Hunter v. United States – the most important criminal case of the term
The term is not quite over, but I have no doubt that Hunter v. United States, decided on June 18, is its most important criminal case. In Hunter, the court…
The blast radius of Callais – and what it means for Constitutional Law
In the month and a half since the Supreme Court decided Louisiana v. Callais, the actual and potential scope of that case’s destructive impact on the Reconstruction Amendments and on…
A victory for the defendant in United States v. Hemani, but little guidance for the lower courts
Please note that SCOTUS Outside Opinions constitute the views of outside contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SCOTUSblog or its staff. Read more Hemani: proving the reason,…
Hemani: proving the reason, not just naming it
It’s not often that opinions written by Justices Neil Gorsuch, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Samuel Alito agree on how to decide a Second Amendment case. In United States v. Hemani…
Supreme Court may decide important case on immigration detention regarding attorneys’ fees
The Trump administration has made detention a key part of its hardline approach to migrants. Through aggressive enforcement tactics and changes to longstanding policies, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency…
How Supreme Court precedents die before they are overruled
When the Supreme Court says a precedent has been “abandoned,” the real work has already been done. Read more Nine days in June That was the story of Lemon v.…
Nine days in June
As we await the usual late-June flurry of decisions – some of them quite significant – I wanted to reflect on what I believe to be the most extraordinary June…
The dissent that became a statute
Near the end of her career, Lilly Ledbetter received an anonymous note: she was being paid far less than every man doing the same job. Ledbetter was one of the…
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 the…
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…