Free Republic

They tell SCOTUS that Washington's youth shelter laws, which hide and withhold runaways from parents who object to so-called gender affirming care, are "classic" example of a political majority targeting a minority, as late justice feared. Among the many battles between parents and governments, from public education to public health, none may be as consequential as when the state withholds children from their parents for not affirming the minors' gender confusion, for religious or other reasons. Yet parents of potential and actual runaways from the Pacific to the Rockies may never get to press their First and Fourteenth amendment rights...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a landmark decision just weeks before people head to the polls to vote in the midterms, the United States Supreme Court ruled that securing elections was unconstitutional. Despite efforts from the Trump administration to secure U.S. elections by restricting mail-in ballots and ensuring only citizens would be allowed to vote, the Supreme Court issued a ruling that declared any attempt to prevent widespread fraud from rigging elections to be a clear violation of the Constitution. "Making sure elections are legal is illegal," Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the majority opinion. "There is no provision in the...

President Donald Trump raged against the Supreme Court’s decision to reject mail-in voting restrictions pushed by his administration on Tuesday, insisting the move “really let our country down.” In a lengthy Truth Social post, Trump insisted the move creates an “open field” for “Dumocrats” to cheat in elections: Republicans just got another bad decision from the United States Supreme Court, one that the Court System took forever to give, and then blamed it, in part, on no time left to implement a solution to our totally CORRUPT and out of control Mail-In voting “disaster,” which is a laughing stock all...

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump ’s mail ballot restrictions for now, capping a flurry of last-minute legal action with voting in the midterm elections already underway. The decision allows states to continue sending out mail ballots under the same processes they’ve used for years. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented from the brief order. Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed that the restrictions should not go into effect for the midterms but indicated he might rule in favor of the Trump administration later. The Trump administration had asked the court, once again at the center of a...

The Supreme Court today rejected a last-ditch effort by Missouri Republicans to use a newly drawn congressional map, which was designed to maximize their political power, for this year’s midterm elections. In a brief order issued by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the court left in place a Missouri Supreme Court ruling from last week that said the map could not be used while a ballot initiative moves forward that could lead to the redrawn map being tossed out by voters. Kavanaugh handles emergency requests that arise from Missouri. The 2025 Republican redistricting plan, part of a wave prompted by Trump, was...

The construction of a massive White House ballroom is moving full steam ahead after the Supreme Court found a historic preservation group likely had no right to stop it. "We have a lot of very happy construction workers," President Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday. The $400 million project on the site of the former East Wing, he said, was "under budget and ahead of schedule." * * * The Supreme Court's majority held in the ballroom case that one member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's "mere offense, disagreement, or distaste" was not enough to...

The Supreme Court could decide multiple Second Amendment cases as appeals accelerated since it decided two cases about gun rights in June. The Supreme Court agreed to hear Viramontes v. Cook County on June 30, and announced Friday the hearing would occur on Dec.2, taking up a Second Amendment challenge to a ban on modern semiautomatic firearms passed by the Illinois locality days after issuing rulings on two Second Amendment cases. The high court, though, received four petitions asking it to hear cases since the end of July, while it has considered taking up one case for a record number...

A group of Democratic congressional candidates urged the Supreme Court on Thursday to reject an effort by Republican Senate and House campaign committees to halt an appeals court ruling finding coordinated advertisement buys between political parties and joint fundraising committees are not entitled to cheaper candidate rates. The National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee filed an emergency petition to the Supreme Court earlier this week asking the court to halt the order by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit and restore the cheap ad buy rates for parties and joint fundraising committees. Lawyers...

A petition asking the Supreme Court to hear a Second Amendment case from a trucker argued that Minnesota’s refusal to honor out-of-state concealed carry permits violated the constitutional provision protecting the right to keep and bear arms.Liberty Justice Center first filed the lawsuit in January 2025 against Minnesota Department of Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobson over the state’s refusal to recognize the out-of-state permits of two truck drivers, David A. McCoy II and Jeffrey A. Johnson Sr. In the petition filed Aug. 24, the group claimed Minnesota’s approach was turning the Second Amendment into a “second-class right.”The Second Amendment is...

Another summer has come and gone, which means that the U.S. Supreme Court is gearing up for yet another blockbuster term. Like those before it, this year’s docket is piling up with cases touching on some of the biggest policy issues in American society. From religious liberty to parental rights, here is a breakdown of the biggest legal battles set to be argued before the high court during its 2026-2027 term.

