Tag Archives: Supreme Court

ProPublica reports: In 2014, one of Texas billionaire Harlan Crow’s companies purchased a string of properties on a quiet residential street in Savannah, Georgia. It wasn’t a marquee acquisition for the real estate magnate, just an old single-story home and two vacant lots down the road. What made it noteworthy were the people on the other side of the deal: …

The Washington Post reports: A federal appeals court late Wednesday partially blocked a decision by a judge in Texas to suspend U.S. government approval of a key abortion medication but set significant restrictions on the pill that could limit access nationwide. The court’s order maintains mifepristone’s availability for now, although it temporarily prevents the drug from being sent to patients …

The Washingtonian reports: When Republican megadonor Harlan Crow isn’t lavishing Justice Clarence Thomas with free trips on his private plane and yacht (in possible violation of Supreme Court ethics rules), he lives a quiet life in Dallas among his historical collections. These collections include Hitler artifacts—two of his paintings of European cityscapes, a signed copy of Mein Kampf, and assorted …

From the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal: The left’s assault on the Supreme Court is continuing, and the latest front is the news that Justice Clarence Thomas has a rich friend who has hosted the Justice on his private plane, his yacht, and his vacation resort. That’s it. That’s the story. Yet this non-bombshell has triggered breathless claims …

From a statement issued today by Clarence Thomas: Harlan and Kathy Crow are among our dearest friends, and we have been friends for over twenty-five years. As friends do, we have joined them on a number of family trips during the more than quarter century we have known them. Early in my tenure at the Court, I sought guidance from …

NPR reports: The U.S. Supreme Court refused Thursday to intervene in an ongoing case involving West Virginia’s law banning transgender girls from participating in girls sports teams at school. Conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented. The court’s action came on its emergency docket, sometimes dubbed the shadow docket because decisions are made without full briefing or argument, and …

Mediaite reports: Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) strongly condemned the revelations in a ProPublica report about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, calling the conservative jurist’s acceptance of luxury travel and other gifts from a Republican megadonor an example of “troubling ethical conduct” and vowing his committee would take action. The report, published Thursday morning, describes Thomas and his wife, …

ProPublica reports: In late June 2019, right after the U.S. Supreme Court released its final opinion of the term, Justice Clarence Thomas boarded a large private jet headed to Indonesia. He and his wife were going on vacation: nine days of island-hopping in a volcanic archipelago on a superyacht staffed by a coterie of attendants and a private chef. If …

The Washington Post reports: Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the court’s budget, told The Early that he will use his spending bill this year to try to force the justices to adhere to an enforceable ethics code — similar to the one that applies to federal judges. “The Supreme Court should have …

Reuters reports: The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a traveling Christian evangelist’s free-speech challenge to a University of Alabama requirement that he obtain a permit before handing out religious pamphlets and preaching from a sidewalk adjacent to its campus. The justices turned away an appeal by preacher Rodney Keister of a lower court’s ruling rejecting his claim that the …

The Associated Press reports: In defending itself against a massive defamation lawsuit over how it covered false claims surrounding the 2020 presidential election, the network is relying on a nearly 60-year-old Supreme Court ruling that makes it difficult to successfully sue media organizations for libel. Former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, two favorites of many Fox News …

The Washington Post reports: Several conservative Supreme Court justices on Tuesday questioned the power of the Biden administration to wipe out nearly a half a trillion dollars in student loan debt without direct authorization from Congress. The court’s liberal justices, meanwhile, expressed skepticism over whether the six Republican-led states that brought the first case are specifically harmed by President Biden’s …

The Hill reports: The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to take up former Maryland gubernatorial candidate Dan Cox’s (R) challenge to the timing of officials’ tabulation of mail-in ballots in his election. Cox, who lost to Gov. Wes Moore (D), sought to reverse lower court rulings that allowed election officials to count mail-in ballots weeks before Election Day. His challenge …

CNN reports: Long before the leak of a draft opinion reversing Roe v. Wade, some Supreme Court justices often used personal email accounts for sensitive transmissions instead of secure servers set up to guard such information, among other security lapses not made public in the court’s report on the investigation last month. New details revealed to CNN by multiple sources …

Just in via press release: The Satanic Temple has announced the launch of its first reproductive health clinic, which will provide free religious medication abortion care in New Mexico. TST Health, The Satanic Temple’s religious medical services arm, will provide telehealth screenings and appointments and prescribe abortion medication for its patients. According to TST Health’s website, anyone in New Mexico …

Courthouse News reports: Texas and Florida are behind the two laws now before the high court. The laws sprang up after former President Donald Trump’s ban from Twitter and suspension from Facebook. While the sites frame their actions as editorial discretion, lawmakers in the states have likened it to unconstitutional censorship. After considering challenges to the the laws at their …

The New York Times reports: The Supreme Court’s internal investigation into who leaked a draft of the opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that had established a constitutional right to abortion, included interviews with all nine justices, the marshal of the court said in a statement on Friday. The clarification by the marshal, Gail A. Curley, who oversaw …

Fox News reports: The House Judiciary Committee is expected to investigate the leak of the draft Supreme Court decision that signaled the overturning of Roe v. Wade after the high court’s formal investigation failed to identify the culprit, Fox News has learned. Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said last year, when he served as committee minority leader, Republicans would investigate …

The Associated Press reports: The Supreme Court said Thursday it has not determined who leaked a draft of the court’s opinion overturning abortion rights, but that the investigation continues. Eight months after Politico published its explosive leak detailing the draft of Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade, the court said its investigative team “has to date been …

Bloomberg News reports: The US Supreme Court turned away a Missouri appeal that sought to ensure states can cut taxes even as they receive $195 billion in federal pandemic-relief money. The justices without comment left in place a federal appeals court decision that said Missouri lacked legal standing to press a lawsuit over the requirements imposed under the American Rescue …