U.S. Courts News Reporter
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In a brief order with no recorded dissents, the Supreme Court refused to block the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith, a 57-year-old inmate who is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m. EST on Thursday in Alabama. Smith was convicted for the 1988 murder of Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett, whom he was hired to kill by her husband, Rev. Charles Sennett.
By a vote of 11 to 1, the jury in Smith’s 1996 capital trial recommended that he … Read the rest
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The Supreme Court will not reconsider the Insular Cases, a widely criticized and racist group of early 20th-century decisions holding that the residents of U.S. territories do not automatically enjoy all of the rights protected by the Constitution. The announcement came on a list of orders released on Monday morning from the justices’ private conference last week. The justices did not add any new cases to their merits docket for the 2022-23 term.
The request to overrule the Insular … Read the rest
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The Supreme Court will again weigh the executive branch’s authority to set immigration policy as some red states claim that the Biden administration’s enforcement decisions are too lax. The justices on Thursday agreed to take up a challenge by Texas and Louisiana to a new federal policy that prioritizes certain groups of unauthorized immigrants for arrest and deportation. The justices will hear the case in late November without waiting for a federal appeals court to weigh in.
The justices … Read the rest
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The Supreme Court on Monday turned down a plea from a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserve to block the Air Force from disciplining him because he is not vaccinated against COVID-19. Three justices – Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch – indicated that they would have granted the request and allowed him to continue to serve while his appeal continues.
The case, Dunn v. Austin, was brought by Lt. Col. Jonathan Dunn, an Air Force … Read the rest