Covering the Supreme Court, lower courts, and the law

The Supreme Court, giving itself powerful control over the timing of federal criminal trials of former President Donald Trump, agreed on Wednesday to rule on his claim that he has total legal immunity to prosecution. The Court did put its review on a faster-than-usual schedule, but the timetable of reaching a final decision may as… Read More

Mass shootings in America, continuing now nearly every day, most often involve a gunman with a grisly intent to kill as many people as rapidly as possible.  Congress is aware of that, but it has not yet found a way around the gun control lobby’s fervent protection of rapid-firing, high-volume weaponry.  On Wednesday, though, the… Read More

In 1887, an English Catholic historian and politician – Lord Acton — was waging a futile challenge to the idea that the Pope is infallible.  He complained of the Pope’s authority in a letter to an Anglican bishop, writing: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  The Lord is best remembered for those… Read More

Sometimes, law seems to make no sense.  Why, for example, would the Supreme Court – busy these days with huge constitutional controversy — take an hour or so to listen to the legal gripe of a truck stop that sells gas and snacks beside the highway in Watford City, North Dakota (population 5,293)? The seeming… Read More

The Supreme Court now has all the legal documents it will need to act on former President Donald Trump’s claim that he is constitutionally immune to criminal prosecution, raising the question of how soon the Justices will move. Trump’s legal team, in one of the few times that they have acted to file court papers… Read More

Rushing to protect the chance of an early criminal trial of former President Donald Trump, a special federal prosecutor on Wednesday evening urged the Supreme Court to settle quickly the constitutional question of presidential immunity to prosecution. Two days after Trump’s legal team took that issue to the Court, and one day after the Court… Read More

Former President Donald Trump’s legal team asked the Supreme Court on Monday for help in a plan to seek months of delay before he could be put on trial for his role in the violent episode surrounding January 6, 2021.  If that plan unfolds, it could put off any potential trial on those charges until… Read More

With the nation’s Chief Justice warning of “pretty daunting consequences” if the Supreme Court were to ban Donald Trump from seeking the Presidency, the Court left little doubt on Thursday that it will allow his candidacy to continue. After two hours and eight minutes with all nine Justices examining the historic case of Trump v…. Read More

Constitutional and political history will be made tomorrow, and Americans will be able to witness it as it happens.  It will be the Supreme Court’s hearing in the case testing whether Donald Trump will be disqualified from running for President.  The final decision will come days, weeks or months later; no one knows exactly when…. Read More

A federal appeals court in Washington, reaching back in constitutional history to 1803, ruled unanimously on Tuesday that former President Donald Trump is not immune to criminal prosecution for his role in trying to stay in office in 2021 after his defeat in 2020. Since that outcome was not a surprise, given the unprecedented sweep… Read More