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EMERGENCY DOCKET

Justices allow enforcement of corporate transparency law to go forward

 at 4:28 p.m.

In an unsigned order on Thursday afternoon, the court agreed to allow the government to enforce a federal law intended to prevent crimes like money laundering and the financing of terrorism by requiring businesses to report information about their owners. The decision came on the court’s emergency docket. Justice Jackson, dissenting, said the issue did not warrant the court’s emergency intervention.

Statue outside the Supreme Court

The Biden administration brought Garland v. Texas Top Cop Shop to the court in late December. (Katie Barlow)

RELIST WATCH

Red states urge Supreme Court to block suits against big oil

 at 4:47 p.m.

A regular round-up of “relisted” petitions. This week: Alabama and 18 other Republican-led states seek to file suit in the Supreme Court to block Democratic-led states’ efforts to hold oil and gas companies liable under their state laws for misleading the public about the cause of climate change and the risks of fossil fuels. The red states tell the justices that those suits should only be brought in federal court. 

SCOTUS NEWS

Court sends capital case back for reconsideration over focus on sex

 at 3:04 p.m.

An Oklahoma woman charged in the murder of her estranged husband got another chance to challenge her death sentence on Tuesday when the Supreme Court sent her case back to the lower court to take a second look at how prosecutors emphasized her sexuality at trial. Brenda Andrew argues that her right to a fair trial was violated by the repeated focus at her 2004 trial on her sex life and sexuality. Prosecutors at one point dangled Andrew’s thong before the jury.

SCOTUS NEWS

Justices take up Maryland parents’ challenge to LGBTQ books in schools

 at 4:25 p.m.

The court agreed to take up five more cases for the current term on Friday, including a dispute brought by a group of Maryland parents who argue that the county requiring their children to participate in instruction on LGBTQ-themed books violates their religious beliefs and thus their First Amendment right to freely exercise their religion. The justices did not act on a number of high-profile cases.

Advocates in Conversation