Covering the Supreme Court, lower courts, and the law

The Supreme Court holds the view, dating all the way back to George Washington’s time, that it will not give legal advice, but will only decide lawsuits that involve a live controversy. That is the way it interprets the power given to it by the Constitution’s Article III. On Friday afternoon, the court raised the… Read More

About four years after the Supreme Court took away the government’s strongest authority to protect minority voters’ rights, a backup power under the federal Voting Rights Act – weaker and harder to use – is now being threatened, just as federal courts have begun applying it. At issue now, as it was when the Supreme… Read More

The state of Hawaii and the Trump Administration have urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to bypass the usual step of a three-judge panel and assemble the full court to review President Trump’s revised immigration restrictions. If the court agrees, that could speed up review by that appeals court, and move… Read More

UPDATED Thursday 9:55 a.m.  The Fourth Circuit Court on Thursday approved the briefing schedule proposed by the two sides, with all briefs to be filed by June 2. —————————— Both sides in the high-profile case testing the rights of transgender students joined on Wednesday in proposing a schedule that would stretch out appeals court review… Read More

The 15-judge U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit voted on Monday afternoon to review before the full bench, instead of a three-judge panel, the legality of President Trump’s 90-day suspension of entry into the U.S. of any foreign nationals from six Mideast nations.  That action, taken by an unspecified majority vote, could speed up… Read More

A federal judge in Maryland who last month blocked enforcement nationwide of one key part of President Trump’s revised restrictions on immigration refused on Monday to prevent enforcement of two other significant parts — both dealing with refugees seeking to enter the U.S.   District Judge Theodore D. Chuang of Greenbelt, MD, explained that he had no… Read More

After 421 days, and after two bitter partisan clashes in the U.S. Senate, the vacant seat on the U.S. Supreme Court has a new occupant: Justice Neal M. Gorsuch, who will be 50 years old in August. Becoming history’s 113th member of the court, he succeeds the late Justice Antonin Scalia, praised by Gorsuch at… Read More

A 17-year-old transgender youth in Virginia will go to his high school graduation in June without knowing whether he will win his high-profile lawsuit seeking legal equality at school.  In the meantime, however, he has won glowing praise from two federal judges for his personal crusade. “Despite his youth and the formidable power of those… Read More

UPDATED Friday 12:10 p.m.   Shortly after the Senate confirmed Gorsuch as the Supreme Court’s ninth Justice (213th in history), the court announced that he will take one oath in a private ceremony at the court on Monday morning and will take a second oath in a public ceremony at the White House later that… Read More

In a flurry of parliamentary votes over a span of two hours on Thursday, the U.S. Senate completed its transformation into a markedly different body – at least in the way it exercises its constitutional role to provide “advice and consent” to Supreme Court nominations. It is far from clear, however, whether or how the… Read More