Covering the Supreme Court, lower courts, and the law

Lawyers on both sides of the constitutional controversy over asking everyone in America, during next year’s census, about their citizenship moved Thursday to set the stage for a final Supreme Court ruling before summer.  That was the aim of separate but related filings in the Supreme Court and in a federal trial court in New… Read More

The Trump Administration has now lost – even if only temporarily – the authority to enforce anywhere in the nation a set of sweeping new restrictions on women’s free access to birth-control devices and techniques under the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”). That was the result of a decision Monday afternoon by a federal trial judge… Read More

One day before the Trump Administration was to begin enforcing sweeping new limits on women’s access to free birth-control devices and techniques, a federal trial judge in California temporarily blocked the restrictions because of doubts about their legality.  The ruling is the latest chapter in the eight-year legal drama over the right to contraceptives created… Read More

Citing claims that the entire health care industry would face chaos if all of the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) were wiped out suddenly, a federal judge in Texas decided on Sunday night to put on hold his ruling that the law is unconstitutional.  The postponement is likely to last months, if not longer As a… Read More

Only hours before a crucial hearing in a federal trial court, the Trump Administration on Monday evening urged the Supreme Court to halt all further proceedings in the case, which tests the constitutionality of asking everyone in America about their citizenship, as part of the 2020 census.  The Court has refused twice before to block… Read More

Attempting once again a highly unusual legal maneuver for getting prompt Supreme Court review of major controversial issues, the Trump Administration on Friday asked the Justices to restore the military’s power to exclude most transgender people from serving in the armed forces.  That policy is temporarily blocked nationwide by orders of three federal trial judges…. Read More

Seeming to suggest that higher courts have left no other choice, a federal trial judge in Eugene, Ore., ordered a months-long delay of the trial of a children’s constitutional lawsuit claiming future harm from climate change, especially global warming.  That trial was to have started more than three weeks ago, but now will occur –… Read More

After two quick rulings by lower courts, the Trump Administration is now down to what appears to be its last option to seek a delay of a constitutional court case over the 2020 census.  Only a last-ditch plea to the Supreme Court remained Wednesday, and that would come in the wake of a string of… Read More

A federal judge, out of patience with the Trump Administration’s 12 attempts to stop a trial of a constitutional dispute over the 2020 census, put government lawyers on notice on Tuesday that they are risking punishment for some of those tactics.  U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman of New York City twice mentioned possible “sanctions”… Read More

Trying again to stop a trial in a federal court in a constitutional dispute over the 2020 census, the Trump Administration rushed into one court on Sunday and then, without waiting for action there, hurried to a higher court on Monday with the same request. At issue in both requests is whether a trial judge… Read More