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Chief Justice John Roberts joined the Supreme Court's liberal wing on Thursday in temporarily blocking a Louisiana law that would have placed restrictions on abortion clinics, in the high court's first major ruling on abortion since the confirmation of Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The ruling comes as Roberts, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, has increasingly and deliberately sought to present the federal judiciary as nonpartisan, amid a flurry of attacks from progressive groups arguing that the Supreme Court's new conservative majority imperils the country. Last year, in a highly unusual statement, Roberts rebuked President Trump for criticizing...

The Supreme Court is stopping Louisiana from enforcing new regulations on abortion clinics in a test of the conservative court’s views on abortion rights. The justices say by a 5-4 vote that they will not allow the state to put into effect a law that requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s four liberals in putting a hold on the law, pending a full review of the case. The four more conservative justices, including Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, would have allowed it to take effect. Kavanaugh wrote a dissent...

WASHINGTON — A divided Supreme Court stopped Louisiana from enforcing new regulations on abortion clinics in a test of the conservative court’s views on abortion rights. The justices said by a 5-4 vote late Thursday that they will not allow the state to put into effect a law that requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.

Officials with the U.S. Supreme Court have tried to downplay the fact that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg missed three days’ worth of oral arguments this week as related to her recent cancer surgery. “Her recovery from surgery is on track. Post-surgery evaluation indicates no evidence of remaining disease, and no further treatment is required,” said court spokesperson Kathy Arberg. While that statement can be taken a couple of different ways, The Hill is reporting that the Clinton-nominated justice will also be out next week, which will no doubt set off panic among Left-wing groups and congressional Democrats...

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will miss next week’s court sessions and work from home, but her recovery from early-stage lung cancer surgery remains "on track" and no further treatment is needed, the court announced Friday. “Justice Ginsburg will continue to work from home next week and will participate in the consideration and decision of the cases on the basis of the briefs and the transcripts of oral arguments. Her recovery from surgery is on track,” Supreme Court public information officer Kathy Arberg said in a statement. “Post-surgery evaluation indicates no evidence of remaining disease, and no further treatment...

The Supreme Court began its term with the tumultuous confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. It was followed by a studied avoidance of drama on the high court bench — especially anything that would divide the five conservatives and four liberals. ... When they gather in private on Jan. 4 to consider new cases for arguments in April and into next term, the justices will confront a raft of high-profile appeals. Abortion restrictions, workplace discrimination against LGBT people and partisan gerrymandering are on the agenda. Close behind are appeals from the Trump administration seeking to have the court allow it to...

As the final weeks of the GOP-controlled Congress draw to a close, pro-life voters look on with great disappointment at the Republican politicians who failed to follow through on their most crucial promise: to defund Planned Parenthood. In about a month, Democrats will take over the House of Representatives and any hope of stripping the abortion giant of federal funding will pass away. With precious little time left in the lame-duck session, GOP congressional leaders have chosen to ignore the persistent urgings of pro-life leaders. Just last week, leaders from Live Action, Students for Life America, the Susan B. Anthony...

The Supreme Court on Monday avoided a high-profile case by rejecting appeals from Kansas and Louisiana in their effort to strip Medicaid money from Planned Parenthood, over the dissenting votes of three justices. The court's order reflected a split among its conservative justices and an accusation from Justice Clarence Thomas that his colleagues seemed to be ducking the case for political reasons. The two states were appealing lower court rulings that had blocked them from withholding money that is used for health services for low-income women. The money is not used for abortions. Abortion opponents have said Planned Parenthood should...

The Supreme Court declined to review three cases relating to Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood at the state level Monday, over a vigorous dissent from Justice Clarence Thomas. The dissent was significant because it indicates that Justice Brett Kavanaugh sided with the high court’s liberal wing to deny review of a lower court decision that favored the nation’s largest abortion provider. “So what explains the Court’s refusal to do its job here?,” Thomas wrote. “I suspect it has something to do with the fact that some respondents in these cases are named ‘Planned Parenthood.'” “Some tenuous connection to a...