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Monday that construction of the White House ballroom can continue, lifting a block on above-ground work as President Trump asserts the project is necessary for national security. It halts a lower court ruling that would’ve restricted construction until Congress provided additional approvals. Five of the court’s conservative justices, including all three of Trump’s appointees — Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — sided with the president. They ruled a preservationist group likely has no right to sue over one of its members’ concerns about the project. Chief...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration Monday in a case over President Donald Trump's executive order restricting mail-in voting, though it remains unclear how much can be implemented before the fast-approaching midterm elections.The decision leaves room for additional court challenges that could further slow Trump's order, and other similar cases have already been filed. The U.S. Postal Service laid out how it would implement the order last week, but time is running short to impose major changes with some states beginning to send mail ballots to voters in just a few weeks.The court's conservative majority...

The Supreme Court on Monday sided with President Donald Trump for now in his effort to impose sweeping new restrictions on distributing mail ballots, putting on hold a lower-court ruling that had blocked key parts of the plan ahead of November’s midterm elections. The justices, over three dissents, paused a ruling by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston that prevented the Trump administration from carrying out portions of a March executive order involving the U.S. Postal Service and voter eligibility lists.

Washington — The Supreme Court on Friday temporarily allowed construction of the White House ballroom to continue, freezing for now a lower court decision that would have halted work on the project. Chief Justice John Roberts issued a stay that will remain in place until the Supreme Court takes further action. His order is temporary and gives the high court additional time to consider the Justice Department's request to pause a district court's injunction, which was set to take effect at midnight unless the Supreme Court acted.

WASHINGTON—President Trump’s half-built White House ballroom is a 90,000-square-foot embodiment of a recurring legal conundrum: What happens when a boundary-pushing president moves faster than courts can keep up? The Supreme Court will soon decide whether to allow Trump to continue building the $400 million project. But he and his administration’s lawyers have told the justices that they have no real choice at all. Construction of the “concrete-and-steel superstructure,” they say, has already advanced so far that it would be “practically impossible” to stop now, let alone tear down what has already been built.

A federal appeals court just handed DOJ a win in its investigation of a telehealth clinic that prescribes gender-transition treatment, including to minors. QueerDoc, a Washington-based practice, got a HIPAA subpoena from DOJ demanding 15 categories of records: personnel files, billing data, communications with drug manufacturers, and patient medical records and consent forms. DOJ has argued that the clinic's webpages promoting off-label puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones count as unlawful drug "labeling" under the FDCA's misbranding provisions. A district judge quashed the subpoena in its entirety, finding the DOJ issued it to advance the administration's declared goal of ending gender-transition...

The Trump administration on Wednesday reiterated its request for the Supreme Court to move quickly to block a ruling by a federal judge in Massachusetts that prohibits the government from implementing part of an executive order on mail-in voting in 23 states and the District of Columbia for the November elections. U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the justices that “it is critical that the Court act promptly on the pending” request, which was filed on July 27 and has now been fully briefed for more than a week. “Otherwise,” Sauer wrote, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani’s “erroneous orders...

The story NPR published - and then almost immediately retracted - at the end of June, which falsely claimed that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was retiring, was one of the more bizarre and scandalous moments in the "news" organization's tumultuous history.ICYMI:Oh boy. NPR reported that Justice Alito was retiring, then retracted it 10 minutes later, saying it was “published in error.” pic.twitter.com/ljqd9udn9a— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) June 30, 2026As RedState reported at the time, NPR's longtime legal affairs correspondent and Supreme Court reporter, Nina Totenberg, wrote in an apology letter to Alito that "I rushed out of the courtroom after...

Temporary protected status (TPS) for hundreds of South Sudanese nationals in the United States is set to end after a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration can move forward with stripping their protections. On Friday, US district judge Patti Saris of the district of Massachusetts rejected an attempt by immigrant rights organizations including the New York-based African Communities Together to keep TPS for South Sudanese nationals living in the US. Saris’s decision follows a 6-3 supreme court ruling in June allowing the Trump administration to strip hundreds of thousands of Haitians and Syrians of TPS, which granted them permission...

A federal appellate court shot down on Wednesday attempts by a pair of rogue judges to sidestep a recent Supreme Court immigration ruling. In its newly released orders, a three-judge panel on the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Massachusetts-based Judges Patti Saris and Brian Murphy’s administrative pauses against the Trump administration. Those directives sought to stop the government from ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for foreign nationals from South Sudan and Ethiopia, respectively. The panel was comprised of Judges Julie Rickelman and Seth Aframe, both Biden appointees, and Joshua Dunlap, a Trump appointee. Saris and Murphy’s actions were seen...