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OPINION ANALYSIS

Split Supreme Court blocks first religious charter school in Oklahoma

By Amy Howe on May 22 at 12:02 p.m.

An equally divided court on Thursday left in place an Oklahoma Supreme Court decision that blocked a Catholic charter school from becoming the country’s first publicly funded religious charter school. The court ruled 4-4, with Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused from the case, which leaves the lower court’s decision in place. The ruling on Thursday applies in Oklahoma and does not resolve the question of whether religious charter schools are constitutional nationwide.

Statue outside the Supreme Court

The court heard Okla. Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond in April. (MattCC716 via Flickr)

OPINION ANALYSIS

Court upholds federal fraud conviction even without economic harm

By Amy Howe on May 22 at 2:05 pm

The Supreme Court upheld the conviction of a Philadelphia man and his painting business, which were convicted of fraud for using a pass-through company to satisfy a diversity provision of their federal contract. The court ruled that a defendant can be convicted of federal fraud even if they did not seek to cause financial harm to the other party. Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote that the law simply requires someone to “devise” or “intend to devise” a scheme to fraudulently “obtain money or property.”

RELIST WATCH

From police powers to pork: Supreme Court faces broad range of new relists

By John Elwood on May 22 at 3:31 pm

A regular round-up of “relisted” petitions. This week: Six newly relisted petitions tackle California’s pork sales ban, New York’s election deadlines, compassionate release limits, habeas time bars, and warrantless home entries, raising thorny issues of commerce, mootness, judicial discretion, and Fourth Amendment protections.

EMERGENCY DOCKET

Trump asks high court to pause another suit against DOGE 

By Amy Howe on May 21 at 12:07 pm

The solicitor general came to the court on Wednesday morning urging the justices to temporarily pause a federal judge’s order that would require the Department of Government Efficiency to provide information in a lawsuit about whether DOGE is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. This is the second time this month that the administration has asked the justices to intervene in a lawsuit against DOGE on their emergency docket.

Advocates in Conversation

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San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu discusses City and County of San Francisco v. EPA, in which the court is considering whether the Environmental Protection Agency violates the Clean Water Act when it imposes generic prohibitions in a permit for a city’s water discharges, without specifying explicit standards for discharges.   
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WHAT WE’RE READING

The morning read for Thursday, May 22

By Zachary Shemtob on May 22, 2025

We’re expecting one or more opinions from the court at 10 a.m. EDT. Join us for the live blog, beginning at 9:30 a.m.

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

WHAT WE’RE READING

The morning read for Wednesday, May 21

By Zachary Shemtob on May 21, 2025

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

Coming up: Tomorrow the court expects to issue one or more opinions from the current term. We’ll be live at 9:30 a.m. EDT that day for the opinions.

EMERGENCY DOCKET

Supreme Court requires clerk to count votes by lawmaker censured for social media post about transgender athlete

By Amy Howe on May 20, 2025

The Supreme Court on Tuesday afternoon required the clerk of the Maine House of Representatives to count votes by a Maine lawmaker who was censured for a social media post about a transgender athlete at a high school track meet in that state. In a brief unsigned order, the justices granted a request filed by Laurel Libby, a Republican who represents a district in the southern part of the state, to clear the way for her to vote while her appeal continues in the lower courts and, if necessary, the Supreme Court. 

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the court’s ruling. In a five-page opinion, she lamented what she characterized as the “watering down of our Court’s standards for granting emergency relief,” calling it “an unfortunate development.” 

Justice Sonia Sotomayor also indicated, without more, that she would have denied Libby’s request. 

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SCOTUS NEWS

Trump defends Vice President Vance’s bid to toss campaign finance law

By Amy Howe on May 20, 2025

The Trump administration notified the Supreme Court on Monday that it will not defend a federal campaign finance law that restricts the amount of money that political parties can spend in coordination with a candidate for office. In a brief responding to a petition for review filed by the NRSC, U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the court that although the Department of Justice “has a longstanding policy of defending challenged federal statutes,” it has “determined that this is the rare case that warrants an exception to that general approach.” 

The justices are likely to act on the case before their summer recess. If, as seems likely, they grant the NRSC’s petition for review, they could hear argument in the case in the fall, with a decision to follow sometime in 2026. 

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SCOTUS NEWS

Justices appoint lawyer to argue restitution case in the fall

By Amy Howe on May 20, 2025

A former clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia and then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh was tapped on Thursday to defend a lower court ruling before the Supreme Court this fall in a Georgia man’s challenge to the federal government’s efforts to collect restitution from him. 

The Supreme Court appointed John Bash, a former assistant to the U.S. solicitor general who has argued 10 cases in the court to argue Ellingburg v. United States as a “friend of the court” in support of the judgment of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit — which ruled for the government — because the federal government has opted not to defend that court’s reasoning. 

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