Questions tagged [us-supreme-court]
For questions related to the Supreme Court of the United States of America.
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Did any current Supreme Court Justices lie under oath? [closed]
There have been three recent Supreme Court Justice confirmation hearings and in each of them, the now Supreme Court member was asked about Roe v Wade but each said something like "Roe v Wade is ...
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1
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What happens if a Supreme Court member dies before a decision is announced?
Suppose that the Supreme Court has finished hearing oral arguments to a case, the Justices are in the process of writing up their opinions, and one of them suddenly dies (or resigns, or becomes ...
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1
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What would happen if a case before the Supreme Court court involved a conflict of interest for all justices?
I realize this might be a silly scenario, but suppose that nine of the storage units in the Wooden v. United States case had been rented by Supreme Court justices. Then all of the justices might have ...
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Have draft SCOTUS opinions been leaked before?
A draft opinion on Dobbs v. Jackson has been leaked. Cathi Herrod of the Center for Arizona Policy has claimed:
It is totally unprecedented for a draft opinion to be leaked.
Is it unprecedented, or ...
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How likely would H.R.6930 - Asset Seizure for Ukraine Reconstruction Act be to hold up in SCOTUS?
The bill in question creates an extrajudicial mechanism for asset seizure which seems to directly violate the 8th amendment and extremely similar to the situation deemed unconstitutional in Austin v. ...
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What is the justification for supreme courts being able to overrule/overturn their own past decisions?
It can’t overturn the constitution in most countries for example which gives the past apparent supremacy over the present. But between different eras of Supreme courts I guess the present takes ...
2
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1
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What is the SCOTUS's standard of *dangerousness* in decisions of involuntary psychiatric commitment?
It seems that the standard of immediacy/imminence of the dangerousness was not ever that well defined by the SCOTUS.
This is the best, most comprehensive reference on the matter that I've been able to ...
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2
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What is the name of a U.S. Supreme Court decision holding that government cannot conspire with private companies to censor protected speech?
There was a supreme court decision that said that the government can't conspire with private companies to censor. Can anyone tell me the name of the case?
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Does the Supreme Court simply rubberstamp the prevailing social consensus?
In Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393 (1857) the US Supreme Court ruled that slavery was legal.
In Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), the US Supreme Court ruled that segregation was ...
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1
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How do states sue each other?
As I understand it one of Scotus jobs is to mediate inter-state litigation. Did this happen with equal regularity over the years or was this something that happened mainly when the union was new?
Is ...
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Projectors, White Boards & Electronic devices in judicial courts
Are Projectors, White boards and other electronic devices viz Monitor screens, Laptops,Scanners, Recording & Playback devices etc available or allowed in courts?
As a example, the lawyer of either ...
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Why can't we go back to the required supermajority for things in the Senate if they abolished it once in the past?
I read in the news that the Senate had abolished the required supermajority to confirm Supreme Court justices.
Why can't the Senate vote to re-instate the required supermajority? I understand it is ...
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How to cite a supreme court opinion in author-year format
I'm citing the U.S. Supreme Court opinion Brown v Board of Education 347 U.S. 483 in an academic article that uses author-year in text citations. Hence I must deviate from the Bluebook style and ...
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How can a court in the U.S. overcome eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, LLC and order mandatory injunction?
Law*
In Ebay Inc. v. Mercexchange, L.L.C., 547 U.S. 388, 126 S. Ct. 1837 (2006) (“EBay”), the Court restated that:
“The traditional four-factor test applied by courts of equity when considering ...
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Where is the audio record of the Gorsuch remarks on flu deaths in Biden v. Missouri before the Supreme Court?
As news broke, an initial transcript of the hearing included the alleged statement of Justice Gorsuch stating “he believes the flu kills “hundreds of thousands of people every year”.
This transcript ...
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Panel of Judges in Supreme Court - Odd number?
In Supreme Court, the panel of judges will always be a odd number? 3,5,7,9 so the decision in terms of votes count verdict will always outcome a result and not a tie?
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In Roe v Wade, why was it ruled that the US government has an interest in protecting prenatal life?
