Opinions on the way

We are thrilled to announce new SCOTUSblog merch, just in time for the heart of opinion season. There are premium hats and tees in exciting colors – ready to ship nationwide. Check them out here and prepare to live blog in style. Plus, a reminder: If you’d like to attend […]

Read More

The Supreme Court’s confusing use of “principles”

Last December I published a column entitled “Party presentation: a mysterious new rule?”, addressing a summary reversal in a criminal case, Clark v. Sweeney. On May 26, the court summarily reversed the lower court in another case, Margolin v. NAIJ, citing the same “party presentation principle,” which it now referred […]

Read More

Race and recorded calls

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. Since our last post, the Supreme Court has been rather restrained at working through relists. This week, the justices acted on only one relisted petition, […]

Read More

The latest on tariff refunds

As we noted in Monday’s newsletter, we are expecting 23 more opinions by early July. Compared to the past two terms, the court is actually ahead of schedule: At this point last year, there were 26 cases left to decide. And at this point in 2024, there were 27 cases […]

Read More

The Supreme Court’s neutering of the First Step Act

In 2018, Congress passed the First Step Act with rare bipartisan support. Hailed as “the most significant criminal justice reform bill in a generation,” the basic premise of the act was straightforward: Federal sentences had grown too harsh, and, not coincidentally, were imposed in racially disparate ways. Congress therefore concluded […]

Read More

Trump to Ask Justices to Review His Suit Against CNN

Yesterday, we announced our term-in-review event at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center, which will take place on July 8 from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. EDT and feature a fireside chat with the ACLU’s Cecillia Wang, who argued the birthright citizenship case before the Supreme Court; a discussion of the historical […]

Read More

The campaign to overrule Obergefell

Supporters of same-sex marriage breathed a sigh of relief when the Roberts court denied review last year in Davis v. Ermold, a case in which a county clerk in Kentucky, Kimberly Jean Davis, challenged Obergefell v. Hodges, the court’s 2015 decision recognizing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. Davis’ hope […]

Read More