9robes

For everyday citizens, this ruling means government agencies have more power to punish companies without a jury involved, at least initially. Whether that is good or bad depends on your view of agency power and corporate accountability. What is clear is that the practical effect of this decision will ripple through federal enforcement for years to come. music for the podcast provided by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠...

The Supreme Court has hit pause on a court-ordered map and keeps Alabama’s contested congressional districts in place for now. The ruling applies a legal standard the Court itself rewrote just weeks earlier and signals the Court may be ready to make it much harder to prove that states are deliberately discriminating against Black voters. The case reveals a deepening divide on the Court about what...

Gary Richard Whitton sits on Florida’s death row after a jury convicted him of murder based partly on testimony from a jailhouse informant. But that informant lied to the jury, and prosecutors knew it. Now the Supreme Court has stepped in to clarify when a trial includes false testimony how courts figure out if that lie actually changed the outcome. The answer matters not just for Whitton, but for...

A unanimous Supreme Court decision this week protects thousands of delivery workers from being forced into secret arbitration proceedings, even when they never leave their home state. The ruling could reshape how companies handle disputes with the workers who get packages to your door. music for the podcast provided by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Dimitry Taras

A Black man sentenced to death in Mississippi may get a new trial because a judge shut down his lawyer's chance to challenge whether prosecutors illegally removed Black jurors. The Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that trial judges cannot silence these critical objections and then claim the defendant gave up the right to make them. The decision exposes how procedural rules can trap defendants, espec...

A man serving life in prison for murder convinced his own trial judge that serious doubts about his guilt justified cutting his sentence. But the Supreme Court just shut that door. In a decision that could affect thousands of federal prisoners, the Court ruled that even compelling evidence of innocence cannot be used to reduce a sentence through compassionate release. The decision leaves a troubli...

The case highlights a real tension in how courts balance broad legislative choices against individual fairness. When Congress changes sentencing rules but refuses to apply them retroactively, should judges have any ability to consider that gap in individual cases? The majority said no. The dissent said judges should at least have the chance to look at the full picture. That disagreement will shape...

The Supreme Court just shut down an appeals court for deciding a case based on a legal question that neither side actually asked the court to consider. In *Margolin v. National Association of Immigration Judges*, the justices unanimously reversed an appeals court that tried to rewrite the rules governing federal employee complaints, all on its own initiative. The case highlights how political atti...

The Supreme Court just walked away from a case that could have changed how courts decide whether someone with an intellectual disability can be executed. Joseph Clifton Smith took five IQ tests. Four of them showed he was intellectually disabled. One didn't. Now his life depends on which number the courts believe matters most, and the nation's highest court refused to say. music for the po...

A company that lost control of Cuban docks 60 years ago just won a major legal victory. The Supreme Court ruled that cruise lines operating those same docks today can be held financially responsible, even though the company's original operating contract would have expired long ago. The decision opens the door to potentially massive payouts and raises thorny questions about how far back in time...

When four companies tried to leave a pension plan in 2018, they thought they knew what they owed. Then the bill nearly tripled. A single change in how the pension fund's accountants calculated the debt that was made months after the official measurement date pushed the companies' combined bill from roughly three million dollars to roughly ten million dollars. Now the Supreme Court has rule...

When you sign an arbitration agreement with your employer, you're agreeing to let a private arbitrator settle disputes instead of going to court. But what happens if that arbitrator rules against you and orders you to pay thousands of dollars? Can your employer simply walk away from the federal court system entirely? The Supreme Court just said no. In a unanimous decision, the justices ruled t...

A truck driver who lost his leg in a crash just won a major victory for safety at the Supreme Court. The justices unanimously ruled that companies arranging freight shipments can be held legally responsible if they carelessly hire unsafe carriers. The decision overturns a legal shield that had protected brokers from lawsuits in much of the country and opens the door for injured workers and acciden...

The Supreme Court has fundamentally weakened one of the most important tools for protecting minority voting rights. In a 6-3 decision, the Court made it nearly impossible for Black voters to challenge congressional maps that split their communities into pieces, even when those maps were drawn specifically to dilute their voting power. The ruling will reshape how states can draw election districts...

The Supreme Court declared a First Amendment injury occurs when the government secretly demands the names and personal information of people who donate to advocacy groups. In a unanimous decision, the justices ruled that when a state official issues a formal demand for donor lists, the damage to free speech and free association happens immediately, even before anyone is punished for refusing. The...

When Army Specialist Winston Tyler Hencely threw himself in front of a suicide bomber at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, he was trying to save his fellow soldiers. The bomber, Ahmad Nayeb, had been hired and supervised by Fluor Corporation, a major military contractor. The Army's own investigation blamed Fluor for the attack, saying the company failed to properly watch Nayeb and let him move f...

A company that waits nearly three years to move its lawsuit to federal court cannot simply ask a judge to let it slide. The Supreme Court just made a unanimous decision to make that crystal clear. The decision matters because it affects how quickly cases get resolved and which courts get to decide them, but more importantly, it shows the Court is willing to enforce rules strictly, even when a comp...

This case shows how courts balance the competing concerns of protecting people from unreasonable police stops while giving officers enough flexibility to investigate genuine threats. The Supreme Court sided with police power here. But Justice Jackson’s dissent reminds us that reasonable people can disagree about what suspicious behavior actually means, and that the Supreme Court doesn’t need to se...

This case is about which court gets to decide whether a company pays for the damage it causes. State courts have historically been friendlier to environmental lawsuits and injury claims. Federal courts are often seen as more business-friendly. By moving cases to federal court, companies can sometimes avoid juries in their home states and face judges with different attitudes toward corporate liabil...

The decision is both sweeping and incomplete. The Court established one clear rule: states cannot regulate talk therapy based on viewpoint. For everyday citizens, the bottom line is this: the Court has made it harder for states to protect minors from conversion therapy through licensing laws, at least when those laws single out one viewpoint while allowing another. Whether states can regulate the...

A jury once ordered Cox Communications to pay record labels over a billion dollars for turning a blind eye while its customers illegally downloaded music. Now the Supreme Court has wiped that verdict away, ruling unanimously that internet providers cannot be held responsible for what their customers do online, even when they know it’s happening. The decision protects companies like Cox but leaves...

The Supreme Court just settled a question that affects thousands of people on probation every year: if you disappear while under court supervision, can the government simply extend your probation term to punish you for the time you were gone? The answer, in an 8-1 decision, is no. The ruling protects defendants from a legal trap where they could be punished for breaking probation rules during a pe...

A Vermont police sergeant used a painful arm-twisting technique to force a peaceful protester off the floor during a sit-in. She sued. The Supreme Court just said he cannot be held personally responsible. The decision highlights a growing tension on the Court: how much protection should police officers get from lawsuits, and at what cost to people injured by their actions? music for the podcast pr...

The Supreme Court's decision corrects a troubling imbalance. Under the appeals court's rule, the person with the most direct experience of being harmed by an unconstitutional law had less access to federal court than someone who had never been prosecuted at all. That made no sense. music for the podcast provided by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Dimitry Taras

Courts must defer to immigration judges’ decisions on asylum cases in their entirety. These courts decide both the facts and whether those facts meet the legal standard for persecution. It codifies what courts were already doing. Justice Jackson treated the 1996 immigration law as maintaining that earlier practice, reflecting respect for continuity. music for the podcast provided by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Di...