I'm reading the Wikipedia article on Roe v Wade. It says that:
Texas's lawyers had argued that total bans on abortion were
justifiable because "life" began at the moment of conception, and
...
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2
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Are US appeals court decisions binding on nonparties to a case?
To what extent do the decisions of appellate courts in the US (both Federal and State), and particularly decisions of the US Supreme Court, bind those who were not parties to the case? And to what ...
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3
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Can constitution amendment interpretation be negated by the Supreme Court in the US by citing unconstitutional during judicial review?
I am curious that, when the constitution is amended, can the Supreme Court reject the amendment via the judicial review process by citing the amendment is unconstitutional and says the negation (by ...
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2
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How does Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health compare to previous decisions which reaffirmed Roe v. Wade? [closed]
How does Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health compare to previous cases which reaffirmed Roe v. Wade—e.g., Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989), Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992)?
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What 2012-2015 SCOTUS decisions make "letter[s] from the grave" inadmissible into evidence?
I've read this interesting bit:
In a 2008 trial where a man was accused of poisoning his wife with antifreeze, Schroeder allowed into evidence a letter the wife wrote a neighbor accusing the husband ...
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How willing is the US Supreme Court to declare itself wrong?
In comments on this answer User Suprcat wrote (in part)
I think a big problem is that Marbury v. Madison has been applied in a way that ignores a major caveat: a court's job is to say what the law is,...
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Why is the US Constitution so open to interpretation compared to constitutions of European countries?
Why is the US Constitution so open to interpretation compared to constitutions of European countries? Supreme Court justices are de-facto unelected policymakers in the US, whereas in western European ...
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Why has there not been a SCOTUS interpretation of this?
While reading the constitution I came across this:
“No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to ...
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Why can't the Supreme court overturn Texas abortion law if abortion during the first semester is a constitutional right?
Texas designed its law in a unique way to allow abortions to be banned
without a court intervening, by authorizing any private citizen to sue
doctors and clinics who perform abortions on women more ...
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1
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Are children allowed to pray at goverment schools?
I was once told on the internet that there is no actual ban on religion at government schools in the US. The issue is actually that public school teachers are considered agents of the state and are ...
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3
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Supreme Court of US, Roe v. Wade
Really confused by this Supreme Court decision:
https://www.npr.org/2021/09/02/1033048958/supreme-court-upholds-new-texas-abortion-law-for-now
Quote from the article. "It said the abortion ...
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3
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Is litigation required for SCOTUS to judge the constitutionality of an issue?
I made an observation in another thread about mandating vaccines that it would probably be a good idea for those who are for the idea of mandating vaccines, that its constitutionality should first be ...
2
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2
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Can the US Supreme Court's appellate jurisdiction over cases in which it has original jurisdiction be limited?
According to the US Constitution, the US Supreme Court has original jurisdiction in "all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party&...
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When an old Supreme Court ruling is overturned by a new one, how is this explained philosophically?
When a new SCOTUS ruling overturns an old one, what is the philosophical difference between the two rulings? It seems to me that there are two possible explanations; either the old ruling was a ...
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If the Supreme Court endorses the unitary executive theory, would it allow any President to commit obstruction of justice?
If the Supreme Court endorses the unitary executive theory, would it allow any President to commit obstruction of justice?
Let's say a President decides to impede a Federal investigation to let ...
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Why does the US not exercise universal jurisdiction in cases of human rights violations?
In the recent supreme court case Nestlé USA Inc. v. Doe, the court ruled that Nestlé USA could not be sued for actions it took overseas--specifically, it could not be held liable for knowingly aiding ...
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How did Knight v. Trump become Biden v. Knight?
I've read Justice Thomas's opinion in Biden v. Knight First Amendment..., which seems to reverse Knight v. Trump. I'm trying to understand how this came about. I gather Donald Trump was unhappy ...
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Understanding "Statement of Justice Thomas respecting the denial of certiorari"
In the matter of "Standing Akimbo, LLC, et al., v. United States" (https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/062821zor_6j37.pdf at around page 28), Justice Thomas attached a statement ...
