US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito issued an order Friday lifting a stay placed on a rule regarding “ghost guns” from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) by the US District Court Northern District of Texas. “Ghost guns” are weapons parts kits that can be put together to create a gun without [...]
Search Results for: alito
US Senate Judiciary Committee advances Supreme Court ethics reform bill
After a meeting Thursday morning, the US Senate Judiciary Committee advanced a bill that proposes ethics reforms for the Supreme Court, which has recently faced a series of scandals involving Justices Clarence Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor and Samuel Alito. Bill S 359—also known as the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act—passed out of the Democratic-controlled [...]
The US Supreme Court does not want or need an enforceable code of ethics. As I listen to the reasons given by some members of the Supreme Court to support this position, the words sound strikingly familiar. I have heard the same reasons given by judges in several developing democracies, mostly post-communist countries in Central [...]
Justin Lindsay is a US National Correspondent for JURIST, and a rising 3L at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. On Monday, July 10th, two top US Senate Democrats announced they would be pushing forward a bill meant to close perceived loopholes in the federal judiciary. The Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act [...]
US dispatch: recent SCOTUS rulings contribute to a divided Fourth of July
Sharon Basch is a rising 2L at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. The most recent spate of United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) decisions handed down late last week have left American citizens more divided than ever. Within the last few years, the US Supreme Court has seen a large volume of what are [...]
US Supreme Court strikes down Biden student loan forgiveness plan
The US Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s federal student loan forgiveness plan on Friday in a set of opinions. The court’s decisions in Department of Education v. Brown and Biden v. Nebraska bring to an end a nearly year-long saga in which Biden attempted to forgive up to $20,000 in federal student loans [...]
US Supreme Court rejects North Carolina's 'independent legislature' theory
The US Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in Moore v. Harper that the “independent legislature” election theory, which has been the legal foundation for many of the recent Republican-led efforts to change election administration law and overturn 2020 election results, is an invalid interpretation of the Election Clause of the Constitution. The theory stipulates that state [...]
Affirmative Action and the Supreme Court’s Alternate Racial Universe
Scarcely three years after the largest protests against racism in U.S. history, a majority of the Supreme Court this week is expected to declare acts of racial consciousness in college admissions unlawful. At oral argument for the two cases, six justices were openly dismissive of the notion that more than three centuries of de jure [...]
US Supreme Court rules states lack constitutional standing in key immigration case
The US Supreme Court ruled Friday in US v. Texas that Texas and Louisiana do not have constitutional standing to sue the federal government over a 2021 Homeland Security Memorandum that focuses immigration enforcement actions on non-citizens who are suspected of terrorism, committed serious crimes or are caught at the border entering illegally. The crux [...]
ProPublica: US Supreme Court justice Alito failed to disclose luxury fishing trip
ProPublica reported Tuesday that US Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito accepted and failed to disclose a 2008 luxury fishing trip with Paul Singer, a hedge fund billionaire who—in the time since—has had business before the court at least ten times. Alito responded to the report on Tuesday in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, arguing [...]