Elena Kagan

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Kagan Wants a Crackdown on SCOTUS Ethics

Justice suggests panel of lower-court judges could evaluate complaints

(Newser) - The Supreme Court requires oversight and enforcement of its new ethics code, Justice Elena Kagan argued Thursday, suggesting lower-court judges might serve to police the nation's highest court. The liberal justice said she welcomed the ethics rules, but saw reason to criticize the lack of "enforcement mechanisms attached...

Trump Lawyer: Assassination 'Could Well Be' an Official Act

Key questions from the first hours of SCOTUS hearing

(Newser) - As Donald Trump sat in a different courtroom, the Supreme Court heard arguments Thursday on whether the former president is immune from prosecution for acts committed while in office. The AP reports that at least five justices, including Chief Justice John Roberts, appeared skeptical of Trump's claims of "...

Justices Should Know 'People Are Selling Access to Them'
SCOTUS Justices' College
Visits Get Ethically Murky
investigation
Jul 11, 2023 1:45 PM CDT

SCOTUS Justices' College Visits Get Ethically Murky

Schools often have them hobnob with donors and raise mega-bucks

(Newser) - The AP is out with a massive report on the extracurricular activities of the Supreme Court justices—specifically their seemingly innocuous visits to college campuses. But, as the agency reports, it uncovered "tens of thousands of pages of emails and other documents that reveal the extent to which public...

Alito Mocks Prince Harry Over Roe Criticism

Supreme Court justice also takes shot at Boris Johnson, other overseas critics

(Newser) - Samuel Alito wrote the Supreme Court opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade, and he's not much interested in hearing what foreign critics have to say about it. In a speech on religious liberty in Rome hosted by Notre Dame Law School, Alito mocked Prince Harry and outgoing British Prime...

Justice Alito Takes Issue With the 'Sinister' Term 'Shadow Docket'

Justice blasts 'shadow docket' criticism in speech at Notre Dame

(Newser) - Justice Samuel Alito on Thursday lashed out at the suggestion that there's "something sneaky and dangerous" about the Supreme Court's emergency docket, through which it allowed Texas' restrictive abortion law to take effect . In a speech at the University of Notre Dame days before the start of...

Supreme Court's Interesting New Math: 3-3-3
Supreme Court's Interesting
New Math: 3-3-3
the rundown
Jun 18, 2021 9:40 AM CDT

Supreme Court's Interesting New Math: 3-3-3

The 6-3 conservative majority isn't issuing decisions quite as expected, at least so far

(Newser) - When Amy Coney Barrett replaced Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court last year, it resulted in what is usually described as a 6-3 advantage for conservatives over liberals on the court. But two big decisions Thursday— one on ObamaCare and the other on a Catholic group that refuses to...

SCOTUS Holds Firm on One of Nation's Toughest Laws

High court says states are free to block insanity defense

(Newser) - Facing a challenge from a man sentenced to death for killing four people, the US Supreme Court responded Monday by upholding one of the country's strictest laws on insanity pleas. James Kahler—who claimed he was suffering from depression when he killed his two daughters, their mother, and their...

Supreme Court Strikes Down 2 GOP-Drawn NC Districts

Says Republicans drew lines based on race to limit power of African-American voters

(Newser) - The Supreme Court struck down two North Carolina congressional districts Monday because race played too large a role in their creation, reports the AP . The justices ruled that Republicans who controlled the state legislature and governor's office in 2011 placed too many African-Americans in the districts, weakening African-American voting...

Supreme Court Revisits Notorious 1984 Murder

Justices weigh convictions in DC killing of Catherine Fuller

(Newser) - Catherine Fuller, 49, was found dead in a garage near Eighth and H streets in Washington, DC, having been beaten and sodomized with a metal pipe. Eight members of the "Eighth and H Street Crew" were eventually convicted of the Oct. 1, 1984, killing. But lawyers say they might...

