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.

Updated on Jan. 21 at 11:10 a.m.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday morning turned down several petitions for review challenging the ban on the possession of guns by people who have previously been convicted of felonies. However, the justices did not act on a similar case brought by a woman convicted of passing a fake check nearly two decades ago. The announcement came as part of a list of orders released from the justices’ Jan. 16 conference. After adding four new cases to its docket for the 2025-26 term, the court did not grant any additional cases on Tuesday.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday appeared to side with a group of Maui gun owners in their challenge to a Hawaii law restricting their ability to bring their guns onto private property that is open to the public. After approximately two hours of oral argument in Wolford v. Lopez, virtually all of the court’s six Republican appointees seemed to agree with the challengers that the law, which requires the gun owners to obtain express permission from the property owner, violates the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday held in Coney Island Auto Parts Unlimited, Inc. v. Burton that litigants do not have unlimited time to challenge judgments as void. Rather, Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(c)(1) places a “reasonable-time limit” on such motions, wrote Justice Samuel Alito in the majority opinion.

We were live as the court released its opinions in Berk v. Choy, Ellingburg v. United States, and Coney Island Auto Parts Unlimited, Inc. v. Burton.