Covering the Supreme Court, lower courts, and the law

Siding with the Trump Administration and splitting 5-to-4, the Supreme Court on Friday temporarily blocked a federal trial judge from requiring government lawyers to hand over all documents bearing on the decision to end the “DACA” program for younger undocumented immigrants — formally the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. The unsigned order, containing no explanation… Read More

In a surprise move, the Supreme Court on Friday afternoon expanded its review of challenges to the decades-old practice of drawing election boundaries to benefit the candidates of the party in power.  It did so by taking on a claim by seven Maryland voters that their state legislature deliberately fashioned a congressional district that long… Read More

In a move that could tip the balance in the Supreme Court against labor unions representing public employees, the Trump Administration has added the federal government’s powerful voice to a long-running constitutional attack on fees charged to workers who do not belong to those unions. In a brief filed Wednesday evening, the Administration’s top advocate… Read More

In a highly unusual filing, a federal judge in San Francisco told the Supreme Court on Wednesday afternoon that there is no clear legal rule that he violated when he ordered the Trump Administration to disclose more fully how it made the decision to end the “DACA” program that protects young undocumented immigrants from deportation.  The… Read More

Over the years, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy has become the Supreme Court’s most energetic defender of gay rights, one of its true devotees to free speech,   and a sympathetic defender of religious believers.  Now, a lengthy hearing before the Justices on Tuesday showed, he has to find a way to reconcile all three. After 88… Read More

For at least the next several weeks, the Trump Administration may enforce in full all of its tough new restrictions on entry into the U.S. of foreign nationals from six nations with Muslim population majorities, after getting temporary permission from the Supreme Court on Monday afternoon.  The orders mean that even foreign nationals who have… Read More

A civil rights group told the Supreme Court on Monday about President Trump’s online relay of anti-Muslim videos circulated by a British organization.  In a letter, the American Civil Liberties Union argued that the “retweeting” of those images supports claims of the President’s purpose in imposing new immigration restrictions on foreign nationals from Muslim-majority nations…. Read More

Amid a sharp dispute about its power to rule on a new case on same-sex marriage, the Supreme Court refused on Monday to clarify when those couples have a right to government-provided benefits. Without explanation, the Justices simply denied review of an appeal by the mayor of Houston, Texas, in a sequel to the Justices’… Read More

The Trump Administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday night to stop a federal judge in California from forcing the government to hand over thousands of pages of internal documents showing how it decided to end a program that has allowed undocumented young immigrants to remain in the U.S. to work and to study. The… Read More

Fifty years ago, the Supreme Court changed its mind about what the Fourth Amendment protects, switching its focus from physical places to people.  On Wednesday, in a hearing that ran considerably longer than the norm, the Justices explored a new focus for the digital age: the cellphone. To be specific, the Justices spent 82 minutes… Read More