Mark Sherman, Author at The Rapid City Post

FILE - The State Capitol is seen in Austin, Texas, on June 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

Texas seeks Supreme Court order to use a congressional map judges held is likely racially biased

November 21, 2025

Texas is asking the Supreme Court for an emergency order to be allowed to use a congressional redistricting plan favorable to Republicans in the 2026 elections despite a lower court ruling that it likely discriminates on the basis of race. The state on Friday called on the high court to intervene to avoid confusion as congressional primary elections approach in March. The justices have blocked past lower-court rulings in congressional redistricting cases, most recently in Alabama and Louisiana, that came several months before elections. Texas redrew its congressional map in the summer as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to preserve a slim Republican majority in the House in next year’s elections, touching off a nationwide redistricting battle.

FILE -An American flag flies at half-staff outside the Supreme Court Nov. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

Supreme Court meets to weigh Trump’s birthright citizenship restrictions, blocked by lower courts

November 21, 2025

The Supreme Court is meeting in private with a key issue on its agenda — President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship order declaring that children born to parents who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens. The justices could say as soon as Monday whether they will hear Trump’s appeal of lower court rulings that have uniformly struck down the citizenship restrictions. They have not taken effect anywhere in the United States. If the court steps in now, the case would be argued in the spring, with a definitive ruling expected by early summer.

FILE - The Earl Warren Building, headquarters of the Supreme Court of California and part of the Ronald M. George State Office Complex, is shown in San Francisco, Jan. 7, 2020. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

Supreme Court will review an old policy used to turn away asylum seekers at the US border

November 17, 2025

The Supreme Court has agreed to review a policy used under past administrations to deny migrants a chance to apply for asylum on the Mexican border until space opened up to process claims. The justices said Monday they will hear the Trump administration’s appeal of lower court rulings that struck down the practice known as metering, in which U.S. border agents capped the number of people seeking asylum at border crossings by prohibiting migrants from setting foot in the U.S. The administration pressed for the high court’s intervention even after President Donald Trump suspended the asylum system in January. The case will be argued early next year.

The U.S. Supreme Court is seen on Capitol Hill, Friday, Nov. 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Louisiana prison guards cut a Rastafari inmate’s dreadlocks. Supreme Court will decide if he can sue

November 10, 2025

The Supreme Court is wrestling with whether a former Louisiana inmate can sue prison officials who shaved his dreadlocks in violation of his Rastafari religious beliefs. The justices heard arguments Monday in the case of Damon Landor, who wants to sue for money damages under a federal law designed to protect inmates’ religious rights. After two hours of arguments, the court’s three liberal justices seemed firmly on Landor’s side. But it’s unclear whether any of the six conservatives would join them. Louisiana argues the law can’t be used to hold those who violate inmates’ rights financially responsible. The Trump administration is taking Landor’s side.

FILE - The Supreme Court in Washington, Nov. 4, 2020. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Supreme Court will decide whether states can count late-arriving mail ballots, a Trump target

November 10, 2025

The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether states can continue their practice of counting mail ballots that arrive after Election Day. This kind of ballot-counting is a target of President Donald Trump. The justices Monday took up an appeal from Mississippi. A lower court ruled last year a Mississippi law allowing such ballots to be counted violated federal law. Mississippi is among 18 states that accept ballots postmarked by Election Day. The case will be argued early next year. A ruling is expected early enough to apply to the 2026 midterm elections. A Nevada ballot receipt law also has been challenged. And the Supreme Court is considering reviving a lawsuit challenging Illinois’ law.

FILE - Supporters of the LGBT wave their flag in front of the U.S. Supreme Cour, Oct. 8, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

Supreme Court rejects call to overturn its decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide

November 10, 2025

The Supreme Court has rejected a call to overturn its landmark decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. The justices on Monday turned away an appeal from a former Kentucky court clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling. Clerk Kim Davis had been trying to get the justices to overturn a lower-court order that she pay $360,000 in damages and attorney’s fees. Justice Clarence Thomas has urged his colleagues to overturn the Supreme Court’s marriage decision, much as they did in 2022 when the high court overturned the right to abortion.

