#Supreme Court

77 entries

Branches (1)

The Supreme Court of the United States

The highest court in the country: nine justices, life tenure, and the last word on the Constitution

Departments (1)

The Office of the Solicitor General

The government's advocate before the Supreme Court, sometimes called the tenth justice

Offices & Roles (6)

Associate Justices of the Supreme Court

The eight justices who sit with the Chief Justice: how they are chosen, how long they serve, and who they are

Chief Justice of the United States

The head of the Supreme Court and of the federal judiciary, first among equals on the bench

Clerk of the Supreme Court

The officer appointed by the Justices who manages the Supreme Court's docket, receives every filing, and keeps the official records of the Court's cases

Marshal of the Supreme Court

The Court-appointed officer who opens each session, keeps time at oral argument, runs the Supreme Court building, and directs the Supreme Court Police that protect the Justices

Solicitor General of the United States

The Justice Department official who represents the federal government before the Supreme Court and decides which cases the government appeals

Supreme Court Law Clerks

The recent law graduates hired by each Justice for one-year terms to review petitions, research cases, and help draft opinions

Processes (9)

Amicus Briefs

Friend-of-the-court briefs filed by people and groups who are not parties to a case, offering arguments, expertise, or perspectives to influence the court's decision

Certiorari

The process by which the Supreme Court decides which cases to hear, granting review of only about 1 percent of the thousands of petitions it receives each year

How a Case Reaches the Supreme Court

From a lower-court loss to a petition for certiorari, the rule of four, oral argument, and a decision by the end of June

Judicial Nominations

How federal judges and Supreme Court justices are selected, vetted, and confirmed, and why the fights have intensified

Judicial Review

The power of courts to strike down laws and government actions that violate the Constitution

Oral Argument and Opinions

How the Supreme Court hears cases in public argument, decides them in private conference, and explains its decisions in majority, concurring, and dissenting opinions

The Rule of Four

The unwritten Supreme Court practice that a case will be heard if four of the nine Justices vote to grant review, letting a minority set part of the Court's agenda

The Shadow Docket

The Supreme Court's emergency docket of stays and injunctions decided quickly, often without full briefing, argument, or explanation, which has grown into a major arena for national policy

The Supreme Court Term

The Court's annual calendar, which begins on the first Monday in October and runs through late June or early July, with alternating sittings for argument and recesses for writing

Principles (15)

Agency Adjudication

How federal agencies decide individual cases, from benefits claims and immigration hearings to enforcement actions, outside the regular federal courts

Court Packing

Changing the number of Supreme Court justices to alter its majority, most famously attempted by Franklin Roosevelt in 1937, and the wider debate over Supreme Court reform

Due Process

The constitutional guarantee, in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law

Judicial Activism and Restraint

Competing descriptions of how readily judges should overturn the decisions of elected officials, and labels both political sides apply to rulings they oppose

Justiciability

The set of doctrines, including standing, ripeness, mootness, and the bar on advisory opinions, that determine whether a federal court may decide a dispute at all

Life Tenure

Why federal judges serve for life, how tenures have lengthened, and proposals for term limits

Major Questions Doctrine

The rule that agencies need clear congressional authorization for policies of vast economic or political significance

Originalism and the Living Constitution

The two leading approaches to interpreting the Constitution: reading it by its meaning when adopted, or as a document whose application evolves with society

Political Question Doctrine

The questions federal courts refuse to decide because the Constitution leaves them to Congress or the President

Precedent and Stare Decisis

How past decisions bind future ones, and when the Supreme Court decides to overrule itself

Presidential Immunity

The legal doctrines shielding Presidents from some civil lawsuits and criminal prosecution for official acts, defined mainly by Supreme Court decisions from 1982 to 2024

The Counter-Majoritarian Difficulty

Alexander Bickel's 1962 name for the tension between judicial review by unelected judges and democratic government, and the many attempts to resolve it

The Fourth Estate

The press as an informal check on government, protected by the First Amendment and shaped by landmark cases, investigative reporting, and changes in the news business

The Nondelegation Doctrine

The principle that Congress may not hand its lawmaking power to agencies or others, enforced by requiring that delegations come with an intelligible principle

The Tenth Amendment in Practice

How courts have applied the Tenth Amendment, from a truism in 1941 to the anti-commandeering doctrine that today shapes sanctuary policies, sports betting, and federal programs

Documents & Cases (43)

Allen v. Milligan (2023)

The case that reaffirmed the Voting Rights Act test for vote dilution and required Alabama to draw a second district where Black voters could elect their candidate

Baker v. Carr (1962)

The case that opened federal courts to challenges against malapportioned legislative districts and defined the modern political question doctrine

Buckley v. Valeo (1976)

The case that set the framework for campaign finance law, allowing contribution limits but striking down limits on campaign spending

Bush v. Gore (2000)

The case that ended the Florida recount in the 2000 presidential election, effectively deciding the presidency for George W. Bush

Chevron v. NRDC (1984) Dissolved

The case that told courts to defer to reasonable agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes, the most cited administrative law ruling until it was overruled in 2024

Citizens United v. FEC (2010)

