Immigration Matters is a recurring series by César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández that analyzes the court’s immigration docket, highlighting emerging legal questions about new policy and enforcement practices.

Immigration law creates a clear hierarchy of access to the United States. Most people who are not U.S. citizens do not have any right to set foot in the country. By contrast, U.S. citizens can come and go as they please. One rung below U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents – also known as green card holders – can come and go unless they’ve committed certain crimes.

This month, the Supreme Court agreed to weigh in on the evidence that immigration officials need to treat permanent residents as if they are removable. In Bondi v. Lau, the justices are likely to consider whether border officials can rely on criminal charges alone to decide that permanent residents have committed an offense that can allow the government to remove them from the country.

ScotusCrim is a recurring series by Rory Little focusing on intersections between the Supreme Court and criminal law.

A lot has happened on the Supreme Court’s docket since my September preview, including six criminal law opinions on the merits (two by summary reversal – that is, without additional briefing and oral arguments), and 29 new grants of review (certiorari). Eight separate writings of individual justices in criminal cases have also appeared on the “Orders” docket. And of course last week saw oral arguments about Hawaii’s private-property-versus-gun-rights law. I should also mention two significant full court decisions on the interim docket that have “related to criminal law” implications: Trump v. Illinois (decided on Dec. 23, addressing Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in Chicago) and Noem v. Vasquez-Perdomo (decided on Sept. 8, addressing immigration detentions in Los Angeles, about which I wrote critically at the time).

The Trump administration on Thursday urged the Supreme Court to block the new congressional map adopted by California voters in November. U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the justices that the map, which the state says was intended to create five new Democratic seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in response to the creation of five new Republican seats in Texas, “is tainted by an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.”

Ratio Decidendi is a recurring series by Stephanie Barclay exploring the reasoning – from practical considerations to deep theory – behind our nation’s most consequential constitutional decisions.

On Tuesday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit sat en banc to hear oral argument in two consolidated cases challenging state laws requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in public school classrooms. Roake v. Brumley involves Louisiana’s House Bill 71; Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District challenges Texas’ Senate Bill 10.

Nuts and Bolts is a recurring series by Stephen Wermiel providing insights into the mechanics of how the Supreme Court works.

 An important window may be closing at the Supreme Court.

No, not because of the current renovation taking place on the Supreme Court Building at One First Street.

The window that is closing is the opportunity for petitioners – that is, litigants who lost in the lower courts and want the Supreme Court to weigh in – to have their cases argued and decided in the current court term rather than having to wait until next fall. Both by tradition and because of the amount of time it takes to file briefs in cases, January is typically the cut-off for scheduling a case for argument in the same term.