What SCOTUS Wrote Us

Audio of Part 2: District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) Majority Opinion (Second Amendment, Firearms Restrictions; Handguns)

Audio of Part 1: District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) Majority Opinion (Second Amendment, Handguns)    

Audio of new opinion related to orders: Toth v. United States (Jan 23, 2023) Justice Gorsuch Dissenting from Denial of Certiorari.

We finally have our first opinion of the Court in an argued case this term!  Listen to Audio of the opinion of the Court in  Arellano v. McDonough (Jan 23, 2023).

Audio of Justice Ginsburg’s dissenting opinion in the first Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin in 2013 known as Fisher I.   Access this SCOTUS opinion and other helpful case information at Oyez.org.      

The original Fisher v. University of Texas case from 2013 known as Fisher I.   Access this Supreme Court opinion and other essential case information on Oyez.org.   Music by Epidemic Sound

Today I’ll be reading the 2003 opinion of the Court in Virginia v. Black , a case that asked the Supreme Court whether a Virginia law prohibiting the burning of a cross with the intent of intimidating any person or group violated the First Amendment. I’m reading this opinion in light of a new case that the Court has agreed to hear later this term – Counterman v. Colorado - asking: in order to esta...

Audio of the Supreme Court case San Diego Building Trades Council v. Garmon (1959) Majority Opinion (Labor Unions, Federal Preemption, National Labor Relations Board) In light of last week's oral arguments in Glacier Northwest v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, today I'll be reading San Diego Building Trades Council v. Garmon, the 1959 Supreme Court Case that first established the Garmon p...

Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Hardison (1977) Majority Opinion (EEOC Guidelines, Religious Accommodations in Employment, Undue Hardship) In the 1960s, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission created Guidelines that required employers to make reasonable accommodations for the religious practices of employees - as long as those accommodations do not place undue hardship on the employer. In 1977,...

Part 2 of the audio in Justice Alito's 2016 dissenting opinion in Fisher v. University of Texas. Access this SCOTUS opinion and other essential case information on Oyez.org .     Music by Epidemic Sound

Audio of Justice Alito's 2016 dissenting opinion in Fisher v. University of Texas. I read the majority opinion in this case in a November 7th episode. This episode includes the separate one-page opinion written by Justice Thomas at the beginning of this episode.   Access this SCOTUS opinion and other essential case information on Oyez.org https://www.oyez.org/cases/2015/14-981   Music by Epidemic...

Audio of new opinion relating to orders in A ntonyuk v. Nigrelli (Jan 11, 2023) Justice Alito on Denial of Application for Stay (New York Gun Law, Second Amendment, Second Circuit)   Access this SCOTUS opinion and other essential case information on Oyez.org  

Audio of  Stanton v. Stanton (1975) Majority Opinion (Utah; Age of legal adulthood determined by an individual's sex).   What if the age of adulthood in your state was determined by an individual's sex? In Utah circa 1975, that meant 18 years old if you're a female and 21 if you're a male.   Access this SCOTUS opinion and other essential case information on Oyez.org     Music by Epidemic Sound

Audio of Part 2: United States v. Virginia (1996) Majority Opinion (Sex-based discrimination, College Admissions, Virginia Military Institute) This episode concludes with Part IV of the opinion. The question before the Supreme Court in this case was whether Virginia's creation of a women's-only academy, as a comparable program to a male-only academy, satisfied the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Prot...

Audio of Part 1: United States v. Virginia (1996) Majority Opinion (Sex-based discrimination, College Admissions, Virginia Military Institute) This episode includes parts I - III of the opinion. Next episode will begin with part IV of the opinion.   The question before the Supreme Court in this case was whether Virginia's creation of a women's-only academy, as a comparable program to a male-only a...

Audio of Dunn v. Ray (2019) Dissenting; Dunn v. Smith (2021) Concurring (Applications to Vacate Stay/Injunction; Inmate Execution; Religious Freedom) Tip: Dunn v. Smith (2021) begins around minute 10:06, after the reading of Dunn v. Ray (2019) In 2019, Alabama had a policy holding that only their approved Christian chaplain was permitted to enter the execution chamber during execution - regardless...

Chief Justice’s 2022 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary (Dec. 31, 2022)

Audio of Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action (2014) Plurality Opinion (Affirmative Action, Michigan Constitutional Amendment) In today's opinion of the Court, we go back to Michigan once again for another Affirmative Action case; but, in this 2006 case, Michigan voters passed a proposition to amend the state constitution to prohibit "all sex-and race-based preferences in public educ...

Audio of Fulton v. City of Philadelphia (2021) Majority Opinion (Foster Care, Same-sex Couples, Catholic Social Services) Because Philadelphia Catholic Social Services (CSS) had a policy against licensing same-sex couples to be foster parents, the City of Philadelphia pulled the organization's license to place children in foster homes in March 2018. So, CSS sued the City of Philadelphia. In asking...

We have another opinion related to orders for 2022: Audio of Arizona v. Mayorkas (Dec. 27, 2022) Justices Gorsuch and Jackson Dissenting to Stay (Title 42 Orders)    

Audio of the Chief Justice's 2021 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary   Happy New Year! At 6pm this New Year's Eve, the Supreme Court will release the Chief Justice's annual report. The Year-end Report on the Federal Judiciary is simply an opportunity for the Chief Justice to reflect on the year that has passed and share thoughts on the year ahead - not only as the Chief Justice of the Suprem...

Part 2: Audio of parts IV - VI of the opinion of the Supreme Court in Google LLC v. Oracle America Inc. (2021). Google created the programming language for its Android Operating System based on Java, an Application Programming Interface (API) owned by Oracle. So, Oracle sued Google for copyright infringement. A federal district judge held that programming languages are so essential to the progress...

Audio of parts I, II, and III of the opinion of the Supreme Court in Google LLC v. Oracle America Inc. (2021). Google created the programming language for its Android Operating System based on Java, an Application Programming Interface (API) owned by Oracle. So, Oracle sued Google for copyright infringement. A federal district judge held that programming languages are so essential to the progress...

Audio of the opinion of the Supreme Court in  Bostock v. Clayton County (2020).  

Audio of  Chiafalo v. Washington (2020) Majority Opinion (State laws against faithless electors, Electoral College vote)   Music by Epidemic Sound