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Lavish court spending in poor West Virginia triggers scandal
A scandal involving lavish office renovations and other financial abuses by the highest court in one of the poorest states in America has triggered an extraordinary move by one branch of government to essentially fire another.
The unwritten rule about justices going outside the record
During last week's Supreme Court arguments about crisis pregnancy centers, Justice Sonia Sotomayor introduced a long line of questions by saying she had recently visited the website of one of the clinics that is a party to the suit.
Politics forces Virginia’s top court to audible
If you were supposed to argue a case in front of the Supreme Court of Virginia on Sept. 17, you might have to reconfigure your calendar.
Retired Justice Stevens finds six ways to change Constitution
Mobile-phone searches, junior-league politicians, greedy lawyers round out this week's Law Blog Roundup
UM Carey student makes Scalia, Ginsburg face the music
In some ways, the courthouse and the opera house both have a flair for the dramatic.
Justices take dim view of recess appointments
Several Supreme Court justices cast serious doubt Monday on the president’s constitutional authority to install three members on the National Labor Relations Board without Senate approval in 2012.
At high court, justices are low tech
WASHINGTON — At the Supreme Court, technology can be regarded as a necessary evil, and sometimes not even necessary. When the justices have something to say to each other in writing, they never do it by email. Their courthouse didn’t even have a photocopying machine until 1969, a few years after “Xerox” had become a […]
Justices hear town meeting prayer case
The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court faced the task of drawing a line between permissible religious addresses by private citizens at public meetings.
It’s official: Only lawyers can argue before Supreme Court now
WASHINGTON — You must be a lawyer to argue before the Supreme Court. Thought that already was the case? It wasn’t — until Monday, when the Supreme Court revised its 80-page rule book for the first time since 2010. The update covers items such as filing deadlines but also adds Rule 28.8, which requires anyone […]
Justices strike down Ariz. proof-of-citizenship law
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states cannot require would-be voters to prove they are U.S. citizens before using a federal registration system designed to make signing up easier. The justices voted 7-2 to throw out Arizona’s voter-approved requirement that prospective voters document their U.S. citizenship in order to use a registration form […]
Justices weigh free-speech dispute over AIDS funding
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court wrestled Monday with the First Amendment implications of a policy that forces private health organizations to denounce prostitution as a condition to get AIDS funding. The court appeared divided, and not along ideological lines, in an argument over whether the anti-prostitution pledge violates the health groups’ constitutional rights. Four organizations […[...]
Justices debate Maryland DNA collection law
The Supreme Court’s justices appeared divided Tuesday over the constitutionality of a Maryland law that permits police to collect DNA samples from people arrested on charges of having committed or having attempted to commit a violent crime.
