Brett Kavanaugh’s Latest Opinion Protects Black Defendants Against Racist Prosecutors

Much of the Supreme Court’s 7–2 decision in Flowers v. Mississippi on Friday reads like a nightmare. The facts are straight out of the Jim Crow...

The Supreme Court’s Conservatives Are Ready to Take a Wrecking Ball to the Entire Federal Bureaucracy

The Supreme Court declined to upend the administrative state on Thursday in a split decision that augurs coming earthquakes in constitutional law....

The Supreme Court’s Giant Cross Compromise Will Erode the Separation of Church and State

The separation of church and state survived a close brush with death on Thursday, emerging scathed but alive thanks to a compromise decision that may...

William Barr’s Justice Department Is Now Openly Running Legal Interference for Paul Manafort

Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has decided to run interference for Paul Manafort, protecting him from harsh imprisonment and even questioning...

SCOTUS Just Killed Off the Virginia GOP’s Racial Gerrymander. Its Decision Will Affect Elections for Years to Come.

The Virginia House of Delegates’ racial gerrymander is officially dead—killed off by a 5–4 Supreme Court ruling on Monday that seems to clear...

RBG and Neil Gorsuch Teaming Up Couldn’t Stop a Bad Ruling in a Big Double Jeopardy Case

Prosecutors, breathe easy: The Supreme Court upheld a cavernous exception to double jeopardy on Monday, allowing states and the federal government to...

Top Trump Census Official Communicated With GOP Operative About Citizenship Question

On May 30, the plaintiffs challenging the Trump administration’s census citizenship question dropped a bombshell: A central portion of the Justice...

The 9th Circuit’s Latest Trans Troops Ban Ruling Looks Like a Loss for Trans Rights, but It’s Actually a Win

On Friday, a federal appeals court overturned a lower court ruling declaring that Donald Trump’s ban on transgender military service is...

Appeals Court Rebukes Brett Kavanaugh, Grants Abortion Access to Undocumented Minors

Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s old court rebuked his anti-abortion jurisprudence on Friday, compelling the Trump administration to allow undocumented...

Trump’s Lawyers Say Congress Can’t Subpoena His Finances Because Nancy Pelosi Refuses to Impeach

As House Democrats remain divided over the wisdom of impeachment, Donald Trump’s lawyers have seized on their inaction to fight a subpoena seeking...

Stephen Breyer Is Worried About the Forever War’s Permanent Prisoners. He’s 15 Years Too Late.

In 2004, Justice Stephen Breyer cast the decisive vote in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld , allowing the government to detain alleged terrorists indefinitely...

New Files From GOP Operative’s Hard Drive Suggest N.C. Republicans Lied in Court to Maintain Racial Gerrymander

The latest bombshell from the formerly secret files of the GOP’s top gerrymandering guru emerged on Thursday, and it’s astounding: Voting rights...

The Ruling Against a Cop Accused of a Horrific Body Cavity Search Is a Rare Victory for Police Accountability

Qualified immunity is a plague on the criminal justice system, a made-up rule that allows countless government officials to violate Americans’...

Abortion Bans Are Wildly Unpopular. How Do Republicans Keep Passing Them?

Alabama’s new abortion ban is wildly unpopular. The law, which prohibits abortion from the moment of conception, is one of the most extreme...

The New Trove of Secret Gerrymandering Files Will Be a Nightmare for the GOP

In February, attorneys challenging North Carolina’s legislative gerrymander notified the defendants, a group of Republican leaders in the...

New Hampshire Legislature Overrides Veto, Abolishes Death Penalty

The New Hampshire legislature repealed capital punishment on Thursday, becoming the last state in New England to abolish the practice.Twenty other...

Clarence Thomas Just Voted With the Liberals in a Big Consumer Rights Case. Why?

On Monday, the Supreme Court issued a surprising 5–4 decision in Home Depot v. Jackson that progressive advocates view as a win for consumers and...

Clarence Thomas Pens Screed Comparing Women Who Obtain Abortions to Eugenicists

The Supreme Court upheld one abortion restriction and punted on another in a mixed decision Tuesday morning that once again revealed deep divisions...

Trump Administration Releases Its Plan to Let Health Care Providers Refuse to Treat Transgender People

On Friday, the Trump administration unveiled its long-awaited assault on transgender patients, unveiling a draft rule that permits health care...

Josh Hawley Is Vying With Ted Cruz for the Mantle of Most Disingenuous, Least Principled Senator

Should judicial nominees be disqualified from the bench because of their vigorous advocacy on behalf of clients? Republican Sen. Josh Hawley...

Congress Will Likely Soon Have Its Hands on a Trove of Trump Financial Documents

U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos rejected Donald Trump’s attempt to invalidate the House Financial Services and Intelligence Committees’...

Federal Judge Rejects Trump Attempt to Block Congress from Subpoenaing His Financial Records

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta rejected Donald Trump’s efforts to invalidate the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena of the president’s...

Why Gorsuch Keeps Joining the Liberals to Affirm Tribal Rights

On Monday, for the second time this year, Justice Neil Gorsuch joined the Supreme Court’s liberals in a 5–4 decision bolstering the rights of...

Why Are Activists on Both Sides Rejecting the Reality of Georgia’s Horrific New Abortion Ban?

Last week, Georgia passed the nation’s most extreme attack on Roe v. Wade, prohibiting abortion after six weeks and granting full legal personhood...

