Last September, 20 million people watched a combative Brett Kavanaugh defend himself and his judicial record during a contentious week of confirmation hearings. The Senate ultimately confirmed Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in a 50-48 vote, largely split down party lines. With Kavanaugh’s second term set to begin October 1, we take a look at [...]
The Supreme Court will return October 1 to a backload of approximately 1,800 petitions that have piled up over the summer. Almost every one of them will be denied. Also known as the “Long Conference,” the Justices’ first meeting after summer recess is particularly brutal for cert. seekers who filed a petition in the preceding [...]
After mass shootings in Texas and Ohio earlier this month, public pressure to reform gun laws has been largely focused on Congress and the President. However, the Supreme Court appears poised to address two significant Second Amendment issues for the first time in a decade. Petition Stage: Sandy Hook Victims No. 19-168; Remington Arms v. [...]
SCOTUSblog released its annual Stat Pack for the October Term 2018 last week—an invaluable resource for the Supreme Court community. You can access the Stat Pack in full, here. SCOTUSblog’s Adam Feldman provided such a well written summary that I want to quote entirely from his piece here. Please read the original in full: Adam [...]
Between now and the end of June, the Court will release opinions in 24 cases. Two hot-button political issues have garnered the most attention: (1) whether the Trump administration can put a citizenship question on the 2020 census, and (2) whether federal courts can strike down voting maps as excessively partisan. Though we have no [...]
There is a new way to argue at the Supreme Court—a conversation that exists completely outside of the courtroom at 1 First Street: “Virtual Briefing.” A forthcoming paper* in the Cornell Law Review by professors Jeffrey L. Fisher (Stanford Law School) and Allison Orr Larsen (William & Mary Law School) posits that: The open [...]
Legal commentators have long speculated that Supreme Court Justices prefer to release their most controversial opinions at the end of each term before embarking on summer recess to travel, teach, and write. For the fifth straight term, however, the Court has more than half of its opinions still outstanding at this point of the [...]
During the Supreme Court’s 2017 Term, the number of paid (booklet format) cases increased 11% while the number of in forma pauperis (IFP) filings decreased 3%.* 2017 Term 6,315 total filings 4,595 IFP filings 1,720 paid filings 2016 Term 6,305 total filings 4,755 IFP filings 1,550 paid filings To place these numbers in perspective, [...]
Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor says she has been diagnosed with early onset dementia and will step away from public life. O'Connor, 88, was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan as the first female Supreme Court justice of the United States in 1981. O’Connor served on the nation’s highest [...]
Congress can regulate sports gambling directly, but if it elects not to do so, each State is free to act on its own…. Our job is to interpret the law Congress has enacted and decide whether it is consistent with the Constitution. PASPA is not. -- Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr The Supreme Court on [...]