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☆ Supreme Court Allows, for Now, Texas Law Restricting Access to Porn
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-30 | by ( Adam Liptak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The Supreme Court refused on Tuesday to block a Texas law that seeks to limit minors’ access to pornography on the internet by requiring age verification measures like the submission of government-issued IDs. A petition seeking review of an appeals court’s ruling upholding the law remains pending. A trade group, companies that produce sexual materials and a performer challenged the law, saying that it violates the First Amendment right of adults. The law does not allow companies to retain information their users submit. But the challengers said adults would be wary of supplying personal information for fear of identity theft, tracking and extortion.

Locations: Texas

☆ Amid Cases on Abortion and Trump, Roberts Reflects on Supreme Court’s Work
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-29 | by ( Adam Liptak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Before he joined the court in 2005, he was a leading member of its bar, arguing before the court 39 times. Since then, he has heard more than 1,000 arguments. And he has published a study of what makes for an effective oral presentation. Indeed, he said, oral arguments are when the justices effectively begin their deliberations. While some of the justices’ questions are clearly earnest inquiries trying to nail down facts or clarify the lawyers’ positions, much of the communication at arguments is actually among the justices.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, John G, Roberts, ”, Elena Kagan, Brett M, Kavanaugh Organizations: Georgetown University Law Center

☆ Conservative Justices Take Argument Over Trump’s Immunity in Unexpected Direction
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-26 | by ( Adam Liptak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Before the Supreme Court heard arguments on Thursday on former President Donald J. Trump’s claim that he is immune from prosecution, his stance was widely seen as a brazen and cynical bid to delay his trial. The practical question in the case, it was thought, was not whether the court would rule against him but whether it would act quickly enough to allow the trial to go forward before the 2024 election. Instead, members of the court’s conservative majority treated Mr. Trump’s assertion that he could not face charges that he tried to subvert the 2020 election as a weighty and difficult question. They did so, said Pamela Karlan, a law professor at Stanford, by averting their eyes from Mr. Trump’s conduct. “What struck me most about the case was the relentless efforts by several of the justices on the conservative side not to focus on, consider or even acknowledge the facts of the actual case in front of them,” she said.

Persons: Donald J, Pamela Karlan, Trump’s, ”, “ I’m, Samuel A, Alito Jr Organizations: Stanford

☆ Live Updates: Supreme Court to Hear Trump’s Claim to ‘Absolute Immunity’
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-25 | by ( Adam Liptak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The court’s answer to the question of whether Mr. Trump is absolutely immune from prosecution on those charges will be a major statement on the scope of presidential power. Most legal experts do not expect Mr. Trump to prevail on his broadest arguments. If Mr. Trump prevails in the election, he could order the Justice Department to drop the charges. Mr. Trump faces a count of conspiring to defraud the government, another of conspiring to disenfranchise voters and two counts related to corruptly obstructing a congressional proceeding. Whatever happens after Thursday’s argument, the 2024 election will take place in the shadow of the criminal justice system.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Trump’s, Jack Smith, Mike Pence Organizations: Mr, Justice Department Locations: Manhattan

☆ Supreme Court to Hear Trump’s Claim to ‘Absolute Immunity’
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-25 | by ( Adam Liptak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Supreme Court, in its last argument of the term, will consider on Thursday whether former President Donald J. Trump must face trial on charges that he plotted to subvert the 2020 election. The court’s answer to that question will be a major statement on the scope of presidential power. Most legal experts do not expect Mr. Trump to prevail on his broadest arguments. But when and how he loses may turn out to be as important as whether he loses. If the court does not rule until late June or returns the case to the lower courts for further consideration of the scope of any immunity, the trial might not take place until after the election.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Trump’s, Jack Smith Organizations: Mr

☆ Live Updates: Supreme Court Hears Trump’s Claim to ‘Absolute Immunity’
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-25 | by ( Adam Liptak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

Political appointees in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel have declared that the Constitution implicitly establishes immunity for sitting presidents. But political appointees in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, whose interpretations are binding on the executive branch, have declared that the Constitution implicitly establishes such immunity. (That same month, Mr. Nixon had Mr. Cox fired in the so-called Saturday Night Massacre. Amid a political backlash, Mr. Nixon was forced to allow a new special counsel, Leon Jaworski, to resume the investigation.) Mr. Starr later said that he had concluded that he could indict Mr. Clinton.

