Covering the Supreme Court, lower courts, and the law

In a decision that significantly broadens the right to carry a handgun outside one’s own home, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that a city or state may not constitutionally limit that right to individuals who have some specific need to protect themselves.  Such a limit may not even be imposed in a densely populated urban… Read More

The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the Trump Administration to allow grandparents and other family members who are foreign nationals from Mideast countries to enter the U.S., but told a lower court to review how many refugees can be excluded.   The Justices refused to decide the refugee issue themselves, referring that to the U.S. Court… Read More

UPDATED Tuesday night:  Within hours after the challengers’ response was filed, the Trump Administration submitted a 16-page reply brief.  That means that all of  the filings have been made, so the Supreme Court can act at any time.   The arguments made by the government in its reply are discussed at the bottom of this… Read More

Legal disputes in the federal courts often unfold in a familiar pattern, going from the lowest-ranking court and then, step by step up the ladder, finally reaching the Supreme Court.   It is usually quite orderly, even when an urgent situation is developing. The usual pattern, though, has not been followed lately in the constitutional controversy… Read More

(UPDATED Saturday 3:21 p.m.  Supreme Court asks for reply to government plea by noon Tuesday.  Maybe no action until after that. Taking the constitutional controversy over immigration restrictions back to the Supreme Court , the Trump Administration on Friday night asked the Justices’ permission to keep intact its current policy on foreign nationals and refugees… Read More

The Trump Administration will return to the Supreme Court in an attempt to get free of a federal judge’s new order expanding entry to the U.S. of foreign nationals and refugees, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Friday afternoon. “The Supreme Court has had to correct this lower court once, and we will now reluctantly return… Read More

A federal judge in Hawaii late Thursday afternoon ordered the Trump Administration to relax its new controls on immigrants, to allow the entry of more foreign relatives of U.S. residents and more refugees from around the world.  The judge refused to put his new ruling on hold, even if the Administration now moved to appeal… Read More

Lawyers for the state of Hawaii and other challengers to the way the Trump Administration is limiting immigration of foreign nationals and refugees leveled new charges of illegal government action in a filing with a federal judge Wednesday night. After Wednesday, the document said, the Administration will stop allowing entry even of refugees who already have… Read More

Disagreeing with a federal appeals court, Trump Administration lawyers argued on Tuesday night that a federal judge had no authority to expand the categories of foreign nationals and refugees who may enter the U.S. under a presidential executive order. In a new filing in a federal trial court in Honolulu, the Trump team argued that… Read More

One of the most significant civil rights questions developing over more than a quarter-century –how far did Congress intend to go to outlaw sex discrimination – is headed to the Supreme Court for a likely showdown.  That issue is at the intersection of three phases in the modern civil rights revolution: on women’s rights, gay… Read More