Covering the Supreme Court, lower courts, and the law

The Supreme Court refused on Tuesday morning to reinstate even temporarily an extra five days of voting in Ohio this year — the so-called “Golden Week” that the state legislature eliminated three years ago. No dissents were noted in the brief and unexplained order. In a separate case, the Court refused to block a Senate investigating… Read More

A New York City investment firm facing charges at the Securities and Exchange Commission has asked the Supreme Court to bar that agency from continuing to use its administrative law judges to handle cases.  Those judges, the firm contended, are the kind of government officials who must be chosen by the president and confirmed by the… Read More

Amid a significant disagreement about federal power to oversee state voter registration rules, a divided federal appeals court late Friday temporarily blocked a demand in three states — but enforced only in one (Kansas) — that voters seeking to cast ballots for the presidency or Congress must show documents proving they are U.S. citizens. The 2-to-1 order by… Read More

Over the dissents of two Justices, the Supreme Court on Friday morning allowed Michigan voters to cast a straight-ticket ballot — a single vote that applies to every candidate from one party.  In a brief order, the Justices turned down a request by state officials to block such balloting.  The order is here. Justices Samuel… Read More

The federal government’s high-profile criminal case against the former governor of Virginia and his wife on public corruption charges ended abruptly on Thursday afternoon as Justice Department officials said they will ask a judge to dismiss all charges and bar their revival. The case against Robert F. McDonnell and Maureen G. McDonnell apparently was undermined by a… Read More

With a brief respite just granted by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., an online publisher on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court to clarify that the First Amendment assures a right to newsgathering for those who put on the Internet content created by someone else.  The application is here; the Chief Justice’s order is here. A federal… Read More

In a published report on Friday, the Washington Post quoted unnamed sources as saying that the prosecution team that won a public corruption case against Virginia’s former governor and his wife want to go forward with a new trial, in the wake of a Supreme Court decision overturning the governor’s prior conviction. Ex-Governor Robert F…. Read More

The top state election official in Michigan asked the Supreme Court on Friday to put back into effect, for this year’s election, a law banning voters from casting one vote for all of a party’s candidates on the ballot — that is, voting a straight ticket.  The request noted that 40 other states forbid that… Read More

The state Democratic party in Ohio and some of its county organizations and voters asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to reinstate five days of early voting in this year’s general election — the so-called “Golden Week” that had been heavily used by black and low-income voters, who tend to support Democratic candidates. Enacted eight years… Read More

The Supreme Court on Wednesday put off for almost a month any action on the Obama administration’s long-stalled 2014 immigration policy, and that may lead to added delay in a Texas federal court where a trial on the policy’s legality is due to be held — at some point. More than six weeks ago, the… Read More