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 [...]
This article is the second in a series covering attacks on the rule of law. The rule of law is a political philosophy premised on the promise that all citizens, leaders, and institutions are accountable to the same laws, guaranteed through processes, practices, and norms that work together to support the equality of all citizens [...]
Legal counsel for the US Supreme Court Monday defended Justice Samuel Alito and his wife from allegations of outside influence raised by members of Congress. In a November 20 letter, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Representative Henry Johnson (D-GA) questioned whether Alito was in any way influenced by or gave advance notice to a right-wing [...]
NYT: pro-life activist informed of Supreme Court contraception decision before publication
Reverand Rob Schenck, a former prominent anti-abortion leader, told Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts that he was informed of the outcome of the 2014 Supreme Court case Burwell v. Hobby Lobby weeks before the decision was disclosed to the public. The New York Times published a letter from Schenck to Roberts on Saturday. In [...]
The Supreme Court will overturn the law recognizing a woman’s fundamental right to choose an abortion. The only question is whether it will go even further and jeopardize women’s equality, reproductive rights, and family privacy rights for all. Pending in the Court is Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and the question of the constitutionality [...]
Polygamy, Peyote, and Foster Care: America’s Fraught Relationship With Religious Liberty
Any day now, the Supreme Court is set to release its opinion on Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, a case argued in October 2020. The central conflict in the case deals with a Catholic foster care organization that contracts with the city to screen potential foster parents for placement. Following the Court’s ruling in Bostock, [...]
US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died Friday at age 87 at her home in Washington, DC, suffering from complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer. Ginsburg was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton in 1993 and served more than 27 years on the Supreme Court bench after serving on the US Court [...]
Supreme Court hears oral arguments on ACA birth control mandate exemptions and political robocalls
The Supreme Court continued oral arguments by conference call on Wednesday, hearing both Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home v. Pennsylvania and Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants Inc. The first case involves the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) birth control mandate, which requires employers to provide health insurance that includes [...]
The retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy this week represents the end of an era and the beginning of the entrenchment of a more conservative Supreme Court, probably for years to come. That much seems clear. But there are actually many more sides to Justice Kennedy’s retirement than that simple statement implies. Justice Kennedy was nominated [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Mark R. Killenbeck of the University of Arkansas School of Law discusses Alabama's HB 24 which allows adoption agencies to refuse to place foster children with same-sex couples according to religious beliefs ... In March 1967, a...
