight last night, a new Supreme Court emerged: a 5-4 majority with the most conservative Justices clearly in control. For the first time, the newest Justice, Amy Coney Barrett, cast the deciding fifth vote to make a majority. In 33 pages of judicial writing, some of it quite ill-tempered, the ruling… Read More