FILE - Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis makes a statement to the media at the front door of the Rowan County Judicial Center in Morehead, Ky. Sept. 14, 2015. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, File)

Supreme Court weighs longshot appeal to overturn decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide

November 6, 2025

A call to overturn the landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide is on the agenda Friday for the justices’ closed-door conference. Among the new cases the justices are expected to consider is a longshot appeal from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky court clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples following the court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges. Davis had been trying to get the court to overturn a lower court order for her to pay $360,000 in damages and attorney’s fees to a couple whom she denied a marriage license. Clarence Thomas is the only justice to call for erasing the same-sex marriage ruling.

FILE - President Donald Trump speaks during an event to announce new tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House, on April 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

What to know about the Supreme Court arguments over Trump’s tariffs

November 4, 2025

Three lower courts have ruled illegal President Donald Trump’s use of emergency powers to impose sweeping worldwide tariffs. Now the Supreme Court, with three justices Trump appointed and generally favorable to muscular presidential power, will have the final word. In roughly two dozen emergency appeals, the justices have largely gone along with Trump in temporarily allowing parts of his aggressive second-term agenda to take effect while lawsuits play out. But the case being argued Wednesday is the first in which the court will render a final decision on a Trump policy. The stakes are enormous, both politically and financially, for a central piece of Trump’s economic and foreign policy.

A major question for the Supreme Court: Will it treat Trump as it did Biden?

November 3, 2025

A major question hangs over the Supreme Court’s closely watched case on President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs: Will the conservative majority hold the Republican president to the same exacting standards it used to limit his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden? Key legal principles at the heart of conservative challenges to major initiatives in the Biden years are driving the arguments in the legal fight against Trump’s tariffs. The case is set for arguments at the high court on Wednesday. The businesses and states that sued over the tariffs are name-checking the three Trump-appointed conservative justices whose votes they hope to attract to stop a centerpiece of his economic agenda.

FILE - The Supreme Court is seen in the distance, framed through columns of the U.S. Senate at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Trump administration asks the Supreme Court to allow it to fire head of US Copyright Office

October 27, 2025

The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to let fire the director of the U.S. Copyright Office. The administration’s newest emergency appeal to the high court was filed Monday, weeks after a federal appeals court held that the official, Shira Perlmutter, could not be unilaterally fired. The case is the latest that relates to Trump’s authority to install his own people at the head of federal agencies. The Supreme Court has largely allowed Trump to fire officials, even as court challenges proceed. But this case concerns an office that is within the Library of Congress. Perlmutter is the register of copyrights and also advises Congress on copyright issues.

FILE - The Supreme Court in Washington, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

How a 2018 Supreme Court decision paved the way for meteoric growth in legal sports betting

October 24, 2025

A 2018 Supreme Court decision opened the floodgates to the legalized sports-betting industry, now worth billions of dollars a year, even as it recognized that the decision was controversial. That high-court ruling is back in the spotlight after the arrests on Thursday of more than 30 people, including an NBA player and coach, in two cases alleging sprawling criminal schemes to rake in millions by rigging sports bets and poker games involving Mafia families. The court’s ruling struck down a 1992 federal law, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, that had barred betting on football, basketball, baseball and other sports in most states.

Military personnel in uniform, with the Texas National Guard patch on, are seen at the U.S. Army Reserve Center, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, in Elwood, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

Trump administration asks Supreme Court to allow deployment of National Guard in Chicago area

October 17, 2025

The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to allow the deployment of National Guard troops in the Chicago area, escalating President Donald Trump’s conflict with Democratic governors over using the military on U.S. soil. The emergency appeal to the high court Friday came after a judge prevented, for at least two weeks, the deployment of Guard members from Illinois and Texas to assist immigration officers. A federal appeals court refused to put the judge’s order on hold. The conservative-dominated court has handed Trump repeated victories in emergency appeals since he took office in January. Trump has already pushed traditional boundaries by using the National Guard domestically.

