Tag Archives: Supreme Court

Reuters reports: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Wednesday kept on hold limits set by lower courts on access to the abortion pill mifepristone in a challenge by anti-abortion groups to the drug’s federal regulatory approval. The decision to keep the matter on hold gives the justices more time to consider requests by President Joe Biden’s administration and the …

NBC News reports: Key Senate Democrats are eyeing a hearing about Supreme Court ethics in the wake of revelations about Justice Clarence Thomas receiving previously undisclosed gifts and luxury travel from billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the majority whip and Judiciary Committee chair, said the “20 years of gift travel on yachts and chartered planes was …

The Dallas Morning News reports: “I think it’s a political hit job,” Crow said. “I don’t think the media cares really much about Harlan Crow, and I think they’re right. They shouldn’t care much about Harlan Crow.” “But I think that the media, and this ProPublica group in particular, funded by leftists, has an agenda to destabilize the [Supreme] Court. …

CNN reports: Justice Clarence Thomas intends to amend his financial disclosure forms to reflect a 2014 real estate deal he made with a GOP megadonor – an acknowledgment that the transaction should have been disclosed almost a decade ago, a source close to Thomas tells CNN. The deal between Thomas and Harlan Crow, a Dallas real estate magnate and long-time …

The Washington Post reports: Over the last two decades, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has reported on required financial disclosure forms that his family received rental income totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars from a firm called Ginger, Ltd., Partnership. But that company — a Nebraska real estate firm launched in the 1980s by his wife and her relatives — …

The New York Times reports: Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. issued a temporary stay on Friday ensuring that a common abortion pill would remain widely available while the Supreme Court decides whether to grant a formal stay. The interim stay will expire at midnight on Wednesday. Such a stay is meant to preserve the status quo while the justices study …

Roll Call reports: Advocacy groups have urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to call Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to testify about his relationship with a billionaire GOP donor, a move experts say would escalate conflict between two branches of government and could lead to a separation-of-powers showdown. Senate Judiciary Chair Richard J. Durbin of Illinois and other Democrats on the …

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 …