The Supreme Court’s common sense problem
“Common sense” reasoning is becoming more common at the Supreme Court. The justices have explicitly relied on common sense to underwrite its holdings in several salient areas of law. And…
Jury duty for a justice
Plus, the court released four opinions on Thursday in cases on shortening prison sentences, jury selection, and last-mile drivers.
Justice Barrett targeted in “swatting” incident
Justice Amy Coney Barrett was the target of a “swatting” incident – a false call reporting gunshots intended to provoke a response from law enforcement officials – on Wednesday night,…
Supreme Court sides with death row inmate in challenge to racial discrimination in jury selection
The Supreme Court on Thursday threw out a Mississippi man’s conviction and death sentence. By a vote of 5-4, the court in Pitchford v. Cain agreed with Terry Pitchford that…
How often do courts actually cite emergency docket orders?
Over the years, the Supreme Court has sent mixed signals about whether its emergency docket orders carry precedential weight. In 2021, Justice Samuel Alito said publicly that emergency orders are…
Alabama redistricting dispute returns to the Supreme Court
Plus, we will be live blogging this morning as the court releases one or more opinions in argued cases.
Announcement of opinions for Thursday, May 28
We will be live blogging as the court potentially releases opinions in one or more argued cases from the current term.
Alabama urges Supreme Court to allow for use of congressional map struck by lower court as racially discriminatory
Just over two weeks after the Supreme Court cleared the way for Alabama to use a congressional map that a lower court had blocked as racially discriminatory, Alabama returned to…
New York Times v. Sullivan, service, and sentence credits
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. Read more Criminal law update:…
Criminal law update: some defense-friendly rulings and a big case that wasn’t
The U.S. Supreme Court (unlike some) does not divide its docket between civil and criminal cases. So I do. With about five weeks left in the current Supreme Court term,…