2+ week, 4+ day ago (521+ words) McFadden kicked off the keynote event by referencing a newly established (within the hour) tradition of toasting the Constitution and noted that one of the most solemn duties of a judge "is to explicate that document in some of the most important legal cases of the day." Barrett also discussed her faith. "I don't think it's any secret that I'm a Catholic," she noted, drawing laughter from the room. Referencing St. Thomas More, who "was beheaded by Henry VIII essentially for sticking to his principles," she said humility is what allows judges to endure criticisms without fear." Barrett also invoked the risks faced by the Founders: "Signing the Declaration of Independence was treason " putting what we all do and what we are all called do in the context of the greater project of America, and those who have fought for…...

3+ week, 1+ day ago (164+ words) Sesame Street" debuted on this day in 1969. Justice Sonia Sotomayor has been on the program to settle a dispute between characters and talk about what it means to have a career. "The operation was a success, but the patient died." What such a procedure is to medicine, the Court"s opinion in this case is to law." " Justice Antonin Scalia in National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley Court Temporarily Pauses Ruling on November SNAP Payments Amy Howe on Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections and Public Safety Ronald Mann on The GEO Group, Inc. v. Menocal The court will return to questions about government contractors in The GEO Group, Inc. v. Menocal, to be argued on Monday. The issue in'GEO'is whether a contractor facing a district court order that refuses to give the contractor immunity can appeal immediately instead of waiting for the…...

1+ week, 16+ hour ago (165+ words) On Nov. 25, 2020, in a late-night order issued hours before Thanksgiving began that year, the court blocked enforcement of New York's attendance restrictions for houses of worship during the COVID-19 pandemic. Reminder: Tomorrow, we'll be sending an abridged version of the newsletter, and then we won't send SCOTUStoday on Thursday or Friday. The Supreme Court, as you might imagine, has never had cause to directly weigh in on Thanksgiving celebrations. It's never settled when the feast should be served (noon, obviously), which side dish is best (mashed potatoes!), or how many different types of pies should be on hand (as many as possible). "To put it plainly, courts "call balls and strikes'; they don't get a turn at bat." " Clark v. Sweeney Court Does Not Act on Birthright Citizenship " for Now Challengers Urge Justices to Strike Texas' New Congressional Map as Racially…...

4+ week, 16+ hour ago (153+ words) Diversity jurisdiction, which is perhaps all-too familiar to civil litigators and law students, will be at the center of today's arguments in The Hain Celestial Group v. Palmquist. But there are caveats: As Congress made clear in the Judiciary Act of 1789, this only applied for cases with an "amount in controversy" worth more than $500 (a hefty sum back then). Furthermore, "complete diversity" is required, meaning no plaintiff can share a home state with any defendant. JUSTICE ALITO: " I mean, what I took from your brief is you're saying Boyle's inconsistent with textualism. Who wrote Boyle? MR. CHANG: Justice Scalia wrote it. JUSTICE ALITO: I mean, so you're saying the Founding Father of textualism doesn't understand textualism. " Hencely v. Fluor Corporation President Trump's Tariffs v. the Supreme Court's Duties What Can We Learn from the First Round of Oral Arguments? Posted in Featured, Newsletters...

16+ hour, 3+ min ago (280+ words) On this day in 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt nominated Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. to the Supreme Court. Holmes went on to serve as an associate justice for nearly 30 years, retiring in 1932 at age 90. Holmes still holds the record for being the oldest person to serve on the Supreme Court. In yesterday's SCOTUStoday, we reviewed several significant matters related to the Trump administration that the court resolved in the past three months on the interim docket. Here is the second part of our overview of such cases. Sex markers on passports The apparent 6-3 majority held that "[d]isplaying passport holders' sex at birth no more offends equal protection principles than displaying their country of birth." Jackson again wrote a dissenting opinion, joined by Kagan and Sotomayor, in which she contended that the "documented real-world harms to these plaintiffs obviously outweigh the Government's…...

3+ week, 4+ day ago (545+ words) The November sitting is already halfway over. Here are the links to SCOTUSblog's coverage of the cases that have been heard so far: The spotlight was on the Supreme Court's oral arguments docket this week as the justices returned to the courtroom for the start of the November sitting. But court watchers shouldn't lose sight of the interim docket, where the court addressed the Trump administration's passport policy and on which several other high-profile matters are awaiting resolution. Here's a brief overview of the most notable pending requests, all of which involve the Trump administration. Because of that Oct. 1 announcement, we know that the court is not planning to take action in Trump v. Cook until January at the earliest. In this case, the Supreme Court is considering Trump's authority to federalize and deploy the National Guard within Illinois. It's been…...

2+ week, 4+ day ago (238+ words) On this day in 1878, the Supreme Court began hearing arguments in Reynolds v. United States, on whether a federal law banning bigamy violated the First Amendment's free exercise clause. (The court ultimately held that it did not.) The November sitting concluded this week. Here are the links to SCOTUSblog's coverage of the cases that were heard on Monday and Wednesday: Earlier this week, President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to hear Trump v. Carroll and overturn the lower court's ruling against him in that case. But unlike the many other such requests the president has made in recent months, which dealt with matters of presidential authority, this petition centers on a civil dispute. Then, in 2022, amid a nationwide reckoning with the #MeToo movement, New York passed a law allowing persons to seek civil damages for claims of sexual misconduct that had…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago (358+ words) The SCOTUSblog team reads'a lot'of legal news each week. Here's the most memorable headline from the past few days: Go fetch! Judge orders exes to bid on beloved goldendoodle. The justices will next consider petitions for review at a private conference on Friday. Several such cases can be found on our petitions page, which highlights particularly notable disputes awaiting the Supreme Court's attention. Here's a closer look at three of the issues that will be in front of the justices tomorrow. Last term, the court weighed in on a case stemming from President Donald Trump's executive order on birthright citizenship without considering the merits of that order. Instead, the justices addressed the universal injunctions used to put the order on hold nationwide and held that federal district courts lacked the authority to issue such injunctions. The respondents in the cases,…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago (752+ words) The Relist Watch column examines cert petitions that the Supreme Court has "relisted" for its upcoming conference. A short explanation of relists is available'here. The Supreme Court continues to churn through its relist rolls. True to'our'prediction'that the case was a "likely grant," the court'granted review'in one-time relist'Noem v. Al Otro Lado, which presents the question whether a noncitizen who is stopped on the Mexican side of the border has nevertheless "arrive[d] in the United States" and thereby become eligible to apply for asylum.' The petitioner in one-time relist'Bartunek v. United States'wasn't even that lucky: the court denied his petition concerning the constitutionality of acquitted-conduct sentencing (that is, judges taking into account one's acquitted conduct when imposing sentencing) without comment.' Ditto for the petitioner in four-time relist'Little v. United States, a January 6 defendant seeking to have charges dismissed in light of President Donald…...

2+ week, 6+ day ago (590+ words) The Relist Watch column examines cert petitions that the Supreme Court has "relisted" for its upcoming conference. A short explanation of relists is available'here. There are 149 cases under consideration for this week's conference on Friday. Four of them have been relisted for the first time. The solicitor general'argues'that ordinary usage reserves "arrives in" for persons who have physically crossed the border into the United States. Respondents'counter'that the majority's reading is sensible, that Congress has expressly covered those at a land border, and that the 9th Circuit's reading avoids the "perverse incentive" to evade ports entirely. This seems like a likely grant.' The justices are undoubtedly giving this case a close look. They usually'examine'with care grants of habeas relief that states claim to be abusive under AEDPA. And Thomas specifically'has criticized'the 4th Circuit for using unpublished opinions for important decisions to evade review....