Persons: Donald J, Robert G, Dixon Jr, Dixon, Richard M, Nixon, Archibald Cox, Nixon’s, Robert H, Bork, Cox, Leon Jaworski, Bill Clinton, Kenneth Starr, Monica Lewinsky, Randolph D, Moss, Department’s, Jaworski, Mr, Ronald Rotunda, Starr, Clinton, ”, Rotunda, ” Mr, Starr —, — Organizations: Justice Department’s, White, Justice Department, Justice Locations: Whitewater, “

☆ In Immunity Case, Trump Can Lose in Ways That Amount to a Win
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-24 | by ( Adam Liptak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mr. Trump would prefer to win, of course. But there are, from his perspective, at least two attractive ways to lose. One involves the timing of the court’s decision, which has received substantial attention given the relatively leisurely pace it has set for itself in the case. Even if Mr. Trump eventually and categorically loses, each passing week makes it more challenging for Jack Smith, the special counsel in the case, to complete the trial before the election. The other, which has received less consideration but is no less important, is the possibility that the court’s ruling, even if issued promptly, will inject additional legal complications into the case that will take time to sort out.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Jack Smith

☆ Supreme Court to Hear Challenge to Biden’s Limits on ‘Ghost Guns’
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-22 | by ( Adam Liptak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear a challenge to the Biden administration’s regulation of “ghost guns” — kits that can be bought online and assembled into untraceable homemade firearms. In defending the rule, a critical part of President Biden’s broader effort to address gun violence, administration officials said such weapons had soared in popularity in recent years, particularly among criminals barred from buying ordinary guns. The regulation, issued in 2022 by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, broadened the bureau’s interpretation of the definition of “firearm” in the Gun Control Act of 1968. The new regulation did not ban the sale or possession of kits and components that can be assembled to make guns, but it did require manufacturers and sellers to obtain licenses, mark their products with serial numbers and conduct background checks.

Persons: Biden’s Organizations: Biden, Bureau, Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, Explosives, Gun Control

☆ Live Updates: Justices to Hear Obstruction Case That Could Bar Charges Against Trump
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-16 | by ( Adam Liptak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +6 min

Still, in an earlier case involving a different provision of the law, the Supreme Court said it should be tethered to its original purpose. Mr. Fischer is accused of entering the Capitol around 3:24 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021, with the counting of electoral ballots having been suspended after the initial assault. But the question for the justices is legal, not factual: Does the 2002 law cover what Mr. Fischer is accused of? Indeed, the judges in the majority in an appeals court ruling against Mr. Fischer could not agree on just what the word meant. By a 5-to-4 vote, the Supreme Court agreed.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Joseph W, Fischer, Trump’s, “, Mr, Judge Florence Y, Pan, Fischer’s, Justin R, Walker, Judge Walker, corruptly ’, ”, Judge Gregory G, Katsas, ” Judge Katsas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, Kagan, Seuss Organizations: Sarbanes, Oxley, Enron, Capitol, Mr, ” Prosecutors, Yates, Supreme Locations: United States

☆ Justices to Hear Obstruction Case That Could Bar Charges Against Trump
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-16 | by ( Adam Liptak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Tuesday in a case that could eliminate some of the federal charges against former President Donald J. Trump in the case accusing him of plotting to subvert the 2020 election and could disrupt the prosecutions of hundreds of rioters involved in the Capitol attack. The law figures in two of the federal charges against Mr. Trump in his election subversion case, and more than 350 people who stormed the Capitol have been prosecuted under it. If the Supreme Court sides with Mr. Fischer and says the statute does not cover what he is accused of having done, Mr. Trump is almost certain to contend that it does not apply to his conduct, either. The law, signed in 2002, was prompted by accounting fraud and the destruction of documents, but the provision is written in broad terms. Still, in an earlier case involving a different provision of the law, the Supreme Court said it should be tethered to its original purpose.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Joseph W, Fischer Organizations: Sarbanes, Oxley, Enron, Capitol, Mr

