Saints, statues, and church-state separation
Only electoral reform, not the court, can protect against an American Caesar
Supreme Court appears likely to prevent Trump from firing Fed governor
Four answers to the justices in Wolford v. Lopez
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The relist logjam finally breaks
The Relist Watch column examines cert petitions that the Supreme Court has “relisted” for its upcoming conference. A short explanation of relists is available here.
On Friday, the Supreme Court granted what may be its last grants of the October 2025-26 term. All of them were one-time relists: Monsanto Co. v. Durnell, involving preemption of tort claims involving the blockbuster herbicide Roundup under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act; Anderson v. Intel Corporation Investment Policy Committee, asking what plaintiffs must show to plead an ERISA breach-of-fiduciary-duty claim; Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. v. Amarin Pharma, Inc., involving the kinds of statements that can render a generic drug maker liable for inducing patent infringement; and Chatrie v. United States, which asks whether law enforcement’s use of a so-called “geofence warrant” to obtain cellphone location-history data violates the Fourth Amendment.
Continue ReadingCalifornia Republicans urge court to strike congressional map as racially discriminatory
In December, the Supreme Court allowed Texas to use a new congressional map enacted to give Republicans five additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, blocking a lower court’s ruling that the map unconstitutionally sorted voters based on race. On Tuesday night, Republicans came to the Supreme Court, asking the justices to prohibit California from using a new map – adopted in response to Texas’ map – that added five Democratic seats there. In a filing obtained by The New York Times, lawyers for California Republicans challenging the new map decried what they characterized as the “pernicious and unconstitutional use of race” “[u]nder the guise of partisan line-drawing” in creating the 2025 map.
Continue ReadingJustices reject state limits on malpractice actions for cases in federal court
Updated on Jan. 21 at 7:20 p.m.
As the justices turn at last to releasing opinions in argued cases, it should be no surprise that they start with unanimous decisions like Berk v. Choy. There, although several of the justices may not be fans of medical malpractice litigation, none of them was willing to clutter up the federal district courts with the special procedures Delaware (like many other states) has designed to limit that litigation.
Continue ReadingOral argument live blog for Wednesday, January 21
We live blogged as the court heard oral argument in Trump v. Cook, on President Donald Trump’s effort to remove Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, from office.
Justices hold that restitution requirements imposed on federal convicts can’t be ratcheted up after the crime but before sentencing
Yesterday’s majority opinion by Brett Kavanaugh in Ellingburg v. United States well may be the shortest of the term – less than five pages for a unanimous court holding that the ex post facto clause of the Constitution applies to sanctions imposed in federal criminal proceedings under the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act.
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