Category Archives: US Supreme Court

Remembering Ruth Bader Ginsburg – video obituary

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The supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, arguably the single most important female lawyer in the history of the American republic, has died from complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer. She was 87 years old.

Appointed by Bill Clinton in 1993, Ginsburg was a stalwart of the court’s liberal bloc, which Donald Trump appears now to have the opportunity to confine to a minority for a generation.

Later nicknamed RBG, Ginsburg was an icon, especially for women, and provided an essential vote in watershed rulings that combatted gender discrimination and protected abortion rights, equal pay, civil liberties and privacy rights.

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The US election is in 100 days: what are the biggest threats to it?

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Fears that voter suppression would keep significant numbers of voters from the ballot box have been exacerbated by Covid-19

The 2020 election is shaping up to be a presidential contest unlike any other in American history.

Even before the pandemic, there were deep concerns over how voter suppression would shut significant numbers of Americans out of the ballot box. Covid-19 has exacerbated those fears as states rapidly ramp up their vote by mail apparatus to curb long lines and crowds at the polls.

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg leaves hospital and ‘doing well’ at home

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  • Supreme court justice, 87, treated for possible infection
  • Ginsburg had procedure to clean stent, spokeswoman says

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been released from a Baltimore hospital after being treated for a possible infection, a court spokeswoman said on Wednesday, in the latest health issue for the US supreme court’s oldest member.

Ginsburg, 87, returned home and is “doing well,” spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said in a statement. Ginsburg underwent a procedure at Johns Hopkins hospital on Tuesday to clean a bile duct stent that was inserted last August, the court said.

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Trump’s taxes may be released to Manhattan grand jury, supreme court rules

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Court also rules in a separate decision that the president does not have to turn over his financial records to Congress

The supreme court has ruled that a Manhattan grand jury may have access to some of Donald Trump’s financial documents, dealing a major blow to the president in his fight to keep his tax records secret – although the records were not expected to become public ahead of the November election.

Prosecutors in New York had sought the documents as part of an investigation into whether Trump had improperly handled hush payments, including one to the pornographic film actor star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.

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Supreme court strikes down abortion restriction in major victory for campaigners – live

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A vigil held in the memory of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old who black man who was killed by police in Aurora, Colorado, turned violent when police pepper began to pepper spray the crowd, saying that those at the vigil were unlawfully gathering in front of a police station.

Here’s a look at the scene:

Jacksonville, Florida, the city that is slated to host the Republican National Convention in August, announced that it will adopt a mandatory mask requirement for all indoor locations where social distancing is not possible.

That makes things a bit awkward since the Republican National Committee actually moved its convention to Jacksonville after the state it was supposed to be held in, North Carolina, said it would likely impose some restrictions to shrink the size of the convention. North Carolina governor Roy Cooper said he could not agree to guarantees Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee were seeking that would allow the convention to be the big, people-packed convention it was planned to be.

At 5 p.m. today, the City of Jacksonville will be adopting a mandatory mask requirement for public & indoor locations, and in other situations where individuals cannot socially distance.

Please continue to practice personal responsibility to help stop the spread of this virus. pic.twitter.com/dcAuolVMyZ

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US supreme court rejects Trump’s bid to end Daca program

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John Roberts wrote in 5-4 majority opinion the administration’s decision to end program was ‘arbitrary and capricious’

The US supreme court has rejected Donald Trump’s bid to end the program that made it possible for undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children to live and work in the US without fear of deportation.

More than 652,800 people, including doctors fighting the coronavirus, were waiting on the decision about the program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, commonly known by its acronym Daca.

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Roe v Wade plaintiff admits abortion rights reversal ‘was all an act’ in new film

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Norma McCorvey, known as Jane Roe, reveals she was paid by evangelical Christian groups to take anti-abortion stance

Norma McCorvey, most notable for being the plaintiff known as Jane Roe in the 1973 landmark supreme court case Roe v Wade that led to abortion becoming legal in the United States, made a stunning admission just before her death in 2017, it has emerged.

“This is my deathbed confession,” she explained.

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Supreme court grills Trump lawyers over president’s unreleased tax returns

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Trump has refused to release documents but Sonia Sotomayor says there is a tradition of Congress ‘seeking records and getting them’

As the supreme court heard arguments concerning Donald Trump’s tax returns on Tuesday, justice Sonia Sotomayor told a lawyer for the president “there is a long, long history of Congress seeking records and getting them” from occupants of the Oval Office.

Related: McConnell tells Obama to 'keep his mouth shut' after Trump criticism

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US supreme court tackles politics’ most tantalising mystery: Trump’s tax returns

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The president’s tax documents have been reported on by various outlets, even winning the New York Times a Pulitzer

The US supreme court is in its second week of working by telephone during the coronavirus pandemic. On Tuesday it will hear the highest-profile arguments so far presented remotely: regarding the release, or not, of Donald Trump’s tax returns.

When Trump ran for president in 2016, he bucked tradition by refusing to release such information. Saying he was under audit, which would not in fact have precluded action, he promised to release his returns in due course. He has not.

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg in hospital for treatment on gallbladder

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The key liberal US supreme court justice is resting comfortably and will be able to continue to work

US supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who has had a series of health scares, has undergone non-surgical treatment for a gallbladder condition and was resting comfortably, a court spokeswoman said.