☆ Questions About Assassinations Test the Limits of Trump’s Immunity Claim
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-15 | by ( Adam Liptak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

“It is clear that as president, I will be bound by laws just like all Americans,” Donald J. Trump said in 2016, during his first campaign. Next week, the Supreme Court will consider his claim that he is immune from prosecution on charges that he plotted to subvert the 2020 election. His 2016 statement, now largely forgotten, was not an off-the-cuff remark. It was, rather, a considered effort to put to rest a controversy over a question that has recently also figured in the case before the Supreme Court: May the president order the military to conduct unlawful killings? In January, at an appeals court argument, Judge Florence Y. Pan asked Mr. Trump’s lawyer a question meant to test the limits of his argument that presidents are immune from prosecution for their official acts.

Persons: ” Donald J, Trump, Judge Florence Y, Pan, Trump’s

☆ Jan. 6 Obstruction Case at Supreme Court Could Help Trump and Many Others
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-14 | by ( Adam Liptak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At first blush, the case the Supreme Court will hear on Tuesday seems technical, requiring the justices to parse a decades-old statute mainly concerned with the destruction of business records. But the case has the potential to knock out half of the federal charges against former President Donald J. Trump for plotting to subvert the 2020 election, entangle hundreds of Jan. 6 prosecutions and help adjudicate the very meaning of the attack on the Capitol. The immediate question for the justices is whether a federal law aimed primarily at white-collar crime, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, can be used to prosecute members of the mob who stormed the Capitol, including the defendant in the case, Joseph W. Fischer, a former Pennsylvania police officer. More than 300 people have been prosecuted under the law, which makes it a crime to obstruct an official proceeding. But its language is broad, and prosecutors say its plain terms cover Mr. Fischer’s conduct.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Joseph W, Fischer, Fischer’s Organizations: Capitol, Sarbanes, Oxley, Enron Locations: Pennsylvania

☆ Prosecutors Ask Supreme Court to Reject Trump’s Immunity Claim in Election Case
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-08 | by ( Adam Liptak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Jack Smith, the special counsel prosecuting former President Donald J. Trump on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election, urged the Supreme Court on Monday to reject Mr. Trump’s claim that he is immune from prosecution. “The president’s constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed does not entail a general right to violate them,” Mr. Smith wrote. The filing was Mr. Smith’s main submission in the case, which will be argued on April 25. He wrote that the novelty of the case underscored its gravity. “The absence of any prosecutions of former presidents until this case does not reflect the understanding that presidents are immune from criminal liability,” Mr. Smith wrote.

Persons: Jack Smith, Donald J, Trump, Trump’s, ” Mr, Smith, Smith’s, Mr, petitioner’s, ”

☆ What’s in Our Queue? ‘The Iron Giant’ and More
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-03 | by ( Adam Liptak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

What’s in Our Queue? ‘The Iron Giant’ and MoreI cover the Supreme Court. These days, the job can be relentless, so I mostly look for culture that is playful or profound, and sometimes both, to recover from the onslaught. Here are five favorites →

Persons: →

☆ Did Prosecutors’ Sex Shaming Help Send Brenda Andrew to Death Row?
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-01 | by ( Adam Liptak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

During his closing argument in the 2004 murder trial of Brenda Andrew in Oklahoma, a prosecutor dangled her thong underwear before the jury. She had packed the undergarment for a trip to Mexico a few days after her estranged husband was killed. The prosecutor, Gayland Gieger, said the item was strong evidence that Ms. Andrew had murdered her husband. The jury convicted Ms. Andrew and condemned her to death. She is the only woman on the state’s death row.

