Supreme Court Report

Although the ACA is 1,000 pages long, its future may depend on a single phrase

The Affordable Care Act is some 1,000 pages long, and it survived largely intact in a 193-page 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld President Barack Obama's signature health reform law as an exercise of Congress' taxing powers.

Now, a mere eight words in the statute—and one Internal Revenue Service regulation—may threaten the future of the act.

Mar 1, 2015 6:00 AM CST

Business-method and software patents may go through the looking glass after Alice decision

Few U.S. Supreme Court rulings have been embraced so enthusiastically. As soon as the court handed down its decision in Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank last June, lower courts and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office began displaying a new, marked hostility toward software and business-method patents. They are now…

Feb 1, 2015 2:40 AM CST

Does the First Amendment allow church to violate town’s sign code? SCOTUS to decide

The Good News Community Church in Gilbert, Arizona, would never be mistaken for a Christian mega-congregation.

Jan 1, 2015 2:50 AM CST

Court to weigh whether employers must accommodate pregnant workers with the same limits as others

Decades after the demise of the most blatant forms of employer bias against pregnant workers, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to step into a case that asks whether a company discriminates by refusing to provide a simple accommodation to an expectant mother. Peggy Young was a part-time delivery driver…

Dec 1, 2014 2:20 AM CST

Fisherman convicted of violating Sarbanes-Oxley will be heard by the Supreme Court

When Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002, in the wake of the Enron scandal, a key provision was aimed at making a federal crime the type of conduct committed by the energy company’s auditors: rampant destruction of documents, computer drives and email that detailed Enron’s fraud on its investors.…

Nov 1, 2014 3:20 AM CDT

Inmate's right to wear a beard is among cases coming up this SCOTUS term

The Supreme Court term opens this month with a docket that is less heated than recent sessions—for now. But the justices will address cases whose rulings could affect Americans in the workplace, at the ballot box, in the observance of their religions and, in a new arena for the justices,…

Oct 1, 2014 3:50 AM CDT

Home-care aides don’t owe union fees, but court stops short of overruling a key precedent

A case about a group of Illinois home-care aides who did not want to pay a union’s collective-bargaining fees did not attract much attention when the Supreme Court granted review last October. The case of Harris v. Quinn was still a sleeper when it was argued in January, though by…

Sep 1, 2014 9:00 AM CDT

Supreme Court justices regularly seek to change the errors of their ways

Late in the recently completed Supreme Court term, Justice Antonin Scalia dissented in a little-noticed case about a federal bank fraud law. In Loughrin v. United States, the court held that the government did not have to prove that a defendant intended to defraud a financial institution to violate the…

Aug 1, 2014 9:00 AM CDT

Federal Circuit gets reined in over patent fees in infringement suits

The U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. is divided on many issues, but not when it comes to patents. In that area of the law, the court has spoken largely with one voice in recent years, and it has repeatedly pronounced bad news for both patentees…

Jul 1, 2014 8:50 AM CDT

SCOTUS ruling may enliven the debate over affirmative action

When the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments last October in the case involving Michigan’s voter-enacted constitutional ban on racial preferences in college admissions, several justices peppered the state’s lawyer with questions about the workings of affirmative action. After several minutes, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. addressed Michigan’s lawyer.…

Jun 1, 2014 8:50 AM CDT

Experts sound off once again on Justice Thomas’ silence

On opinion days at the U.S. Supreme Court, first-time visitors in the courtroom usually perk up when they learn that Justice Clarence Thomas is about to deliver the opinion in a given case. The justice they’ve heard so much about, but one they vaguely know, hasn’t asked a question from…

May 1, 2014 8:50 AM CDT

Low-tech high court to weigh police search of smartphones

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan told a university audience last summer that she and her colleagues “are not necessarily the most technologically sophisticated people.” While law clerks regularly use e-mail, Justice Kagan said last August, the justices haven’t taken to communications technology that most working Americans have used for…

Apr 1, 2014 8:50 AM CDT

Companies claim contraceptive mandate goes against owners’ religious beliefs

The Hobby Lobby chain of crafts and home decor stores has grown to more than 500 nationwide from its Oklahoma origins as a picture-frame business run out of the garage of founder David Green in 1970. The family-controlled company has a statement of purpose committing to operate the chain “in…

Mar 1, 2014 10:10 AM CST

Did the EPA go too far in regulating greenhouse gases? SCOTUS to decide

In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark environmental ruling that greenhouse gases are “air pollutants” under the Clean Air Act. In a 5-4 decision in Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, the court said the recalcitrant EPA had to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles if the agency…

Feb 1, 2014 9:30 AM CST

SCOTUS ponders whether the president can make appointments while Congress is out

For a U.S. Supreme Court case on presidential recess appointments set for argument this month, the U.S. solicitor general’s office really hit the books. The office compiled a list of every presidential appointment made during an “intrasession” recess of the U.S. Senate going back to the administration of President Andrew…

Jan 1, 2014 9:50 AM CST