Law & Court Cases
Major trials, Supreme Court decisions, European judgments, privacy law and legal analysis.
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This reading list brings together items from the sources selected for Law & Court Cases. Open each item at its original source for the complete article, episode or video. This is a selection of current coverage, not a complete archive.
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The Second Amendment and AR-15s: an unexplained betrayal of originalism?
Last month, I provided a short discussion of the upcoming AR-15 rifle ban case, Viramontes v. Cook County, noting that the 2008 pathbreaking Second Amendment decision, District of Columbia v. Heller, ended by adding a “Part III” that identified “an important limitation on the right to keep and carry arms.” For a 5-4 majority, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that “the sorts of weapons protected were those ‘in common use at the time (emphasis added).’
The Tribal Supreme Court Project
The Native American Rights Fund recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Tribal Supreme Court Project, an initiative designed to establish an infrastructure that would allow tribal interests to reach better outcomes in Supreme Court litigation. For decades now, Supreme Court experts sympathetic to tribal interests have advised them to avoid the court if at all possible.
The immigration term
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court added Blanche v. Ozurumba, a case on whether someone who worked as a cook for a terrorist organization is eligible for asylum protections, to its oral argument docket for the 2026-27 term. Even before that grant, however, the docket was dominated by immigration issues.
SCOTUS considers new take on old law
Justice Clarence Thomas was confirmed to the Supreme Court 35 years ago today. In May, he became the second-longest-serving justice in Supreme Court history.
Justices grant Trump administration’s request to pause lower court ruling in political ad rate dispute
The Supreme Court on Wednesday cleared the way for political parties and joint fundraising committees to continue to receive favorable advertising rates in the run-up to the 2026 election. In a five-page, unsigned opinion, the justices extended a pause on a ruling by a federal appeals court in Virginia that had instructed the Federal Communications Commission to act quickly on a petition by four Democratic candidates for Congress for review of a notice that the parties and committees are entitled to those advantageous rates.
Court appears likely to allow internet suit based on decades-old video privacy law to go forward
The Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed likely to let a lawsuit brought by a Tennessee man alleging that a website owned by entertainment giant Paramount Global violated a 1988 video privacy law when it shared information with Facebook go forward, at least for now. After nearly 90 minutes of oral argument in Salazar v. Paramount Global, the justices appeared poised to agree with Michael Salazar that the law, the Video Privacy Protection Act, applies to any consumer of the products sold by a company that provides videos.
Hooch, hardball, and Halloween
The Relist Watch column examines cert petitions that the Supreme Court has “relisted” for its upcoming conference. A short explanation of relists is available here.
Witnessing a reorientation of the First and Second Amendments on the Roberts court
Please note that SCOTUS Outside Opinions constitute the views of outside contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SCOTUSblog or its staff.
Justices grant three cases
Earlier this year, SCOTUSblog published the first Interim Relief Docket Stat Pack, a statistical portrait of the Supreme Court’s interim/emergency/shadow docket for the 2024-25 term. Now that the 2025-26 term has concluded, Taraleigh Davis produced a second edition of this stat pack, which we released on Tuesday.
Court grants cases on DOGE data dispute, prisoners’ rights, and what qualifies as “material support” for terrorism
The Supreme Court on Tuesday added three new cases to its oral argument docket for the 2026-27 term, agreeing to decide, among other things, what kinds of orders trial courts can issue in disputes over access to government information and whether working as a cook in a camp run by violent separatists qualifies as providing “material support” for terrorism under federal immigration law.
The 2025-26 Interim Relief Docket Stat Pack
I’m proud to provide the second Interim Relief Docket Stat Pack, a statistical portrait of the Supreme Court’s applications for the 2025-26 term (that is, from Oct. 6, 2025, through Oct. 4, 2026.). You can find an overview of some highlights in it here.
A snapshot of the Supreme Court’s 2025-26 interim relief docket – and some surprises on it
Earlier this year, SCOTUSblog published the first Interim Relief Docket Stat Pack, a statistical portrait of the Supreme Court's interim/emergency/shadow docket for the 2024-25 term. Now that the 2025-26 term has officially concluded, I've done a second edition, covering Oct. 6, 2025, through Oct. 4, 2026.
