SCOTUS blocks Texas law on social media censorship
A divided Supreme Court has blocked a Texas law, championed by conservatives, that aimed to keep social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter from censoring users based on their viewpoints.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor
Articles
SCOTUS rules against inmates in right-to-counsel case
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled along ideological lines Monday against two Arizona death row inmates who had argued that their lawyers did a poor job representing them in state court. The ruling will make it harder for certain inmates sentenced to death or long terms in prison who believe their lawyers failed them to bring challenges on those grounds.
Supreme Court leak shakes trust in one more American pillar
U.S. Supreme Courts justices face a reckoning over the audacious leak of an early draft opinion that strikes down the constitutional right to abortion, an episode that has deepened suspicions that the high court, for all its decorum, is populated by politicians in robes.
Justices’ views on abortion in their own words and votes
When the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a major abortion case from Mississippi in December, it was clear to observers that there was substantial support among the court’s conservative majority for overruling two landmark decisions that established and reaffirmed a woman’s right to an abortion. Even before arguments in the current case, however, the justices themselves have had a lot to say about abortion over the years — in opinions, votes, Senate confirmation testimony and elsewhere.
Supreme Court tackles case about praying football coach
A coach who crosses himself before a game. A teacher who reads the Bible aloud before the bell rings. A coach who hosts an after-school Christian youth group in his home. U.S. Supreme Court justices discussed all those hypothetical scenarios Monday while hearing arguments about a former public high school football coach from Washington state who wanted to kneel and pray on the field after games.
Court upholds Puerto Ricans’ exclusion from benefits program
The Supreme Court has upheld the differential treatment of residents of Puerto Rico, ruling that Congress was within its power to exclude them from a benefits program that’s available in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Being the 1st: What it’s like to make Supreme Court history
Sandra Day O’Connor was nervous when she joined the Supreme Court in 1981 as the nation’s first female justice. Now, President Joe Biden is preparing to put another woman in the role of a historic first on the court.
Court bolsters defendant’s right to cross-examine witnesses
The Supreme Court on Thursday buttressed a criminal defendant’s right to cross-examine prosecution witnesses, ruling in favor of a New York man who was convicted of killing a 2-year-old boy on Easter Sunday in 2006.
In kids’ book, Sotomayor asks: Whom have you helped today?
“Whom have I helped today?” That’s the question Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor tells kids she asks herself every night before she goes to sleep.
Supreme Court won’t speed challenge to Texas abortion limits
In the latest setback for abortion rights in Texas, the Supreme Court on Thursday refused to speed up the ongoing court case over the state’s ban on most abortions.
Sotomayor, Gorsuch deny report they were at odds over masks
Two Supreme Court justices say a media report that they were at odds over the wearing of masks in court during the recent surge in coronavirus cases is false.
Abortion remarks by 9 court justices indicate how they lean
The Supreme Court heard arguments in which it was asked to overturn a nationwide right to abortion that has existed for nearly 50 years on Wednesday.
Justices signal they’ll OK new abortion limits, may toss Roe
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Wednesday signaled it would uphold Mississippi’s 15-week ban on abortion and may go much further to overturn the nationwide right to abortion that has existed for nearly 50 years.
Alabama man put to death for 1991 killing of woman
An Alabama man who avoided execution in February was put to death Thursday after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request for a stay by his lawyers, who had argued the execution should be blocked on grounds that he had an intellectual disability.
SUPREME COURT NOTEBOOK: Don’t stand so close to us
Get tested. Wear a mask. Don’t get too close. Not your typical court orders, but that was the word from the Supreme Court to lawyers and reporters who returned to the high court this week for the first in-person arguments in more than a year and a half.
What’s old is new again: Justices back at court for new term
The Supreme Court is beginning a momentous new term with a return to familiar surroundings, the mahogany and marble courtroom that the justices abandoned more than 18 months ago because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Losing can ‘get frustrating’ says liberal Justice Sotomayor
Acknowledging the limits of her own influence on the law as a member of the Supreme Court’s liberal minority, Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Wednesday encouraged citizens to work to change laws they may disagree with, like a recent Texas law that limits access to abortions.
High court divides 5-4 to leave Texas abortion law in place
A deeply divided Supreme Court is allowing a Texas law that bans most abortions to remain in force, for now stripping most women of the right to an abortion in the nation’s second-largest state.
Supreme Court rules against inmate in death penalty case
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against an Alabama inmate whose lawyers argued that his trial counsel should have done more to try to show he is intellectually disabled and therefore he should be spared a death sentence.
High court: California can’t collect charity top donor names
The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered California to stop collecting the names and addresses of top donors to charities.