Supreme Court
April 6, 2025 — John Hinderaker
On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated a temporary restraining order that had been entered by a district judge in Massachusetts, requiring the Department of Education to make payments that the Trump administration wants to cancel. (While DOGE is not mentioned, I take it that this is a DOGE or DOGE-like situation.) The case is Department of Education v. California et al. California and seven other liberal states sued in
»
March 5, 2025 — John Hinderaker
On February 13, a left-wing judge in the District of Columbia entered a temporary restraining order barring the federal government from enforcing executive orders that paused the disbursement of certain foreign aid funds. On February 25, the same judge ordered the federal government to make some of the payments that had been “paused”–namely, those to federal contractors for work that had been completed. The case wound up in the Supreme
»
December 7, 2024 — Lloyd Billingsley
The Tennessee trans tangle is before the U.S. Supreme Court, where Justice Sonia Sotomayor compared irreversible transition surgery to taking an aspirin. Scott proclaimed Sotomayor “an idiot,” and it’s hard to blame him. This woman once proclaimed herself a “wise Latina,” which is revealing. Ancestry in the Iberian peninsula of Europe may generate pride, but it qualifies no person for a seat on the Supreme Court, and this is not
»
December 5, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The Supreme Court hearing in United States v. Skrmetti featured several highlights. As framed by the Biden administration, the case raised the question: Whether Tennessee Senate Bill 1 (SB1), which prohibits all medical treatments intended to allow “a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex” or to treat “purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor’s sex and asserted identity,”
»
December 4, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Oral argument is underway at this hour at the Supreme Court in the case of U.S. v. Skrmetti, in which the Biden Administration is seeking strike down a Tennessee law restricting transgender treatment of minors. The case will be argued along the traditional lines of whether minors suffering from “gender dysphoria” constitute a “protected class” under civil rights law, and related questions of whether “strict scrutiny” review applies, etc. I’ll
»
September 26, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon has introduced legislation to, as he says, “reform” the Supreme Court, and the federal courts in general. The bill is titled the “Judicial Modernization and Transparency Act.” Democrats have been threatening to pack the Supreme Court for a while, but that is not this bill. Wyden’s bill expands the Court to 15 justices, but not all at once: the next six will be appointed
»
August 18, 2024 — John Hinderaker
On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied an emergency application by the Biden Administration for partial stays on orders entered by district courts and affirmed by the Fifth and Sixth Circuits. As usual in such cases, the Court’s order was Per Curiam. The order lays out the procedural history succinctly: The Department of Education recently issued a new rule implementing Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The rule
»
July 30, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The White House has posted a fact sheet on President Biden’s big stick-it-to-the-Court plan. His big plan comprises three disparate elements: 1. No Immunity for Crimes a Former President Committed in Office: This would require a constitutional amendment to overrule Trump v. United States. 2. Term Limits for Supreme Court Justices: This would require a constitutional amendment to alter Article III, Section One of the Constitution, but why stop with
»
July 29, 2024 — John Hinderaker
The Biden administration has put forth a plan to “reform” the Supreme Court, which Kamala Harris says she is on board with. The liberal Wall Street Journal tries to give the plan a veneer of plausibility: President Biden will unveil plans to overhaul the Supreme Court in remarks Monday at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, a White House official said. Biden will propose a constitutional amendment overturning the court’s
»
July 3, 2024 — John Hinderaker
You might think the Democrats would be able to keep it together, given that they control the presidency, the Senate, the federal bureaucracy, and the press, and are only a few seats away from controlling the House. But, for whatever reason, they have gone mad. Democrats have reached a fever pitch of hysteria that I doubt we have seen before in our history. One example among many is their mental
»
July 2, 2024 — Scott Johnson
President Biden extended his regular working hours yesterday to read a brief statement condemning the Supreme Court for its decision in Trump v. United States. The White House has not yet posted an official transcript. I have posted video at the bottom. Biden took no questions and thus afforded no opportunity to explore the meaning of his condemnation. I thought I would translate his remarks as a public service. I
»
July 1, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Today the Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of Donald Trump for, among other things, asserting his legal rights in the aftermath of the 2020 election. The issue in the appeal was the scope of presidential immunity. For their own reasons, both Trump and many Democrats chose to portray the Court’s 6-3 decision as a great victory for Trump. In fact, the Court steered
»
June 28, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Chief Justice Roberts wrote the opinion for the Court that was released today in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, overruling the Court’s misguided Chevron doctrine. Steve Hayward takes note of the Court’s decision today in a nearby post. It’s a case that rolls back one prong of the administrative state that Professor Philip Hamburger addresses in Is Administrative Law Unlawful? Professor Hamburger responds to my request for a comment on
»
June 28, 2024 — Steven Hayward
“Chevron is overruled.” Those are the key three words in the case of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, decided this morning by the Supreme Court in a 6 – 3 ruling. This is a major blow to the administrative state. Chevron was the 1984 case doctrine that essentially enabled the bureaucracy to run wild and held that courts should defer to their judgment and administrative lawmaking. This ends today Here’s
»
June 27, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Chief Justice Roberts wrote the opinion for the Court in SEC v. Jarkesy, out this morning. The Court holds: “When the SEC seeks civil penalties against a defendant for securities fraud, the Seventh Amendment entitles the defendant to a jury trial.” It’s a case that rolls back one prong of the administrative state that Professor Philip Hamburger addresses in Is Administrative Law Unlawful? Professor Hamburger responds to my request for
»
June 15, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Liberals like to talk about the rule of law, but they don’t really believe in it. They usually think that laws are general guideposts that point in a broad direction. It is up to liberal judges to exercise those mandates in accord with their policy preferences. The “bump stock” case that the Supreme Court decided yesterday is a case in point. I had never heard of a bump stock until
»
June 13, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Left-wing darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tries to enlighten the rest of us on the need for Congress to “rein in” a “rogue” Supreme Court. She demands that the Supreme Court be “accountable” to Congress. Unless I am mistaken, Ms. Cortez is a high school graduate. But apparently they didn’t teach civics in her tony suburban high school: AOC: If Congress can’t “rein in" the Supreme Court, then we are heading towards
»