Supreme Court: Illegally Obtained Evidence Is OK

5-3 ruling bolsters police power

(Newser) - A divided Supreme Court bolstered police powers on Monday, ruling that evidence of a crime in some cases may be used against a defendant even if the police did something wrong or illegal in obtaining it, the AP reports. The 5-3 decision drew heated dissents from liberal justices who warned...

Affirmative-Action Case Will Go Before SCOTUS Again

Abigail Fisher's lawsuit against University of Texas will get 2nd look by court

(Newser) - The Supreme Court says it will dive back into the fight over the use of race in admissions at the University of Texas, a decision that presages tighter limits on affirmative action in higher education. The justices said today they'll hear for a second time the case of a...

Supreme Court's Ruling Full of Spider-Man Quips

Elena Kagan is a comic book fan in real life

(Newser) - The inventor of a popular Spider-Man web-shooting toy can't keep reeling in royalties after his patent ran out, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 today. Stephen Kimble sold his patent on the toy to Marvel in 2001, and as the Verge explains, Marvel said it would pay him royalties indefinitely....

What to Know as Gay Marriage Goes Before Supreme Court

Arguments begin today on whether states can ban same-sex marriage

(Newser) - Arguments are set to begin this morning in Obergefell v. Hodges, a group of appeals from couples in four states that will force the Supreme Court to confront whether gay marriage is a constitutional right in all states, the Hill reports. Some things to know:
  • Per the AP , the court
...

3 Female Justices Furious in New Contraceptive Ruling

Court lets evangelical college avoid filling out forms on coverage

(Newser) - A divided Supreme Court today allowed, at least for now, an evangelical college in Illinois that objects to paying for contraceptives in its health plan to avoid filling out a government document that the college says would violate its religious beliefs. The justices said that Wheaton College does not have...

Supreme Court: Town Council Can Pray Away

Christian prayers don't violate First Amendment, court says in 5-4 ruling

(Newser) - It's OK for town council meetings to open with prayers, even if those prayers heavily reference Christianity, the Supreme Court declared today, in a 5-4 ruling split along familiar ideological lines. The court said that the content of the prayers is irrelevant, as long as officials make a good-faith...

High Court Sounds Conflicted on Contraceptive Case

Women justices and conservative justices at odds over health care mandate

(Newser) - The Supreme Court sounded deeply divided today as it heard arguments in a politically charged challenge to the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive mandate , with its women on one side and its conservatives on the other. The hearing combined two cases—Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties v....

Kagan: Supreme Court Hasn't 'Gotten to' Email

They still communicate via hand-delivered notes

(Newser) - The next time the Supreme Court rules on a technical issue, you might want to think back to the conversation Elena Kagan had yesterday at Brown University. "The justices are not necessarily the most technologically sophisticated people," Kagan told the historian interviewing her, according to the AP . "...

High Court Strikes Down DOMA
 High Court Strikes Down DOMA 
UPDATED
Jun 26, 2013 9:28 AM CDT

High Court Strikes Down DOMA

Broad ruling declares marriage benefits a matter of equal protection

(Newser) - The Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act today, in a broad ruling arguing that it violates the Constitution's equal protection clause. The decision was 5-4, with Anthony Kennedy joining the court's more liberal justices (Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan), and...

Elena Kagan Ruling Cites ... Tommy Tutone Song

She makes reference to '867-5309' in decision

(Newser) - The Supreme Court ruled today that truckers at the Port of Los Angeles can't be forced to affix "How Am I Driving?" placards on their trucks, reports the LA Times . The decision is getting more attention than you might expect, however, thanks to Elena Kagan's sense of...

Monsanto Defeats Farmer in Soybean Patent Case

Supreme Court rules farmers can't grow second crop from patented seeds

(Newser) - Sometimes Goliath beats David—or Vernon, as the case may be. Seventy-six-year-old farmer Vernon Hugh Bowman has lost his Supreme Court battle with Monsanto over his use of patented soybean seeds, the New York Times reports. The court upheld an $84,000 lawsuit brought against Bowman by the agribusiness giant...

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