Supreme Court takes up GOP-led challenge to Voting Rights Act that could affect control of Congress

October 14, 2025

The Supreme Court is taking up a major Republican-led challenge to the Voting Rights Act, the centerpiece legislation of the civil rights movement, that could gut a key provision of the law that prohibits racial discrimination in redistricting. The justices on Wednesday are hearing arguments for the second time in a case over Louisiana’s congressional map, which has two majority Black districts. A ruling for the state could open the door for legislatures to redraw congressional maps across the South, potentially boosting Republican electoral prospects in the closely divided House of Representatives by eliminating majority Black and Latino seats that tend to favor Democrats. The court’s conservative majority has been skeptical of considerations of race.

FILE - Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones takes the witness stand to testify at the Sandy Hook defamation damages trial at Connecticut Superior Court in Waterbury, Conn., Sept. 22, 2022. (Tyler Sizemore/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP, Pool, File)

Supreme Court rejects Alex Jones’ appeal of $1.4 billion defamation judgment in Sandy Hook shooting

October 14, 2025

The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and left in place the $1.4 billion judgment against him over his description of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting as a hoax staged by crisis actors. The Infowars host argued a Connecticut judge was wrong to find him liable for defamation and infliction of emotional distress without holding a trial over allegations lodged by victims’ relatives. The justices issued their order Tuesday without even asking the victims’ families to respond to Jones’ appeal. The Newtown, Connecticut, shooting killed 20 first graders and six educators. Jones is separately appealing a $49 million judgment in Texas.

Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts speaks during lecture to the Georgetown Law School graduating class of 2025, in Washington, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

Supreme Court takes up Republican attack on Voting Rights Act in case over Black representation

October 13, 2025

A Republican attack on a core provision of the Voting Rights Act that’s designed to protect racial minorities comes to the Supreme Court this week, more than a decade after the justices knocked out another pillar of the 60-year-old law. In arguments Wednesday, lawyers for Louisiana and the Trump administration will try to persuade the justices to wipe away the state’s second majority Black congressional district and make it much harder, if not impossible, to take account of race in redistricting. The conservative-dominated court could be receptive. At the center of the fight is Chief Justice John Roberts, who has long had the landmark civil rights law in his sights.

Supreme Court rejects appeal from Ghislaine Maxwell, imprisoned former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein

October 6, 2025

The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned ex-girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein. The justices Monday declined to take up a case that would’ve renewed attention on the Epstein sexual-abuse saga after President Donald Trump’s administration sought to tamp down criticism over its refusal to publicly release more investigative files. Trump’s Republican administration had urged the high court to stay out of the case. Lawyers for Maxwell argued she never should’ve been tried or convicted for a role in luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein. Maxwell is serving 20 years and recently was transferred from a Florida prison to a Texas prison camp.

FILE - The Supreme Court Building is seen in Washington on March 28, 2017. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Supreme Court lets Trump strip protections from more than 300,000 Venezuelan migrants

October 3, 2025

The Supreme Court is allowing President Donald Trump to strip legal protections from more than 300,000 Venezuelan migrants. The justices on Friday issued an emergency order putting on hold a lower-court ruling by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco that said Trump’s administration had wrongly ended temporary protected status for the Venezuelans. The Supreme Court order will last as long as the court case continues. Trump’s Republican administration has moved to withdraw various protections that have allowed immigrants to remain in the U.S. and work legally, including ending TPS for 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians granted protection by President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration. Advocates say some migrants have lost their jobs and homes.

President Donald Trump, center, is escorted by Air Force Col. Christopher M. Robinson, commander of the 89th Airlift Wing, right, as he walks from Marine One to board Air Force One, Friday, Sept. 26, 2025, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Supreme Court keeps in place Trump funding freeze that threatens billions of dollars in foreign aid

September 26, 2025

The Supreme Court is extending an order that allows President Donald Trump’s administration to keep frozen nearly $5 billion in foreign aid, handing him another victory in a dispute over presidential power. The court acted Friday on the Republican administration’s emergency appeal in a case involving billions of dollars in congressionally approved aid. Trump said last month he would not spend the money, invoking disputed authority that was last used by a president roughly 50 years ago. The Justice Department sought the high court’s intervention after U.S. District Judge Amir Ali in Washington ruled that Trump’s action was likely illegal and that Congress would have to approve the decision to withhold the funding.

