Pundits decried the Supreme Court justices for not focusing on Donald Trump’s conduct when they heard oral arguments in Trump’s immunity case. But a legal scholar says they were just doing their job.
Clouds float over the Supreme Court building on March 15, 2024.
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These cases have asked the justices to consider how to apply some of the most sweeping constitutional protections – those of free speech – to an extremely complex online communication environment.
A 1935 painting depicts the 1787 meeting that adopted the U.S. Constitution.
John H. Froehlich via Wikimedia Commons
Right from the very beginning of the nation, there have been rules that limit the ability of the people to choose their leaders.
Wiping away tears, Nita Battise, vice chairperson of the tribal council of the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, reacts to the Supreme Court ruling upholding a law that gives Native American families priority in adoptions and foster care placements of tribal children.
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Major Supreme Court decisions and reversals last term are leaving some people, including this scholar on constitutional politics, wondering – what’s going on with the court?
The US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on June 27, 2022.
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Unlike in most countries, US Supreme Court justices enjoy life tenure. Some legal scholars believe that centuries-old custom, meant to protect judicial independence, no longer serves the public.
A demonstrator outside the Supreme Court building expresses fear that other precedents will fall, too.
AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
The justices who decided to overturn the abortion rights precedent of Roe v. Wade explained their reasoning, and signaled other precedents could be reversed as well.
A U.S. Supreme Court decision released on Jun 23, 2022, loosens state restrictions on carrying concealed firearms.
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The gun rights decision from the conservative majority on the Supreme Court signals a fundamental change in how the court reads the Constitution.
An unscalable fence around the U.S. Supreme Court, on May 7, 2022, set up in response to protests against the possible overruling of Roe v. Wade.
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The Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that you have a constitutional right to have a gun in your home. Now, the justices will consider how far outside of the home that right extends.
How much importance does the Supreme Court place on prior decisions?
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Conservative justices are redefining religious freedom to mean the protection of individuals or groups to practice their faith as they see fit, argues a constitutional law expert.
Members of the U.S. Supreme Court visit President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the White House in 1934.
AP Photo
Many Supreme Court nomination battles depended on whether the president’s party also had control of the US Senate.
People gather outside the U.S. Supreme Court building as news spread of Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Sept. 18 death.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
A 6-3 conservative court will hear a broader range of controversial cases, shift interpretations of individual rights and put more pressure on local democracy to make policy decisions.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death has opened up a battle for the vacant seat on the US Supreme Court.
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