Court | Judiciary.org

Supreme Court

Court will resume opinion announcements from the bench, but won’t provide live audio

The Supreme Court will resume its pre-pandemic practice of announcing opinions from the bench, the court’s Public Information Office said on Monday afternoon. But although the justices now provide live audio of oral arguments, the opinion announcements will not be livestreamed. Instead, consistent with the court’s pre-pandemic practice, the audio of opinion announcements will not be available until the beginning of the following term.

The resumption of in-person opinion announcements marks another step in the court’s slow return to … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Court declines to halt execution of Alabama man whose jury voted against death penalty

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

Supreme Court

Court allows Jan. 6 committee to obtain phone records of Arizona GOP chair

The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for a cellphone provider to turn over call records for Dr. Kelli Ward, the chair of the Arizona Republican Party, to the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Ward had asked the justices to block a subpoena addressed to T-Mobile, arguing that there “could hardly be a starker example of seeking to punish people for having ties to political views regarding the outcome of the 2020 … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Elon Musk, internet freedom, and how the Supreme Court might force big tech into a catch-22

“The bird is freed,” Elon Musk tweeted on the night he completed his $ 44 billion purchase of Twitter.

What he didn’t say is that a series of court cases may soon clip its wings.

A self-described free-speech absolutist, Musk has suggested he will loosen Twitter’s content-moderation rules, allow more objectionable speech to remain on the site, and reinstate some users who have been banned. Three days after reassuring advertisers that he won’t let Twitter become a “free-for-all hellscape,” he … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Jamaican green-card holder asks court to overrule precedent on “crimes involving moral turpitude”

The Petitions of the Week column highlights a selection of cert petitions recently filed in the Supreme Court. A list of all petitions we’re watching is available here.

In its 1951 decision in Jordan v. De George, the Supreme Court held that the term “crime involving moral turpitude” in federal immigration law is not unconstitutionally vague. The term lacks any statutory definition, however, and courts around the country have since struggled to apply it evenly and frequently … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Court denies mental incompetency plea in Oklahoma execution case

The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to block the execution of an Oklahoma man with schizophrenia, rejecting a claim from his legal team that he does not understand the reason for his execution. Benjamin Cole is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Thursday.

The court turned down Cole’s last-minute appeal in a brief order with no recorded dissents. Justice Neil Gorsuch did not participate in the decision. Gorsuch likely recused himself because he was a judge on … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Court declines to take up petition seeking to overturn Insular Cases

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

Supreme Court

With The Onion’s support, satirist asks court to revive lawsuit against police who arrested him

The Petitions of the Week column highlights a selection of cert petitions recently filed in the Supreme Court. A list of all petitions we’re watching is available here.

In a case that prompted satirical news outlet The Onion to file its first-ever amicus brief in the Supreme Court, an Ohio man sued police for violating his constitutional rights when they arrested him for creating a Facebook page parodying the local police department. This week, we highlight cert petitions … Read the rest