FILE - Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve member Lisa Cook, speaks during a conversations with leaders from organizations that include nonprofits, small businesses, manufacturing, supply chain management, the hospitality industry, and the housing and education sectors at the Federal Reserve building, Sept. 23, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

Greenspan, Bernanke and Yellen urge Supreme Court to let Lisa Cook keep her job as a Fed governor

September 25, 2025

Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, Janet Yellen and other former top economic officials appointed by presidents of both parties are urging the Supreme Court to preserve the Federal Reserve’s political independence and allow Lisa Cook to remain as a central bank governor for now. The filing Thursday comes as the justices are weighing an emergency appeal from the administration to remove Cook while her lawsuit challenging her firing by President Donald Trump proceeds through the courts. The Fed board was designed to be largely independent from day-to-day politics. No president has fired a sitting Fed governor in the agency’s 112-year history.

Trump administration asks Supreme Court to strip legal protections from Venezuelan migrants

September 19, 2025

The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court for an emergency order allowing it to strip legal protections from more than 300,000 Venezuelan migrants. The Justice Department on Friday asked the high court to put on hold a ruling from a federal judge in San Francisco that the administration wrongly ended Temporary Protected Status for the Venezuelans. A federal appeals court refused to pause the ruling by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen while the case continues. In May, the justices reversed an order from Chen that affected another 350,000 Venezuelans. Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued in the new court filing that the justices’ May order should also apply to the current case.

President Donald Trump listens in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Sept. 15, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Trump asks the Supreme Court for an emergency order to remove Lisa Cook from the Fed board

September 18, 2025

President Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court for an emergency order to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s board of governors. The Republican turned to the high court Thursday after an appeals court refused to go along with his effort to oust Cook, who participated in Wednesday’s Fed vote cutting its key interest rate. Trump wants to reshape the Fed’s seven-member governing board and strike a blow at its independence. Trump accuses Cook of mortgage fraud related to properties in Michigan and Georgia. Trump’s administration says the president may reasonably determine interest rates “should not be set by a Governor who appears to have lied.” Cook denies lying and refuses to leave her post.

FILE - John Roberts, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, speaks during lecture to the Georgetown Law School graduating class of 2025, in Washington, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

Chief Justice Roberts keeps in place Trump funding freeze that threatens billions in foreign aid

September 9, 2025

Chief Justice John Roberts is temporarily keeping in place the Trump administration’s decision to freeze nearly $5 billion in foreign aid. Roberts acted Tuesday on the administration’s emergency appeal to the Supreme Court in a case involving billions of dollars in congressionally approved aid. President Donald Trump said last month that he would not spend the money, invoking disputed authority that was last used by a president roughly 50 years ago. The high court order is temporary, though it suggests that the justices will reverse a lower court ruling that withholding the funding was likely illegal. U.S. District Judge Amir Ali ruled last week that Congress would have to approve the decision to withhold the funding.

Chief Justice Roberts keeps in place Trump funding freeze that threatens billions in foreign aid

September 9, 2025

Chief Justice John Roberts is temporarily keeping in place the Trump administration’s decision to freeze nearly $5 billion in foreign aid. Roberts acted Tuesday on the administration’s emergency appeal to the Supreme Court in a case involving billions of dollars in congressionally approved aid. President Donald Trump said last month that he would not spend the money, invoking disputed authority that was last used by a president roughly 50 years ago. The high court order is temporary, though it suggests the justices will reverse a lower court ruling that withholding the funding was likely illegal. U.S. District Judge Amir Ali ruled last week that Congress would have to approve the decision to withhold the funding.

Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett poses for a photo during an interview with The Associated Press, prior to the release of her new book, "Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution," about her path to the high court and her approach to the Constitution, at the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

In new memoir, Supreme Court Justice Barrett reflects on historic cases, is largely silent on Trump

September 8, 2025

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett says “violence or threats of violence” against judges shouldn’t be the cost of public service. But in an interview at the court with The Associated Press about her new book, “Listening to the Law,” Barrett was not willing to join other judges who’ve called on President Donald Trump to tone down rhetoric demonizing judges. Along with other justices, Barrett said she’s received death threats following the court’s decision in 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade’s right to an abortion. At 53, Barrett is the youngest member of the court. Barrett says she wrote the book to make the nation’s highest court accessible to non-lawyers.

FILE - The Louisiana state Capitol stands on April 4, 2023, in Baton Rouge, La. (AP Photo/Stephen Smith, File)

Louisiana urges Supreme Court to bar use of race in redistricting, in attack on Voting Rights Act

August 27, 2025

Louisiana has abandoned its defense of a political map that elected two Black members of Congress and instead called on the Supreme Court to reject any consideration of race in redistricting in a case that could bring major changes to the Voting Rights Act. Appealing to a conservative-dominated court that has been skeptical of the use of race, Louisiana on Wednesday advanced a position that could allow it and other Republican-led states in the South to draw new maps that eliminate virtually all majority Black districts, which have been Democratic strongholds, voting rights experts said. The state’s high court filing was in response to the justices’ call for new briefing and arguments in the Louisiana case, which they first heard earlier this year.

Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks at a news conference at the Drug Enforcement Administration, Tuesday, July 15, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Justice Department files misconduct complaint against federal judge handling deportation case

July 28, 2025

The Justice Department has filed a misconduct complaint against the federal judge who has clashed with President Donald Trump’s administration over deportations to a notorious prison in El Salvador. Escalating the administration’s conflict with U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Monday on social media that she directed the filing of the complaint against Boasberg “for making improper public comments about President Trump and his administration.” The complaint stems from remarks Boasberg allegedly made in March to Chief Justice John Roberts and other federal judges saying the administration would trigger a constitutional crisis by disregarding federal court rulings, according to a copy of the complaint obtained by The Associated Press.

President Donald Trump speaks to the media before walking across the South Lawn of the White House to board Marine One en route to Joint Base Andrews, Md., and on to Florida, Tuesday, July 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Supreme Court allows Trump to remove 3 Democrats on the Consumer Product Safety Commission

July 23, 2025

The Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to remove three Democratic members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, who had been fired by President Donald Trump and then reinstated by a federal judge. The justices acted Wednesday on an emergency appeal from the Justice Department, which argued that the agency is under Trump’s control and the president is free to remove commissioners without cause. The three liberal justices dissented. The commission helps protect consumers from dangerous products by issuing recalls, suing errant companies and more. Trump fired the three Democrats on the five-member commission in May. They were serving seven-year terms after being nominated by President Joe Biden.

FILE - The Supreme Court is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Supreme Court clears the way for Trump’s plans to downsize the federal workforce

July 8, 2025

The Supreme Court has cleared the way for President Donald Trump’s plans to downsize the federal workforce. The order comes despite warnings that critical government services will be lost and hundreds of thousands of federal employees will be out of their jobs. The justices on Tuesday overrode lower court orders that temporarily froze the cuts. The court said in an unsigned order that no specific cuts were in front of the justices, only an executive order issued by Trump and an administration directive for agencies to undertake job reductions. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only dissenting vote, accusing her colleagues of a “demonstrated enthusiasm for greenlighting this President’s legally dubious actions in an emergency posture.”