Orders and arguments ahead
On this day in 1932, President Herbert Hoover laid the cornerstone of the Supreme Court Building amid its construction. The court held its first session in the building three years later.
Court to hear argument on how a video privacy law applies in the internet age
In a 1987 article for the weekly Washington City Paper, journalist Michael Dolan published a list of the videos that Judge Robert Bork, then President Ronald Reagan’s nominee to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court, had rented from his local video store. As Dolan later recounted, Bork’s taste in movies was unremarkable. He enjoyed “whodunits and Brit films, costume drama and otherwise.”
President Trump asks SCOTUS to revive Hillary Clinton case
The Supreme Court Building is closed today for Columbus Day. In recognition of that, this is an abridged edition of SCOTUStoday.
Trump asks justices to allow dismissed lawsuit against Hillary Clinton to proceed
President Donald Trump on Friday asked the Supreme Court to vacate a ruling by a federal appeals court that affirmed a decision by a federal judge in Florida dismissing his lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and several others. The suit alleges “a coordinated scheme … to undermine his candidacy and Presidency through fabricated accusations of Russian collusion.” U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks had also ordered Trump and his attorney, Alina Habba, to pay nearly $1 million in sanctions.
Democratic candidates ask Supreme Court to leave in place appeals court ruling in political ad rate dispute
Lawyers for a group of Democratic candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, including Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia and former Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, urged the Supreme Court on Saturday afternoon to leave in place a ruling by a federal appeals court that had directed the Federal Communications Commission to rule quickly on a challenge to its “public notice” that would extend favorable advertising rates to political parties and joint fundraising committees in the run-up to federal elections.
Trump announces committee investigation of Fed Governor Lisa Cook
President Donald Trump on Friday announced the creation of a three-person committee to investigate allegations of mortgage fraud against Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors. The news came in a notice that was published on the White House website just over two months after Trump notified Cook that he was considering her removal, and less than four months after a divided Supreme Court blocked Trump’s initial efforts to fire Cook.
The Constitution’s structure should decide Suncor
Please note that SCOTUS Outside Opinions constitute the views of outside contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SCOTUSblog or its staff.
The Supreme Court and the last word
Please note that SCOTUS Outside Opinions constitute the views of outside contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SCOTUSblog or its staff.
The October sitting so far
Plus, a bipartisan group of states and the NFL are urging SCOTUS to rule on prediction markets.
Justices urged to leave order in place barring enforcement of Trump administration’s new policy for transgender inmates
Lawyers for a group of transgender inmates in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons urged the Supreme Court on Thursday to leave in place an order by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., that bars the BOP from enforcing a new policy on healthcare for transgender inmates that would prevent such inmates from obtaining (among other things) hormone therapy and “social accommodations” (such as makeup, wigs, and padding).
Wild card justices and the “Kagan court” for criminal cases
If you read my columns closely, you know this: over the past two terms, 21 of the court’s 30 “pure” criminal law decisions have been pro-defendant or defense position. Eleven of 16 in the 2025-26 term, and 10 of 14 in the prior one. That’s 70%. Given a conservative court, does that stat surprise you? What justices are leading to these overall numbers, and who is leading the charge? Finally, does any of this suggest what we might look for in this term’s first criminal law case, Beaird v. United States, to be argued next Tuesday?
Dispute over broadcasting rates for political ads returns to the Supreme Court
The battle over favorable advertising rates for political parties and joint fundraising committees returned to the Supreme Court on its interim docket on Thursday morning, just a little over a month after the justices temporarily paused a ruling by a federal court that had limited the rates to candidates for federal office. In a 15-page filing, U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the court to block an order by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit directing the Federal Communications Commission to decide by noon on Friday, Oct.
Court to weigh deference to U.S. Sentencing Commission’s interpretations of its guidelines
Before imposing a sentence on a federal criminal defendant, a district judge must apply the federal sentencing guidelines for the defendant’s offense and criminal history and take into account the sentencing range recommended by those guidelines, along with a host of other factors. In Beaird v. United States, which will be argued on Tuesday, Oct. 13, the Supreme Court will consider the degree of deference that courts owe to the commentary that the U.S. Sentencing Commission provides for applying the guidelines.
Justices consider dispute over Air Force operations in Guam
Plus, the first relists of the 2026-27 term.
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