Persons: Brenda Andrew, Gayland Gieger, Andrew, “, ” Locations: Oklahoma, Mexico

☆ Justice Breyer, Off the Bench, Sounds an Alarm Over the Supreme Court’s Direction
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-18 | by ( Adam Liptak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Justice Stephen G. Breyer’s Supreme Court chambers are not quite as grand as those he occupied before he retired in 2022, but they are still pretty nice. In earlier interviews, Justice Breyer could be rambling and opaque. He said he meant to sound an alarm about the direction of the Supreme Court. The court has taken a wrong turn, he said, and it is not too late to turn back. The book, “Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism,” will be published on March 26, the day the Supreme Court hears its next major abortion case, on access to pills used to terminate pregnancies.

Persons: Stephen G, Breyer, ” Organizations: Breyer’s

☆ Chief Justice Roberts Rejects Peter Navarro’s Last-Ditch Bid to Avoid Prison
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-18 | by ( Adam Liptak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. ruled on Monday that Peter Navarro, a trade adviser to Donald J. Trump during his presidency, must start serving a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress while he pursues an appeal. Mr. Navarro, who refused to comply with a subpoena seeking information about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, must report to a federal prison in Miami on Tuesday, making him the first senior aide to Mr. Trump to serve time in connection with the plot to overturn the 2020 election. Chief Justice Roberts, acting on his own without referring the matter to the full Supreme Court, said he saw no reason to disagree with an appeals court’s determination that Mr. Navarro had not “met his burden to establish his entitlement to relief.”The chief justice added that his order applied only to the question of whether Mr. Navarro should remain free while he appealed and did not express a view on the appeal itself.

Persons: John G, Roberts Jr, Peter Navarro, Donald J, Trump, . Navarro, Justice Roberts, Navarro, “, ” Locations: Miami

☆ White House’s Efforts to Combat Misinformation Face Supreme Court Test
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-18 | by ( Adam Liptak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Monday on whether the Biden administration violated the First Amendment in combating what it said was misinformation on social media platforms. It is the latest in an extraordinary series of cases this term requiring the justices to assess the meaning of free speech in the internet era. The case arose from a barrage of communications from administration officials urging platforms to take down posts on topics like the coronavirus vaccines, claims of election fraud and Hunter Biden’s laptop. Last year, a federal appeals court severely limited such interactions. Alex Abdo, a lawyer with the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said the Supreme Court’s review of that decision must be sensitive to two competing values, both vital to democracy.

Persons: Biden, Hunter, Alex Abdo Organizations: Columbia University

☆ Live Updates: White House’s Efforts to Combat Misinformation Face Supreme Court Test
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-18 | by ( Adam Liptak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

PinnedThe Supreme Court will hear arguments at 10 a.m. on Monday on whether the Biden administration violated the First Amendment in combating what it said was misinformation on social media platforms. “This is an immensely important case that will determine the power of the government to pressure the social media platforms into suppressing speech,” he said. “Our hope is that the Supreme Court will clarify the constitutional line between coercion and persuasion. On Friday, the court set rules for when government officials can block users from their private social media accounts. had most likely crossed constitutional lines in their bid to persuade platforms to take down posts about what they had flagged as misinformation.

Persons: Biden, Alex Abdo, ”, Murthy, —, Elizabeth B, Prelogar Organizations: Columbia University, U.S ., Appeals, Fifth Circuit, White, Centers for Disease Control Locations: Florida, Texas, . Missouri, Missouri, Louisiana

☆ Supreme Court Sets Rules for Blocking Citizens From Officials’ Accounts
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-15 | by ( Adam Liptak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Supreme Court, in a pair of unanimous decisions on Friday, added some clarity to a vexing constitutional puzzle: how to decide when elected officials violate the First Amendment by blocking people from their social media accounts. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, writing for the court in the lead case, said two things are required before officials may be sued by people they have blocked. The court did not apply the new standard to the cases before them, involving a city manager in Port Huron, Mich., and two members of a school board in California. The cases were the first of several this term in which the Supreme Court is considering how the First Amendment applies to social media. The court heard arguments last month on whether states may prohibit large technology platforms from removing posts based on the views they express, and it will consider on Monday whether Biden administration officials may contact social media platforms to combat what they say is misinformation.