Ginsburg, 87, had a gallstone that had caused an infection and was treated at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, a spokeswoman said. Ginsburg was expected to participate in the court’s oral arguments on Wednesday remotely from the hospital.

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Trump is seizing the courts – only a Democratic win in November can stop him

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Trump’s transformation of the federal judiciary means the stakes have never been higher in an election than they are for Democrats

He is 37 and less than 10 years out of law school. He had never tried a case, nor served as co-counsel at trial, when he was tapped last year for America’s federal bench. But he did go on Fox News to push the cause of Brett Kavanaugh when Trump’s supreme court pick was mired in sexual abuse claims two years ago.

And now he is bound for the second highest court in the land.

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Supreme court hears first major abortion case since Trump appointees joined bench – live

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Remade conservative majority will hear oral arguments in case that could result in grave new restrictions on abortion access – follow live

The session just ended, so we’re just getting some insight into what kinds of questions the justices asked.

Questions focused on whether doctors can sue on behalf of patients.

The focus of a lot of the arguments at #SCOTUS today was on whether doctors can sue on behalf of patients – a question of "standing". Liberal Justice Stephen Breyer pointed out overturning precedent on standing would draw into question 8 cases just in abortion law.

Oral arguments just ended at the Supreme Court – Chief Justice John Roberts is going to be the focus of a lot of analysis, as the liberal and conservative wings of the court appear to have already developed strong opinions on the case

Activist, actress and author Busy Phillips, who has been outspoken about the abortion she had when she was 15-year-old, gave an impassioned speech on the importance of protecting the right to abortion at the pro-choice rally in front of the Supreme Court.

“I will never stop talking about my abortion.” - @BusyPhilipps #MyRightMyDecision pic.twitter.com/LGGCW5kkkv

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US supreme court to hear Affordable Care Act appeal that could cast doubt on law

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Lower court’s ruling that individual mandate was unconstitutional to be reviewed after 19 Democratic states appealed the decision

US supreme court to hear third Affordable Care Act challenge

The US supreme court has announced it will hear a case on whether a part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is unconstitutional. A decision is not expected until after the 2020 election.

In December, a federal appeals court ruled that the ACA’s individual mandate, which requires every American to have health insurance, was unconstitutional. The ruling cast doubt upon the rest of the law, which is known colloquially as Obamacare.

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More than 200 members of Congress urge US supreme court to reconsider Roe v Wade

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Appeal in an amicus brief in a Louisiana case was signed by 205 Republicans and two Democrats

More than two hundred members of Congress have urged the US supreme court to reconsider the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade ruling which legalized abortion nationwide.

The appeal came in an amicus brief in a Louisiana case, and was signed by 205 Republicans and two Democrats, and calls on the high court to revisit the ruling, which affirmed that access to safe abortion is a constitutional right.

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The decade that shook America

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2010 to 2020 was a contradictory decade that will confound future historians with a simple question: how did America go from Obama to Trump?

Lin-Manuel Miranda was touring his award-winning musical, In the Heights, to his parents’ homeland of Puerto Rico. Donald Trump was awarding first prize on his reality TV show, The Apprentice, to a corporate lawyer turned mobile cupcake entrepreneur.

The year was 2010 and, in the decade that followed, these two hustlers from New York with fiercely devoted followings would come to represent the two faces of America.

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Donald Trump: supreme court to rule on release of bank, tax and finance records

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  • Congress and prosecutors have sought Trump’s tax returns
  • Court likely to issue a ruling in June during election campaign

The supreme court said on Friday it will hear Donald Trump’s pleas to keep his tax, bank and financial records private, a major tussle between the president and Congress that could also affect the 2020 presidential campaign.

Related: Trump: New York prosecutors subpoena eight years of tax returns

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National Coming Out Day marked by worry over supreme court LGBTQ case

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National Coming Out Day festivities across the US were tempered this year by anxiety that some LGBTQ people may have to go back into the closet so they can make a living, depending on what the supreme court decides about workplace discrimination.

Related: The US decision on LGBT workers could turn employers into the gender police | Arwa Mahdawi

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Trump blasts calls for impeachment of Brett Kavanaugh after new allegations

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  • New York Times details new claims against supreme court judge
  • Harris, Castro and Sanders lead calls for constitutional action

Donald Trump came storming to the defence of Brett Kavanaugh on Sunday, after the publication of new allegations about the supreme court justice’s behaviour while he was a student at Yale led to renewed calls for his impeachment.

Related: Trump is seriously, frighteningly unstable - the world is in danger | Robert Reich

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Supreme court allows Trump to use $2.5bn in Pentagon funds for border wall

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Move allows administration to redirect money despite lawmakers’ refusal to provide funding

The US supreme court cleared the way for Donald Trump to use billions in Pentagon funds to build a border wall.

The decision allows the Trump administration to redirect approximately $2.5bn approved by Congress for the Pentagon to help build his promised wall along the US-Mexico border even though lawmakers refused to provide funding.

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Supreme court to rule on Obama-era Daca program for young migrants

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Court expected to hear arguments late this year, with a decision on Dreamers likely to come before 2020 election

The supreme court will review the constitutionality of an Obama-era program allowing undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children to get temporary deportation relief and work permits.

Trump ended the program, called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca), but the decision was challenged in several lawsuits. The program protected about 700,000 people known as Dreamers.

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