Covering the Supreme Court, lower courts, and the law

A federal judge in Florida on Tuesday pushed further out of public reach the federal prosecutors’ detailed account of why Donald Trump held onto, and what he did with, highly sensitive secret government documents at his Mar-a-Lago private club after he left the Presidency four years ago. U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon of Fort… Read More

(Note to readers: This report deals with the situation as of mid-morning Saturday. It is very fluid, with a number of “ifs” noted, and could change at any time.) Between now and Sunday night, the final government report on what happened with highly sensitive, secret documents at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago private club might vanish or… Read More

With three paragraphs in a statement by the White House Friday, President Biden declared that “the 28th Amendment is now the law of the land, guaranteeing all Americans equal rights and protections under the law regardless of their sex.” With that gesture, made almost at the last point in his Presidency, Biden may have revived… Read More

In a rare act of national government unity, the Supreme Court on Friday joined the other two branches in a historic effort to protect tens of millions of Americans from having vast amounts of their private data stolen when they use a hugely popular social media platform, TikTok. TikTok is a six-year-old, Chinese-owned online venue… Read More

The judge who has repeatedly aided Donald Trump’s legal defense is now in position to do another big favor: bar public disclosure of a new report spelling out the most serious criminal charges against him – mishandling highly sensitive secret documents at his Mar a Lago private club. U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon of… Read More

(NOTE TO READERS: This post has been revised to correct an error about the elements of the crime under the 1862 federal law at issue.  Thanks to a helpful reader with a keen eye to history.) For much of the time that a special federal prosecutor was pursuing Donald Trump, scholars and other legal observers… Read More

President-elect Donald Trump’s multi-pronged legal efforts to avoid a sentence for his New York crimes ended quietly in defeat Thursday evening in a short 5-to-4 order by the Supreme Court in Washington. The majority did not decide any of Trump’s legal arguments, saying that all of those could be considered during appeals that he is… Read More

Just as the Supreme Court created new constitutional law last year when it gave Presidents broad immunity to criminal prosecution, it would have to do that again if it can be persuaded to give President-elect Donald Trump what he now seeks. In last July’s 5-4 ruling, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., insisted that the… Read More

Donald Trump, long obsessed with his public image, is intensifying his efforts to enter the Presidency this month without a criminal record. His lawyers moved on three legal fronts Monday and opened another today, seeking to prevent further damaging government actions against him. The first of those efforts occurred on the day that a joint… Read More

Not since the age of the personal computer dawned in the early 1970s has the Supreme Court faced a more challenging Information Age task. Back in session this week, the Justices will try to figure out whether 14 words written into the Constitution 234 years ago allow the government to regulate the Internet of today…. Read More