How William Howard Taft transformed from a portly president to a svelte chief justice
As summer comes to a close, I thought SCOTUSblog readers might appreciate a brief escape from the day’s dreary headlines to something a bit different:…
The orders docket, why it matters, and this term’s criminal law orders
The Supreme Court divides its website for official writings by the justices into two main parts: “Opinions of the Court” and “Opinions Relating to Orders.” (The court also maintains another…
The many layers of Landor
In recent years, the Supreme Court’s late June grand finale, headline-grabbing, crash-the-SCOTUSblog-live-feed decision-dumps have generally included salient church-state or religious-liberty cases. In 2021, for example, a unanimous court sustained, in…
Alcohol at the Supreme Court
During the 2025-26 term, the justices pondered the Founding Fathers’ drinking habits as they considered a law barring habitual drug users from possessing guns. In the term ahead, they may…
SCOTUS again asked to address Ten Commandments in schools
Plus, a Colorado man has been accused of impersonating Chief Justice Roberts.
Trump administration asks justices to consider key border policy
The Trump administration on Monday a ruling by a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., that bars the federal government from removing immigrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally without…
The justices should regularly sit on the lower courts
This is the fifth piece in a series on what I believe the court can, and should, do better. Read more SCOTUS sides with Trump administration in mail-in voting dispute…
SCOTUS sides with Trump administration in mail-in voting dispute
Plus, what Justice Thomas said on Sen. Ted Cruz’s podcast.
Gutting the Alien Tort Statute
The Supreme Court’s decision in Cisco Systems, Inc. v. Doe I, decided in June, is a lethal blow to suits under the federal Alien Tort Statute. Such litigation often is…
Supreme Court allows Trump administration to move forward with order imposing restrictions on mail-in voting
The Supreme Court on Monday afternoon cleared the way for the Trump administration to begin implementing an executive order, signed by President Donald Trump earlier this year, that imposes restrictions…
There is no constitutional “right to privacy”
This is the second of five introductory articles on the relevance for U.S. constitutional law of the “born free and equal” clauses, which appeared in the Declaration of Independence and…