The Supreme Court’s Liberals Are Warning Us That Roe v. Wade Is in Mortal Danger

On Monday, in a 5–4 ruling, the Supreme Court overturned a 40-year-old precedent for the simple reason that five conservative justices didn’t like...

A Georgia State Senator Explains the New Law That Would Imprison Women Who Get Abortions

On Monday, Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed HB 481, the most extreme abortion ban in the country. In addition to criminalizing abortion after...

Georgia Just Criminalized Abortion. Women Who Terminate Their Pregnancies Would Be Subject to Life in Prison.

On Tuesday, Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed a “fetal heartbeat” bill that seeks to outlaw abortion after about six weeks. The measure,...

Lower Courts Are Lobbying SCOTUS to Rein In Partisan Gerrymandering

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court will finally decide whether the federal judiciary can rein in partisan gerrymanders. But the lower courts aren’t...

Florida’s Republican Legislature Votes to Nullify Popular Ballot Initiative Enfranchising Former Felons

In 2018, a supermajority of Floridians voted for a ballot initiative to restore former felons’ voting rights. Florida’s Republican legislature has...

William Barr’s Justice Department Just Filed the Most Nakedly Political Brief in the Agency’s History

Barr Has Left Congress No Choice: Mueller Must Testify Next

Attorney General William Barr’s obfuscating, querulous, and disingenuous congressional testimony on Wednesday was the kind of performance we’ve...

Trump Just Gave Democrats Another Reason to Launch an Impeachment Inquiry

President Donald Trump keeps giving the House of Representatives excellent reasons to begin an official impeachment inquiry. The latest came on...

Judge Damon Keith, Civil Rights Icon Who Faced Down Presidents and the KKK, Dies at Age 96

The United States lost a civil rights icon on Sunday when Judge Damon Keith died at the age of 96. A judicial giant who served on the bench for more...

Texas Retracts Claim of Mass Voter Fraud Touted by Trump, Agrees to Halt Planned Purge

On Jan. 25, Texas Secretary of State David Whitley issued a shocking advisory alleging that 95,000 noncitizens were on the state’s voter rolls,...

Kansas Supreme Court Issues Sweeping Decision Protecting Abortion Rights

In a sweeping decision on Friday, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that its state constitution protects bodily autonomy—including a woman’s right to...

Justice Department Indicts Judge Who Helped Immigrant Evade ICE In Her Courthouse

A Massachusetts judge has been indicted for helping an unauthorized immigrant avoid Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers in her own...

The Supreme Court Is Poised to Shred Its Credibility to Let Trump Rig the Census

By all indications, the Supreme Court is poised to let the Trump administration add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The consequences of its...

The Supreme Court’s New LGBTQ Cases Could Demolish Sex Discrimination Law As We Know It

On Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to decide whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination against LGBTQ...

Why Robert Mueller Cited Antonin Scalia to Prove Trump’s Official Acts Might Have Been Obstruction

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s assessment of Donald Trump’s efforts to obstruct justice hinged in part on one key question: whether the...

Mueller’s Report Proves Trump Obstructed Justice—and Asks Congress to Consider Impeachment

Special counsel Robert Mueller found ample evidence to convict President Donald Trump of obstruction of justice. His investigation uncovered multiple...

William Barr Has Failed America

Observers of the Justice Department will spend the rest of our lives talking about Attorney General William Barr’s jaw-dropping and horrifically...

Pete Buttigieg’s Court Packing Alternative Is Wonky and Nonpartisan. It’s Also Unconstitutional.

Pete Buttigieg suddenly seems presidential. The mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has surged in the polls, zipping ahead to third place in Iowa and New...

The Supreme Court Divides Into Prudes and Cool Kids as the Justices Debate Naughty Trademarks

Erik Brunetti wants to be scandalous. A fashion designer and provocateur, Brunetti helped pioneer streetwear in the 1990s, selling clothes with...

Federal Judge: Donald Trump Is Leading an “Assault on Our judiciary”

In his nine years on the bench, Judge Carlton Reeves has proved to be one of the most eloquent, courageous, and principled jurists in the United...

Pete Buttigieg Is Not “Feuding” With Mike Pence. He’s Reminding Everyone of the Vice President’s Cruelty.

Niki Quasney was dying of ovarian cancer when she sued Indiana to recognize her marriage. Quasney and her wife, Amy Sandler, had two young children...

Progressives Lose Wisconsin Supreme Court, Ensuring Conservative Dominance in State for Years to Come

On Wednesday, progressive Lisa Neubauer conceded last week’s Wisconsin Supreme Court race to Brian Hagedorn, a staunch Republican, ensuring that the...

Trump Just Purged DHS, Reportedly Because Its Leaders Weren’t Breaking the Law Enough

Call it the Monday Afternoon Massacre. After firing Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen on Sunday, President Donald Trump purged the...

Supreme Court Refuses to Block Bump Stock Ban Over Thomas and Gorsuch’s Dissent

On Friday, the Supreme Court refused to block the Trump administration’s ban on bump stocks, which allow semi-automatic weapons to fire in rapid...

Trump-Appointed Judge Upholds Anti-Abortion Law Requiring Procedure Described as “Nothing Short of Torture”

Before Donald Trump nominated him to the federal bench, John K. Bush was perhaps best known as an anti-gay blogger who spread birther conspiracies....

Texas Seeks to Deny All Inmates Access to Clergy at Execution Rather Than Accommodate a Buddhist

Texas would rather condemn all death row inmates to die without a spiritual adviser than allow a Buddhist inmate to bring his reverend into the death...