FILE - A prisoner is moved as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem tours of the Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Migrants deported from US to Salvadoran prison remain under US control, Salvadoran officials tell UN

July 7, 2025

The government of El Salvador has acknowledged to United Nations investigators that the Trump administration maintains control of the Venezuelan men who were deported from the U.S. to a notorious Salvadoran prison, contradicting public statements by officials in both countries. The revelation was contained in court filings Monday by lawyers for more than 100 migrants who are seeking to challenge their deportations to El Salvador’s mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT. The case is among several challenging President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Trump asks Supreme Court to remove 3 Democrats on the Consumer Product Safety Commission

July 2, 2025

The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to remove three Democratic members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, who were fired by President Donald Trump and then reinstated by a federal judge. Trump has the power to fire independent agency board members, the Justice Department argued in its filing to the high court Wednesday, pointing to a May ruling by the Supreme Court that endorsed a robust view of presidential power. The five-member commission helps protect consumers from dangerous products by issuing recalls, suing errant companies and more. They were serving seven-year terms after being nominated by President Joe Biden.

FILE - Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court John Roberts speaks during a lecture to the Georgetown Law School graduating class of 2025, in Washington, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

Chief Justice Roberts warns against heated political words about judges

June 28, 2025

Chief Justice John Roberts is warning that elected officials’ heated words about judges can lead to threats or acts of violence by others. Roberts’ comments Saturday at a judicial conference come at a time when threats against judges are on the rise. Roberts didn’t identify anyone by name. But he was clearly referring to Republican President Donald Trump and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer when he said he’s felt compelled to issue public rebukes of figures in both parties in recent years. Roberts said the danger is that people might pick up on such criticism. He cited “serious threats of violence and murder of judges just simply for doing their work.”

FILE - The Supreme Court is seen on Capitol Hill, Feb. 27, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

Justices side with Texas death row inmate seeking DNA testing to show he shouldn’t be executed

June 26, 2025

The Supreme Court has ruled for a Texas death row inmate who’s seeking DNA testing to show he should be ineligible for execution. The 6-3 decision Thursday came in the case of Ruben Gutierrez. It gives him a potential path to have evidence tested that his lawyers say would help prove he wasn’t responsible for the fatal stabbing of an 85-year-old woman during a home robbery decades ago. Two others also were charged in the case. Last year, the high court granted Gutierrez a reprieve 20 minutes before he was to receive a lethal injection.

Supreme Court will hear case of Rastafarian whose dreadlocks were shaved by Louisiana prison guards

June 23, 2025

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the appeal of a former Louisiana prison inmate whose dreadlocks were shaved by guards in violation of his religious beliefs. The justices said Monday they’ll review an appellate ruling that held former inmate Damon Landor could not sue prison officials for money damages under a federal law aimed at protecting prisoners’ religious rights. Landor is an adherent of the Rastafari religion. Landor carried a copy of a ruling by the appeals court in another inmate’s case holding that cutting religious prisoners’ dreadlocks violates the law. Louisiana acknowledges Landor’s mistreatment but asks the justices to reject the appeal. The justices will hear arguments in the fall.

FILE - Supreme Court is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Supreme Court revives lawsuits against Palestinian authorities from US victims of terrorism attacks

June 20, 2025

The Supreme Court has revived long-running lawsuits against Palestinian authorities from Americans killed or wounded in terrorism attacks in the Middle East. The justices Friday upheld a 2019 law enacted by Congress to allow the victims’ lawsuits to go forward against the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority. The attacks occurred in the early 2000s and in 2018. The victims and their families say Palestinian agents either were involved in the attacks or incited them. The Palestinians have consistently argued the cases shouldn’t be allowed in American courts. A lower court in New York has repeatedly ruled against the victims.

Supreme Court clears the way for temporary nuclear waste storage in Texas and New Mexico

June 18, 2025

The Supreme Court has restarted plans to temporarily store nuclear waste in rural Texas and New Mexico, even as the nation is at an impasse over a permanent solution. The justices Wednesday reversed a federal appeals court ruling that invalidated the license granted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to a private company for the southwest Texas facility. The outcome should reinvigorate plans for a New Mexico facility. The licenses would allow the companies to operate the facilities for 40 years, with the possibility of a 40-year renewal. The court’s decision is not a final ruling in favor of the licenses but removes a major roadblock. Plans for a permanent underground storage facility in Nevada are stalled.