The case holding that corporations and unions may spend unlimited amounts on independent political advocacy, opening the way for super PACs

Clinton v. City of New York (1998)

The case that struck down the Line Item Veto Act, holding that the President cannot cancel parts of a law after signing it

Cooper v. Aaron (1958)

The Little Rock case in which all nine justices declared that state officials are bound by the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Constitution

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)

The steamboat case in which Chief Justice John Marshall read the Commerce Clause broadly and struck down a state monopoly that conflicted with federal law

Humphrey's Executor v. United States (1935)

The case that let Congress protect independent commissioners from being fired by the President, overruled in 2026

INS v. Chadha (1983)

The case that struck down the legislative veto in nearly two hundred laws in a single ruling

Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (2024)

The case that overruled Chevron and ended forty years of judicial deference to agency readings of ambiguous laws

Louisiana v. Callais (2026)

The 2026 decision that struck down a majority-Black congressional district and sharply limited when the Voting Rights Act can justify race-based districting

Marbury v. Madison (1803)

The case that established the power of federal courts to strike down laws that violate the Constitution

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

The case that confirmed Congress's implied powers and barred states from taxing federal institutions

Moore v. Harper (2023)

The case rejecting the independent state legislature theory and confirming that state courts may review congressional maps under state constitutions

Morrison v. Olson (1988)

The case that upheld the independent counsel law over Justice Antonin Scalia's famous lone dissent

Myers v. United States (1926)

The case holding that the President may remove executive officers he appoints without the Senate's consent, the foundation of modern removal power doctrine

NFIB v. Sebelius (2012)

The Affordable Care Act case that upheld the individual mandate as a tax, rejected it under the Commerce Clause, and limited the Medicaid expansion

NLRB v. Noel Canning (2014)

The case that limited recess appointments, holding that the Senate is in session when it says it is and that breaks under ten days are presumptively too short

NRSC v. FEC (2026)

The 2026 case striking down federal limits on how much political parties may spend in coordination with their own candidates

Powell v. McCormack (1969)

The case holding that the House cannot exclude a duly elected member who meets the Constitution's age, citizenship, and residence requirements

Printz v. United States (1997)

The case holding that Congress cannot order state and local officers to carry out federal programs, the core of the anti-commandeering doctrine

Reynolds v. Sims (1964)

The case establishing one person, one vote for state legislatures, requiring both chambers to be apportioned by population

Rucho v. Common Cause (2019)

The case holding that federal courts cannot decide partisan gerrymandering claims, leaving them to state courts, voters, and Congress

Seila Law v. CFPB (2020)

The case holding that an agency led by a single director cannot be shielded from presidential removal, a key step in expanding presidential control of agencies

Shaw v. Reno (1993)

The case recognizing racial gerrymandering claims under the Equal Protection Clause when race drives the shape of a district

Shelby County v. Holder (2013)

The case that struck down the Voting Rights Act coverage formula, ending federal preclearance of election changes in mostly Southern states

The Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the Constitution, ratified in 1791, which limit government power and protect individual liberties, now applied to the states as well

The Eighth Amendment

The 1791 amendment prohibiting excessive bail, excessive fines, and cruel and unusual punishments

The First Amendment

The 1791 amendment protecting freedom of religion, speech, the press, assembly, and petition from government interference

The Fourteenth Amendment

The 1868 amendment defining citizenship and guaranteeing due process and equal protection of the laws against the states

The Ninth Amendment

The 1791 amendment declaring that listing certain rights in the Constitution does not deny or disparage other rights retained by the people

The Second Amendment

The 1791 amendment protecting the right of the people to keep and bear arms, linked in its text to a well regulated militia

Thornburg v. Gingles (1986)

The case that set the test for when the Voting Rights Act requires districts in which minority voters can elect their candidates of choice

Trump v. Anderson (2024)

The case holding that states cannot disqualify federal candidates under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, reversing Colorado's removal of Donald Trump from its ballot

Trump v. CASA (2025)

The case that sharply limited universal injunctions, holding that federal courts generally may grant relief only to the parties before them

Trump v. Slaughter

The 2026 decision in which the Supreme Court overruled Humphrey's Executor and held that the President may remove FTC commissioners at will

Trump v. United States (2024)

The presidential immunity decision: absolute for core powers, presumptive for other official acts, none for private conduct

United States v. Nixon (1974)

The unanimous ruling that forced a President to surrender the Watergate tapes and led to his resignation

Watson v. RNC (2026)

The 2026 case holding that federal Election Day laws do not stop states from counting mail ballots that arrive after Election Day

West Virginia v. EPA (2022)

The case that formally named the major questions doctrine, limiting the EPA's power to shift the electricity grid away from coal

Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952)

The steel seizure case, and the three-part framework for judging presidential power that courts still use

States & Local (2)

Federal Indian Trust Responsibility

The legal obligation of the United States to protect tribal lands, resources, and self-government, rooted in treaties and in its role as trustee of tribal assets

The Insular Cases

A series of Supreme Court decisions beginning in 1901 that created the doctrine of unincorporated territories, where the Constitution applies only in part

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