Judge Strikes Law Banning Demonstrations at Supreme Court

Tony Mauro

Departing from a long line of local court rulings, a federal judge in the District of Columbia on Tuesday struck down the 64-year-old law that prohibits demonstrations and displays on the grounds of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Waiting Continues for Big Decisions at the Supreme Court

Marcia Coyle and Tony Mauro

The major televisions stations, amidst a labyrinth of cameras and wires, staked out their positions on Monday morning right below the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court plaza. Inside the building, the pressroom buzzed with visiting reporters and interns. Was something big about to happen?

Marcia Coyle on writing The Roberts Court

The National Law Journal's senior reporter Jenna Greene interviews Chief Washington Correspondent Marcia Coyle about her new book, The Roberts Court: The Struggle for the Constitution.

DNA, Up for Sampling

Tony Mauro

Police sampling of the DNA of individuals arrested in connection with serious crimes may become as routine as fingerprinting and photographing as the result of a major Fourth Amendment ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court last week.

Justice's Son, A Law Clerk

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Tony Mauro

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Jr.'s son Philip is clerking for Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and may soon enter private practice.

Justices Side with Prisoners in Pair of 5-4 Decisions

Marcia Coyle

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday broke a recent string of unanimous decisions by dividing 5-4 in two prisoners' cases. Is it an inkling of what is to come when June arrives?

High Court Embrace For Seed Patent

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Tony Mauro

A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court that is often skeptical of patents embraced a key seed patent on Monday in the case of a Monsanto Co. soybean variety that was being replicated by savvy farmers.

The Justices Confront a Solomonic Task

Vivian Berger

Currently the U.S. Supreme Court is considering a case that pits the interests of a white, would-be adoptive couple, to whom a Latina biological mother surrendered her baby girl at birth, against those of the natural father and his Cherokee tribe.

'Miranda' and the Constitution

Erwin Chemerinsky

It has become increasingly evident that the Justice Department violated the constitutional rights of Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev by questioning him without his Miranda warnings. It is disturbing that the DOJ would risk its criminal prosecution by ignoring such basic rules and even more disturbing for what this says as to its view of the Constitution.

Failure to Mirandize Does Not Violate Constitution or 'Miranda'

Malvina Halberstam

Much of the discussion in the media on whether the surviving Boston bombing suspect should have been given Miranda warnings when he was arrested appears to be based on a misconception: that law enforcement officers are required to give suspects the warnings set forth in Miranda v. Arizona and that failure to do so is a violation of the law, at least if the public-safety exception doesn't apply. That is not correct.

High Court Defends Consumer Rights and Economic Freedom

Robert Steinbuch

Given any ambiguity, as Justice Anthony Kennedy has aptly proclaimed in his book, "the tie goes to freedom." That is what the court did in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons.

'Supreme Law'—for Medicaid Patients or Just Business?

Simon Lazarus

At stake, in practical terms, is whether the supremacy clause empowers individual beneficiaries to get into court to redress state violations of Medicaid or other federal spending clause-based statutory requirements.

The Compelling Case for Cameras

Tony Mauro

The notion that spectators have to camp out or spend money to see a public institution do public business is offensive. It is the direct result of the high court's refusal to allow its proceedings to be broadcast.