Category Archives: Supreme Court

“Roberts Calls Court’s Relationship With Congress ‘Strained.’ Who’s to Blame?”

January 3, 2025, 3:41 pmlegislation and legislatures, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Jimmy Hoover for the NLJ. I offered some thoughts in this one: Many commentators say that a similar dynamic is responsible for today’s partisan rancor in light of the Supreme Court’s now solidly 6-3 supermajority of Republican appointees. “The Supreme… Continue reading

Biden DOJ Asks SCOTUS for Chance to Give Up Defense of Laws Limiting Political Parties from Becoming Conduits for Large Campaign Contributions; Trump DOJ Will File Instead

January 2, 2025, 1:01 pmcampaign finance, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

See this letter from the Solicitor General requesting an extension of time into the Trump Administration to file a response to the cert. petition in the NRSC case. Here is what I wrote in an earlier post on this case… Continue reading

“Chief Justice Roberts Condemns Threats to Judicial Independence”

December 31, 2024, 4:28 pmSupreme CourtRick Hasen

NYT: Judicial independence is under grave threat on several fronts, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote on Tuesday in an unusually urgent and somber year-end report on the state of the federal judiciary. “Violence, intimidation and defiance directed at… Continue reading

“State Law and Federal Elections After Moore v. Harper”

December 30, 2024, 4:11 pmlegislation and legislatures, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Carolyn Shapiro has written this article for the NYU Law Review. Here is the abstract: In Moore v. Harper, the Supreme Court rejected the extreme proposition that state legislatures operate free from state constitutional constraints and judicial review when they… Continue reading

“Justice Thomas Did Not Disclose Additional Trips, Democrats Say”

December 21, 2024, 9:34 amconflict of interest laws, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

NYT: Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose two additional trips from a billionaire patron than have previously come to light, Senate Democrats revealed on Saturday after conducting a 20-month investigation into ethics practices at the Supreme Court. The findings were… Continue reading

As Supreme Court Sets TikTok Case for Oral Argument, Senator McConnell, Champion of First Amendment in Citizens United, Files Amicus Brief Saying Government Can Shut Down Platform to stop “deployment of subversive enemy propaganda through algorithmic curation.”

December 18, 2024, 12:42 pmcampaign finance, First Amendment theory, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Quite the amicus brief from the purportedly free-speech Senator McConnell. The Supreme Court set a very expedited schedule for oral argument in the TikTok case (unlike its dilatory tactics in the Trump immunity case).

TikTok Goes to Supreme Court Seeking Emergency Order to Block Law Requiring Sale/Shutdown, Citing Rejection of the Antidistortion Interest in Campaign Finance Cases

December 16, 2024, 1:02 pmcampaign finance, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

You can find the filing here (via NBC News). The relevant discussion of the antidistortion interest is on pages 25-26. See my earlier post on the parallels to the campaign finance cases. UPDATE: Here is the docket.

“What If Free Speech Means Banning TikTok?”

December 13, 2024, 12:26 pmcampaign finance, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Alan Rozenshtein in The Atlantic: But in its decision, the court did something unexpected. In addition to crediting the government’s national-security arguments, it highlighted an important tension within pro-free-expression arguments: the right to access and speak on the platform of… Continue reading

Republican Party Suit to Blow Up Limits on Coordinated Spending Between Political Parties and Candidates Reaches the Supreme Court: I Expect They Will Take the Case and Further Deregulate Campaign Financing

December 12, 2024, 7:16 amcampaign finance, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

When the en banc Sixth Circuit decided this case, I wrote: “I have been waiting for this issue to get back to the Supreme Court for a while, and this is just the vehicle that could get it there.… Continue reading

Trump and Cheseboro filings in the Georgia conspiracy case

December 4, 2024, 11:32 pmchicanery, election law and constitutional law, Supreme Courtdemocratic backsliding, January 6Justin Levitt

As expected, President-elect Donald Trump has filed a motion in the Georgia Court of Appeals to dismiss the conspiracy prosecution against him in Georgia on the basis that “a sitting president is completely immune from indictment or any criminal process,… Continue reading

Must-Read Charlie Savage: “End of Trump Cases Leaves Limits on Presidential Criminality Unclear”

November 26, 2024, 7:35 amauthoritarian threats in US, chicanery, Department of Justice, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

Charlie in the NYT: The end of the two federal criminal cases against President-elect Donald J. Trump on Monday left momentous, unsettled questions about constraints on criminal wrongdoing by presidents, from the scope of presidential immunity to whether the Justice… Continue reading

“Trump’s Judicial Hero Would Have Hated His Recess Appointments Plan”

November 25, 2024, 7:10 amSupreme CourtRick Hasen

Adam Liptak NYT Sidebar column: President-elect Donald J. Trump has singled out one former member of the Supreme Court as his judicial north star: Justice Antonin Scalia, a giant of the conservative legal movement who died in 2016. “Justice… Continue reading

“Supreme Court won’t hear challenge to Alaska campaign finance laws”

November 19, 2024, 7:40 amcampaign finance, Supreme CourtRick Hasen

I missed this news yesterday: More than 14 years after the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which removed limits on independent political expenditures by corporations and unions, the justices declined to weigh in on … Continue reading

“Could This Presidential Election Be Decided by the Supreme Court? It is unlikely that the court ends up playing a major role in the outcome, according to elections experts, but it is possible. Here’s why.”

November 5, 2024, 7:29 amSupreme Court, The Voting WarsRick Hasen

NYT: As the polls open on Election Day, the race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump appears to be a dead heat, leading some to fear that the election will be dragged out and the… Continue reading