Covering the Supreme Court, lower courts, and the law

The first federal appeals court’s review of President Trump’s revised order limiting immigration from six Mideast nations will go forward on an expedited schedule, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit decided Thursday. The appeals court gave itself the option of ruling even more swiftly on the Trump Administration’s plea to begin enforcing… Read More

Spelling out the grim details of years of extreme torture, a high-profile detainee at Guantanamo Bay is asking the Supreme Court to block his war crimes trial until he can contest its legality in a civilian court – a challenge based heavily on the impact on his physical and mental health of his treatment in… Read More

UPDATED Thursday: The challengers told the Fourth Circuit Court that they see no need for a simultaneous ruling on both the postponement issue and the legality of the Trump order, but agreed to a rapid schedule of briefing. TThe Trump Administration asked a federal appeals court on Wednesday afternoon to order a rapid review of… Read More

Students with disabilities have a legal right to educational support at school that will enable each one to make measureable progress, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Wednesday. It is not enough that progress is simply more than a bare minimum, the court said in an opinion written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr…. Read More

A Maryland federal judge who last week blocked one key part of President Trump’s new immigration restrictions will talk with lawyers on Tuesday about broadening that bar to enforcement.  At the telephone conference, lawyers for two refugee rights groups will ask the judge to go even further. U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang of Greenbelt,… Read More

UPDATED SUNDAY: Without writing an opinion, Judge Watson denied the government’s request to narrow the scope of his order against enforcement. He did not wait for a government reply.  The judge’s brief new order said “there is nothing unclear about the scope” of his enforcement ban.  He told both sides to advise on next steps… Read More

(This post has been updated and expanded.) The Trump Administration notified a federal judge in Maryland on Friday afternoon that it is appealing his order blocking enforcement of revised restrictions on immigration from Mideast nations.  The appeal, the notice said, will go to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. At issue is… Read More

If Justice Department lawyers follow through on President Trump’s vow to vigorously defend his power to limit immigration from Mideast nations, they could be doing so in more than one appeal in federal courts.  Early Thursday morning, a judge in Maryland became the second jurist within a matter of hours to rule against the President,… Read More

Relying heavily upon President Trump’s own words, a federal judge in Honolulu ruled Wednesday afternoon that the revised presidential order against immigration from the Mideast appears to be explicitly aimed at Muslims because of hostility to their religion, and is likely to be ruled unconstitutional. Based primarily upon that interpretation, U.S. District Judge Derrick K…. Read More

A local school board in Virginia urged a federal appeals court on Tuesday to give the Trump Administration until June 1 to sort out its position on the civil rights of transgender students.  A high-profile case on those rights should not be rushed, but instead should be put on a schedule that would allow a… Read More