FILE - The Supreme Court is pictured, Jan. 10, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Supreme Court will hear Alabama appeal in bid to execute man found to be intellectually disabled

June 6, 2025

The Supreme Court will consider making it harder for convicted murderers to show their lives should be spared because they are intellectually disabled. That’s according to an order released early on Friday after an apparent technological glitch. It’s the second time in about a year that an online error resulted in an early release from the high court. The justices’ action comes in an appeal from Alabama, which is seeking to execute Joseph Clifton Smith. He was sentenced to death for killing a man in 1997. When it’s argued in the fall, the case could be the first in which the Supreme Court cuts back on its 23-year-old landmark ruling that barred the death penalty for people who are intellectually disabled.

Trump asks the Supreme Court to clear the way for federal downsizing plans

June 2, 2025

President Donald Trump’s administration has renewed its request for the Supreme Court to clear the way for plans to downsize the federal workforce, while a lawsuit filed by labor unions and cities proceeds. The high court filing Monday came after an appeals court refused to freeze a California-based judge’s order halting the cuts, which have been led by the Department of Government Efficiency. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ruled last month that Trump’s administration needed congressional approval to make sizable cuts to the federal workforce. The administration initially asked the justices to step in last month, but withdrew its appeal for technical, legal reasons. The latest filing is one in a series emergency appeals arguing federal judges had overstepped their authority.

Supreme Court will consider reviving Republican challenge to Illinois law on mail ballots

June 2, 2025

The Supreme Court has agreed to consider reviving a Republican challenge to an Illinois law that allows mail ballots to be counted if they are received up to two weeks after Election Day. The justices said Monday will hear arguments in the fall over whether Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., and two former presidential electors have the legal right, or standing, to sue over the law in federal court. Lower federal courts ruled they lack standing. The case could serve to amplify claims made by President Donald Trump that late-arriving ballots and drawn out electoral counts undermine confidence in elections.

What cases are left on the Supreme Court’s emergency docket? Here’s a look

June 2, 2025

A little less than once a week on average since President Donald Trump began his second term, his administration’s lawyers have filed emergency appeals with the Supreme Court. The sequence of events is familiar: A lower court judge blocks a part of the Republican president’s agenda, an appellate panel refuses to put the order on hold while the case continues and the Justice Department turns to the nation’s highest court. The Supreme Court is not being asked to render a final decision but rather to set the rules while the case makes it way through the courts. The administration’s most recent emergency filing arrived May 27, seeking to halt an order by a judge in Boston.

FILE - Members of Apache and others who want to halt a massive copper mining project on federal land in Arizona gather outside the U.S. District Court, May 7, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)

The Supreme Court rejects a plea to block a copper mine on land in Arizona that’s sacred to Apaches

May 27, 2025

The group Apache Stronghold is vowing to carry on the fight against a massive copper mining project on land the Apaches hold sacred, after a Supreme Court decision that is expected to let the mine proceed. On Tuesday the court rejected an appeal from Apaches who want to halt the project. The justices left in place lower court decisions allowing the transfer of land in the Tonto National Forest known as Oak Flat to Resolution Copper. The company says the ground there holds the world’s second-largest known copper deposit. Resolution Copper’s general manager says the company has made major changes to its mining plan to reduce the impact on tribes.

FILE - The Supreme Court is seen in Washington, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Supreme Court declines to reinstate independent agency board members fired by President Donald Trump

May 22, 2025

The Supreme Court has declined to reinstate independent agency board members fired by President Donald Trump. The court’s action Thursday essentially extended an order Chief Justice John Roberts issued in April that had the effect of removing two board members Trump fired from agencies that deal with labor issues, including one with a key role for federal workers, as Trump aims to drastically downsize the workforce. Neither agency has enough appointed members to take final actions on issues before them, as Trump has not sought to appoint replacements. The decision Thursday keeps on hold an appellate ruling that had temporarily reinstated Gwynne Wilcox to the National Labor Relations Board and Cathy Harris to the Merit Systems Protection Board. The court’s liberal justices dissented.

Mark Sherman.

Finance.