Bipartisan friendship is a civil solution to political dysfunction

Few jurists have managed to capture the attention and imagination of American society like Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the "odd couple" who built a lasting friendship despite their diametrically-opposed legal views. Because of their dedication to finding common ground across an ideological chasm, the two were honored earlier this month with the annual Allegheny College Prize for Civility in Public Life .

Sandra Day O’Connor makes this year’s ‘Time 100’

Sandra Day O'Connor on this year's 'Time 100' First woman Supreme Court justice, an El Paso native, makes Time magazine's list of 100 most influential people. Check out this story on ElPasoTimes.com: President Trump, James Corden and Simone Biles are just a few of the names that made it on their annual list.

Supreme Court appears ready to break down a church-state barrier in certain circumstances

The Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared ready to break down at least part of the longstanding church-state barrier that has prevented religious schools from receiving public funds. The justices gave a skeptical hearing to a Missouri lawyer who was defending the state's decision to reject a grant request from a Lutheran preschool seeking to participate in a state program that provides money to schools to rubberize the surface of their playgrounds.

COLUMN: Femininity is used as grounds to disrespect female leaders

"Even though female justices speak less often and use fewer words than male justices, they are nonetheless interrupted during oral argument at a significantly higher rate," the study read. To be precise, in 1990 when Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was the only woman in the court, 35.7 percent of interruptions directed at all nine justices were directed specifically at her.

Senate set to approve Trump’s conservative Supreme Court pick

U.S. Supreme Court nominee judge Neil Gorsuch is sworn in to testify at his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. on March 20, 2017. The Republican-led U.S. Senate was poised on Friday to confirm President Donald Trump's Supreme Court pick, conservative appeals court judge Neil Gorsuch, providing the president with his first major victory since taking office in January.

‘Nuclear option’ fallout means more extreme U.S. justices, experts say

A Republican-backed Senate rule change expected on Thursday could make it more likely that presidents will pick ideologically extreme U.S. Supreme Court nominees with little incentive to choose centrist justices, experts said. With a deep partisan divide in Washington, Democrats are using a procedural tactic called a filibuster to try to block confirmation of President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch in the Republican-led Senate.

Gorsuch may be decisive vote in divisive Supreme Court cases

With Neil Gorsuch's confirmation as the 113th Supreme Court justice expected on Friday, it won't be long before he starts revealing what he really thinks about a range of hot topics he repeatedly sidestepped during his confirmation hearing. In less than two weeks, the justices will take up a Missouri church's claim that the state is stepping on its religious freedom.

Sen. Patty Murray will oppose Neil Gorsuch for Supreme Court

Image Judge Neil Gorsuch speaks after President Trump nominated Gorsuch to be an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court at the White House in Washington D.C. on Jan. 31 Schumer said Gorsuch failed to convince him he would be "an independent check on a president who has shown nearly no restraint from executive overreach" or that he would be a neutral justice "free from the biases of politics and ideology".

Gorsuch to Democrats: No return to ‘horse and buggy’ era

Assured of support from majority Republicans, Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch wrapped up two days of Senate questioning Wednesday to glowing GOP reviews but complaints from frustrated Democrats that he concealed his views from the American public. Gorsuch, a federal appeals court judge in Denver, refused repeated attempts to get him to talk about key legal and political issues of the day.

Supreme Court reins in U.S president’s appointment powers

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday put new restrictions on presidential powers, limiting a president's authority to staff certain top government posts in a case involving an appointment to the National Labour Relations Board . The court decided 6-2 to uphold a lower court's ruling that former President Barack Obama exceeded his legal authority with his temporary appointment of an NLRB general counsel in 2011.

Supreme Court sympathetic to Microsoft in Xbox owners’ suit

The Supreme Court suggested Tuesday that it is sympathetic to Microsoft Corp. in a dispute with disgruntled owners of the Xbox 360 video-game system who sued saying the console has a design defect that scratches game discs. The justices heard arguments Tuesday in a case that involves the Xbox 360 owners' attempts to get class action status for their lawsuit, which was filed several years ago in the state of Washington, where Microsoft is headquartered.

Ginsburg, Graves Find Friendship at the Opera

She's been a Supreme Court justice for more than two decades, but if you had asked her in high school what she'd love to be, Ruth Bader Ginsburg would have said a diva. She recently sat down with News4's Barbara Harrison to talk about her love of the opera and her friendship with soprano star -- and Washington native -- Denyce Graves.

The Supreme Court seems unhappy with a social-media ban for sex offenders

THE rape and murder of seven-year-old Megan Kanka in 1994 inspired a host of federal and state laws tracking sexual predators and publicising information on their crimes and whereabouts. Many states also passed laws keeping such criminals away from schools, playgrounds and parks.

Supreme Court seems split in case of boy’s death near border

The Supreme Court appears to be evenly divided about the right of Mexican parents to use American courts to sue a U.S. Border Patrol agent who fired across the U.S.-Mexican border and killed their teenage son. Justice Anthony Kennedy and other conservative justices suggested during argument Tuesday that the boy's death on the Mexican side of the border was enough to keep the matter out of U.S. courts.

Justice Ginsburg laments partisanship at Stanford talk

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lamented partisanship in Congress during a talk at Stanford University on Monday and said she hoped it would return to an era when "it was working for the good of the country and not just along party lines." Ginsburg did not address the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court seat vacated by the late Justice Anthony Scalia or President Donald Trump's travel ban, which could end up before the high court.

Supreme Court unlikely to overturn abortion rights anytime soon

Supreme Court unlikely to overturn abortion rights anytime soon President Trump needs more than one new Supreme Court justice to reverse Roe v. Wade Check out this story on USATODAY.com: http://usat.ly/2kcvqBM Demonstrators on both sides of the abortion issue demonstrate in front of the Supreme Court last June, around the time the justices struck down a Texas law that restricted access to abortions.

Supreme Court nominations will never be the same

The story of the Supreme Court in 2016 can be summarized in a statistic: It's been 311 days since Justice Antonin Scalia died on Feb. 13, and his seat remains unfilled. That's not the longest Supreme Court vacancy in the modern era, but it's about to enter second place - and it will become the longest if Donald Trump's nominee isn't confirmed before the end of March.