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in a case that may rein in abusive property seizures by state and local governments through the highly controversial legal tool known as civil asset forfeiture. The case at issue involves a man named Tyson Timbs, who sold $225 worth of heroin to undercover police officers on two occasions, as a means of raising money to support his own drug habit. Police arrested Timbs while he was driving to a third drug deal, and he ultimately pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to a year of home confinement and five years of...

The Obamacare Supreme Court ruling seemed strange. Chief Justice John Roberts’ reasoning was incoherent. The conservative’s dissent read like it was originally meant to be a majority opinion. Now, we know why. According to Jan Crawford of CBS News, John Roberts switched sides in May, withstanding a “one-month campaign” from his conservative colleagues to change his mind.

In a remarkably inappropriate and blatantly political statement Wednesday, U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts chastised President Trump for the president’s quite accurate criticism of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and its rogue district and appellate court judges. The spectacle of the ostensibly nonpolitical chief justice engaged in a dispute with the president of the United States is insulting to the Supreme Court and to our system of justice. Shame on the chief justice. What he did is unforgivable, especially after the corrosive Senate confirmation battle over now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was the subject of bitter and...

WASHINGTON — Chief Justice John Roberts is referring ethics complaints against new Supreme CourtJustice Brett M. Kavanaugh to federal judges in Colorado and neighboring states. The complaints deal with statements Kavanaugh made during his confirmation hearings. They were filed originally with Kavanaugh’s old court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Chief Justice John Roberts is referring complaints against new Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh to federal judges in Colorado and neighboring states. The complaints deal with statements Kavanaugh made during his confirmation hearings. They were filed originally with Kavanaugh's old court, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

If this court is going to break out of its predictable political mold on major legal controversies in America, it will be up to the inscrutable 63-year-old chief justice, whose ideology now lands him at the center of the bench, between the four liberals and the four most dependable conservatives. Yet unlike Anthony Kennedy, who Kavanaugh succeeded, Roberts is no centrist conservative with a record of joining the left on closely watched social policy disputes, such as to uphold abortion rights. The instincts of Roberts, who rose in Washington as he served Republican administrations, have always rested with the right...

WASHINGTON – Chief Justice John Roberts is the Supreme Court’s new man in the middle — but the middle may have moved well to the right. The retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy means Roberts probably will be the conservative justice closest to the court’s four liberals, allowing him to control where the panel comes down in some of its most contentious cases. Roberts will be the justice who determines “how far they go and how fast they go,” said Washington lawyer John Elwood.

"The President lawfully exercised that discretion based on his findings—following a worldwide, multi-agency review—that entry of the covered aliens would be detrimental to the national interest"- U.S. Supreme Court Liberals sued President Trump in what is now known as the Travel Ban case. The substance of the liberal allegations was that the underlying purpose of Trump's "Travel Ban" was Islamic animus - that the President’s stated concerns about vetting protocols and national security were, in fact, just a guise for discriminating against Muslims. At the heart of the liberal case were a series of statements made by Trump and some...

House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes is considering speaking with the Supreme Court Chief Justice over the newly revealed surveillance abuse by the FBI. On Wednesday, Congressman Nunes said FISA judges may have been misled by the previous administration into issuing spy warrants against the 2016 Trump campaign. Nunes is now seeking to discuss the matter with Chief Justice John Roberts, who is in charge of appointing judges to the Surveillance Court. “Our next step with the courts is to make them aware, if they’re not aware already, that this happened by watching the news, so we will be sending...

I am buried in the Reagan Papers @ Reagan Library, so this is brief. 1) this FISA stuff is described ad a "threat to our democracy" 2) if the dossier was a blackmail doc on Trump, assigned & assembled BEFORE Trump was even the front runner 3) THEREFORE we can conclude such packages were already fully prepared for ALL candidates, especially those thought to be real contenders. 4) wait for it: "a threat to our democracy": 5) I will leave you with one name: John Roberts

His leftward shift may have as much to do with institutional pressures as ideology.