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EMERGENCY DOCKET

Supreme Court allows Trump to end protected status for group of Venezuelan nationals

By Amy Howe on May 19 at 3:02 p.m.

In an order on Monday afternoon, the justices paused a district court ruling that had blocked the Trump administration from terminating deportation protection for over 300,000 Venezuelan citizens living in the United States. The order left open the possibility of Venezuelans bringing individual challenges.

The ceiling over the Supreme Court building entrance

The Trump administration asked the justices to lift a court order barring the government from terminating a portion of the TPS designation for Venezuelans. (Mark Fischer via Flickr)

OPINION ANALYSIS

Court revives excessive force suit against officer in deadly Houston-area traffic stop

By Amy Howe on May 16 at 1:59 pm

A unanimous court on Thursday rejected a doctrine used to throw out a civil rights suit brought against a police officer who shot and killed 24-year-old Ashtian Barnes during a traffic stop in 2016. The lower court had examined only the two seconds leading up to Barnes’s death to determine if the officer had used excessive force and thrown out the case. Indeed, Justice Kagan observed, it is so clear that the 5th Circuit’s rule is wrong that even the officer himself does not dispute it.

ARGUMENT ANALYSIS

No clear decision emerges from arguments on judges’ power to block Trump’s birthright citizenship order

By Amy Howe on May 15 at 4:21 pm

During over two hours of oral arguments on Thursday, in a case involving President Donald Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship, no clear picture emerged of how the justices will resolve a dispute over whether federal judges can issue nationwide orders to block a policy as legal challenges move through lower courts.

EMERGENCY DOCKET

Supreme Court again bars Trump from removing Venezuelan nationals

By Amy Howe on May 16 at 5:33 pm

The court on Friday again temporarily barred the Trump administration from removing from the United States a group of Venezuelan men under an 18th-century wartime law, known as the Alien Enemies Act, until an appeals court in Louisiana rules on their case again. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented from the unsigned decision.

Advocates in Conversation

2024-Jan-Snow-Banner-4B-scaled
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 Monday, May 19

By Zachary Shemtob on May 19, 2025

Hi, everyone! I am very excited to be joining SCOTUSblog as its executive editor. Please feel free to reach out to me at [email protected], even if just to say hello.

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

Coming up: On Thursday, May 22, 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

Trump asks justices to lift judge’s order pausing mass federal layoffs

By Amy Howe on May 16, 2025

The Trump administration came to the Supreme Court on Friday afternoon, asking the justices to temporarily block an order by a federal judge in San Francisco that bars the Trump administration from implementing an executive order and a related memorandum calling for large-scale reductions in the federal workforce – the elimination of jobs, followed by the transfer or firing of the employees who did those jobs. 

U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the court that the order by Senior U.S. District Judge Susan Illston has “caused mass confusion throughout the Executive Branch.” “Neither Congress nor the Executive Branch has ever intended to make federal bureaucrats ‘a class with lifetime employment, whether there was work for them to do or not,’” Sauer wrote.

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WHAT WE’RE READING

The morning read for Friday, May 16

By Ellena Erskine on May 16, 2025

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

VIEW FROM THE COURT

A peek at the merits

By Mark Walsh on May 15, 2025

Today the court will hear arguments in Trump v. CASA and its consolidated cases, plucked from the emergency docket for oral arguments about nationwide injunctions and the president’s executive order on birthright citizenship.
 
Before the arguments get started, Chief Justice John Roberts has some recognition planned for the late Justice David Souter, who died last week at age 85.
 
As things turn out this morning, I will have my own unorthodox and unplanned tribute to Souter, in particular the day in January 1996 when Souter was late to the bench for an oral argument. I am late to court today because of the growing rush-hour traffic (thanks to return-to-office orders for federal employees) and yet another demonstration right on my route to the court.

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IN MEMORIAM

Lessons about home and humility from Justice Souter 

By Michael Mongan on May 15, 2025

This article is part of a series on the legacy and jurisprudence of the late Justice David Souter. 

Michael Mongan currently serves as the California Solicitor General. He clerked for Justice David Souter from 2007 to 2008.

In the days since Justice Souter passed away, I’ve struggled to assemble words that convey the depth of my feelings about him.

Some portion of that difficulty might be attributed to the private and humble manner in which he lived his life. He generally avoided making public remarks outside the courtroom (with a few notable exceptions, like his outstanding speech at Harvard in 2010). He spent much of his time and energy in the confines of his judicial chambers, along with those lucky few whom he hired to serve as clerks and assistants. Many of the deeds and remarks that define him in my mind arose in that confidential setting and will go with me and my colleagues to our graves. 

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