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Question regarding Heller decision
I was perusing the SCOTUS Heller(thanks to poster in another question) decision and found this within PDF
We therefore assume that petitioners’ issuance of a license will
satisfy respondent’s ...
2
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How are machine guns basically illegal considering the findings of US v. Miller?
In US v. Miller, the Supreme Court found that the NFA was constitutional because short-barreled shotguns have no military uses. Assuming for the sake of argument that's true (it's not), how can the ...
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Why doesn't the US Supreme Court just forbid the "re-use, capture, re-editing or redistribution" of video footage like the UK Supreme Court?
First, I know that US and UK law differ. Here's one common argument against televising proceedings of the US Supreme Court as summarized by the dead Justice Antonin Scalia.
Though Scalia said he was ...
3
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1
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When did the US Supreme Court drop the 'Mr' before Justice?
Old US Supreme Court opinions—eg, here—follow the English and (some) Commonwealth practice of prefacing the title of the justice with 'Mr.'. When and why did this, and only this usage, cease (given ...
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Why did the Supreme Court vacate the ruling that Trump could not block Twitter users?
In 2019, an appeals court upheld a decision that President Trump violated the First Amendment by blocking users from his Twitter account.
Two days ago, the Supreme Court declared the case "moot&...
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Why do United States Reports take so long to be published?
As an English-trained lawyer, I am used to seeing a decision of the UK Supreme Court (or formerly, the House of Lords) published within roughly a year in Appeal Cases (AC) (and sooner in the Weekly ...
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What happens to Donald Trump if he refuses to turn over his financial records?
Headlines for 2021 February 22 read "Supreme Court Approves Subpoena for Trump's Financial Records".
Since the Supreme Court has now ruled on the matter, I am not aware of any other body to ...
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Does the U.S. Supreme Court have jurisdiction over the constitutionality of an impeachment?
A question arose on Politics SE asking why the constitutionality to continue an impeachment trial (whose prime purpose is, presumably, to remove an official from office) after the official has left ...
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Thompson v Louisiana 1984 - Murderer convicted?
I am reading about the case Thompson v Louisiana from 1984 when SCOTUS decided that evidence obtained during a search without a search warrant couldn't be used in the case. But besides the SCOTUS-case ...
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What does Ex parte Milligan, 71 U.S. 2 (1866) have to do with personal freedoms?
There is a post floating around on Facebook that "quotes" the Supreme Court's ruling in Ex parte Milligan, 71 U.S. 2 (1866):
I'm certain that the author's interpretation of the ruling is ...
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Petitions for leave to file a complaint, in SCOTUS's original jurisdiction in suits by a state against a state
Denial of leave to file a complaint
The U.S. Supreme Court has just denied the petition from the state of Texas for leave to file a complaint against the state of Wisconsin.
Ten months ago they denied ...
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Known incorrect expert testimony to the SCOTUS, which may not deceive the common man. Is it illegal?
A sceptics answer discusses the misleading statistical analysis in the Texas vs. Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin lawsuit that lead to the claim that there is less than a one in a ...
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What standing does one state have to determine if another state(s)' implementation of their own constitution violates the federal constitution?
Background
Various media outlets have been reporting on the notoriety and expansiveness of State of Texas vs. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, etc.. This lawsuit alleges the following:
• Non-...
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1
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Supreme Court Cases That Have Been Decided on Statistical Evidence---Are There Any?
Have there been any Supreme Court cases that have been decided based on statistical evidence?
If so, which ones; and what was the evidence presented?
In 1897, Oliver Wendell Holmes (before he became a ...
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How do the US Supreme Court justices decide to deny an application for injunctive relief?
On Dec 8 2020 the US Supreme Court denies Sen. Mike Lee's emergency application for injunctive relief to vacate the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision on Nov 25 2020.
The US Supreme Court order to ...
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Why can the Supreme Court tell a state what to do with its ballots?
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito late Friday granted part of a request from Pennsylvania's state Republicans, who wanted an order regarding mail ballots that came in during the extended deadline.
He ...