Where the Supreme Court’s two most conservative justices part ways

Each weekday, we select a short list of news articles and commentary related to the Supreme Court. Here’s the Tuesday morning read:

• In Supreme Court appeal, Ghislaine Maxwell fights Justice Department view of Epstein plea deal (Maureen Groppe, USA Today)
• Judges Continue to Block Trump Policies Following Supreme Court Ruling (Louise Radnofsky, Mariah Timms, and Jess Bravin, The Wall Street Journal)
• New documents show how passport and Social Security rules would change to enforce Trump’s birthright citizenship order (Devan Cole, John Fritze, and Priscilla Alvarez, CNN)
• The Supreme Court Owes the Country Explanations for Its Big Decisions (The Editorial Board, The New York Times)
• Justice Kagan’s Belated Call for Civility: Too Little, Too Late? (Carrie Campbell Severino, Bench Memos, National Review)

Each weekday, we select a short list of news articles and commentary related to the Supreme Court. Here’s the Monday morning read:

• Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship could have taken effect this weekend. Lower courts are continuing to block it (Devan Cole, CNN)
• Confidence in the Supreme Court is increasing, but so are concerns over its power (AP/NORC)
• Trump says Obama ‘owes me big’ for Supreme Court immunity ruling (Steven Nelson, The New York Post)
• Trump notches winning streak in Supreme Court emergency docket deluge (Zach Schonfeld and Ella Lee, The Hill)
• In Smithsonian Role, John Roberts Encounters History, Pandas and Trump (Abbie VanSickle, Robin Pogrebin, and Graham Bowley, The New York Times)

Rights and Responsibilities is a recurring series by Richard Garnett on legal education, the role of the courts in our constitutional structure, and the law of religious freedom and free expression.

Please note that the views of outside contributors do not reflect the official opinions of SCOTUSblog or its staff.

One of the more closely watched, “hot-button” cases of the Supreme Court’s recently wound-down 2024-25 term was Mahmoud v. Taylor. (For more, see my friend Asma Uddin’s helpful July 1 review and discussion of the decision.) In a nutshell, the case involved several parents’ First Amendment challenge to a Maryland school district’s policy banning notice about, and “opt outs” from, certain books and lessons regarding gender identity and sexual orientation. The court ruled, in a 6-3 decision, that the policy (likely) imposes a “burden” on the objecting parents’ religious-freedom rights and that this burden (likely) is not constitutionally justified.

Each weekday, we select a short list of news articles and commentary related to the Supreme Court. Here’s the Friday morning read:

• US appeals court blocks Trump’s order curtailing birthright citizenship (Nate Raymond, Reuters)
• Why is the Supreme Court siding with Trump? Elena Kagan says the majority should explain. (Maureen Groppe, USA Today)
• Former Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis asks Supreme Court to reverse same-sex marriage decision (Brooke Migdon, The Hill)
• Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: Meet The October Term 2025 SCOTUS Clerks (David Lat, Original Jurisdiction)
• A little snark, a little sarcasm: How dissenting opinions catch our attention (Joan Biskupic, CNN)

The Trump administration came once again to the Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon and asked the justices to pause an order by a federal court in Massachusetts that would require the National Institutes of Health to pay grants that NIH had terminated because they conflicted with the Trump administration’s “policy positions on diversity, equity, and inclusion.” U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the justices that the case “presents a particularly clear case for this Court to intervene and stop errant district courts from continuing to disregard this Court’s rulings.”