Persons: Amy Coney Barrett Organizations: Biden Locations: Port Huron, Mich, California

☆ Supreme Court Stays Out of Dispute Over Drag Show at Texas University
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-15 | by ( Adam Liptak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request from an L.G.B.T.Q. student group at a public university in Texas to let it put on a drag show on campus over the objections of the university’s president, who had refused to allow it. Drag shows are increasingly a target of the right, with some Republican-led states, including Florida and Tennessee, seeking to restrict the performances. The student group, Spectrum WT, first sought to sponsor the drag show, a charity event to raise money for suicide prevention, in March 2023. Walter Wendler, the president of West Texas A&M University, canceled it, citing the Bible and other religious texts.

Persons: ’, Walter Wendler Organizations: Republican, WT, West Texas, M University Locations: Texas, Florida, Tennessee

☆ In Trump Cases, Supreme Court Cannot Avoid Politics
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-05 | by ( Adam Liptak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

In major cases concerning former President Donald J. Trump, the Supreme Court has tried to put some distance between itself and politics. “If the court is trying to stay out of the political fray, it is failing miserably,” said Melissa Murray, a law professor at New York University. The case for attempted unity at the court in cases involving the former president is built on 27 data points, or nine votes each in three important rulings, all nominally unanimous. Those rulings suggest that the justices are trying to find consensus and avoid politics. There were no dissents, for instance, in Monday’s Supreme Court decision letting Mr. Trump stay on ballots nationwide despite a constitutional provision that bars insurrectionists from holding office.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, “, ”, Melissa Murray Organizations: New York University

☆ Justice Amy Coney Barrett Stakes Out Distinctive Stance in Trump Case
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-05 | by ( Adam Liptak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s opinion was just a page long, all of two paragraphs. Justice Barrett was the third of Mr. Trump’s appointees, rushed onto the court after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, arriving just before the 2020 election. But she is viewed as one of the more moderate members, relatively speaking, of the court’s six-member conservative supermajority. In public appearances, she is adamant that the court is apolitical, though she sometimes says so in venues that undercut her message. In 2021, for instance, Justice Barrett told an audience in Kentucky that “my goal today is to convince you that this court is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks.”

Persons: Amy Coney Barrett’s, Donald J, Justice Barrett, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Barrett Organizations: Mr Locations: Monday’s, Kentucky

The Colorado Supreme Court affirmed the first part of the ruling — that Mr. Trump had engaged in an insurrection. Mr. Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene, setting out more than half a dozen arguments about why the state court had gone astray and saying his removal would override the will of the voters. Both results are inconsistent with the plain language and history of Section 3.”The State Supreme Court addressed several other issues. 23-719, is not the only one concerning Mr. Trump on the Supreme Court’s docket. And the justices already agreed to decide on the scope of a central charge in the federal election-interference case against Mr. Trump, with a ruling by June.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Bush, Gore, George W, Mr, “, ” Mr, Trump’s, Jan, Anderson Organizations: Colorado, Republican, United, The, The Colorado Supreme, Colorado Supreme, Mr, U.S, Supreme, “, Trump, Capitol Locations: United States, Colorado, The Colorado

☆ Trump Prevails in Supreme Court Challenge to His Eligibility
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-04 | by ( Adam Liptak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that states may not bar former President Donald J. Trump from running for another term, rejecting a challenge from Colorado to his eligibility that threatened to upend the presidential race by taking him off ballots around the nation. Though the justices provided different reasons, the decision’s bottom line was unanimous. All the opinions focused on legal issues, and none took a position on whether Mr. Trump had engaged in insurrection, as Colorado courts had found. All the justices agreed that individual states may not bar candidates for the presidency under a constitutional provision, Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, that prohibits insurrectionists from holding office. But the five-justice majority, in an unsigned opinion answering questions not directly before the court, ruled that Congress must act to give Section 3 force.

Persons: Donald J, Trump Organizations: Trump Locations: Colorado

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