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Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch opined that too many laws and regulations in America can impinge on fundamental liberties. It’s a rich statement coming from a man who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, thus allowing states to put women or their doctors in jail for endangering or aborting a fetus.

“Too little law and we’re not safe, and our liberties aren’t protected,” Gorsuch told The Associated Press in an interview about his forthcoming book, Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law. “But too much...

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan has become the first member of the U.S. Supreme Court to publicly advocate to strengthen the court’s new ethics code by introducing a mechanism for enforcement.

Kagan’s remarks, made at an annual judicial conference held by the 9th Circuit, underscore the growing concerns around the public’s dwindling confidence in the nation’s highest court.

While Kagan said she wouldn’t have signed onto the new rules if she didn’t believe they were important, she believes “having good rules is not enough.”

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She said, “The thing that can be criticized is, you know, rules usually have enforcement mechanisms attached to them, and this one — this set of rules — does not.”

Kagan suggested that a committee of respected judges, appointed by the Chief Justice, could...

As Donald Trump sat through another day of damning testimony in his criminal hush-money trial, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in his bid to establish widespread presidential immunity from criminal prosecution over “official” acts committed in office.

The case before the Supreme Court stems from Trump’s ongoing efforts to delay or dismiss the Justice Department’s case against him over his role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 riot. The court’s decision will have profound implications on the criminal indictments currently on the former president’s rap sheet.

The women on the Supreme Court appeared to band together Wednesday during oral arguments in a case out of Idaho that could shape how hospitals in Republican-led states respond to life-threatening pregnancy complications.

Even conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a Catholic abortion opponent, had some fierce inquiries for Idaho Solicitor General Joshua Turner, who refused to specify what medical conditions qualify for emergency abortions.

“Counsel, I’m kind of shocked actually because I thought your own expert had said below that these kinds of cases were covered. And you’re now saying they’re not?...

Apple will get to keep rules barring developers from directing users to avenues that allow them to bypass a commission on sales in the App Store, where the company exacts a toll of up to 30 percent on all transactions, pending an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Justice Elena Kagan on Wednesday denied a bid from Epic Games to lift a federal appeals court’s ruling that allowed Apple to delay implementing changes to App Store payment rules. In July, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put the injunction on hold after affirming a federal judge’s decision that certain provisions effectively keeping users locked into Apple’s payment ecosystem and limiting the ability of developers to communicate about alternative payment options is illegal.

Epic Games had argued that the federal appeals court improperly granted a stay, pointing to the low chance that the Supreme Court reviews...

Jack Daniel’s may be what unites a divided nation — at least when it comes to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a unanimous ruling handed down Thursday, the high court sided with the Tennessee whiskey maker in a trademark fight over a “Bad Spaniels” dog toy.

“This case is about dog toys and whiskey, two items seldom appearing in the same sentence,” writes Justice Elena Kagan in the option. “Respondent VIP Products makes a squeaky, chewable dog toy designed to look like a bottle of Jack Daniel’s whiskey. But not entirely. On the toy, for example, the words ‘Jack Daniel’s’ become ‘Bad Spaniels.’ And ‘Old No. 7 Brand Tennessee Sour Mash Whiskey’ turns into ‘The Old No. 2 On Your Tennessee Carpet.'”

Jack Daniel’s wasn’t amused with the poop joke and when VIP Products refused to stop selling the squeakers the fight moved to the courts.

After a decade of steadily chipping away at the Voting Rights Act, the Supreme Court actually upheld a piece of the landmark civil rights legislation on Thursday, ruling that Alabama had diluted the power of Black voters in the state.

The case concerned Alabama’s new congressional district map, which was drawn after the 2020 census — and actually wasn’t much different than the map it had throughout the 2010s. The state was split into seven districts, six of which were majority white and reliably voted for Republican representatives, while the...

Purpose and character. These are now solidly enshrined as the buzzwords of copyright law on the heels of the Supreme Court’s 7-2 ruling earlier this week in the case involving the estate of Andy Warhol and photographer Lynn Goldsmith.

The decision at first blush seemed to be a clear-cut win for copyright owners and artists who create original works. But the court’s majority decision, penned with verve by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, is already proving divisive among experts on intellectual property rights. It demonstrates the difficulty of setting up hard and fast rules around highly subjective questions, such as when an artistic or literary work is “transformative” of an earlier work and whether its ultimate use is for commercial purposes, or not. The case has been closely watched in part because it’s sure to have implications for the tidal wave of AI-generated art and literary works that are to emerge,...

In a case with potential implications on a wide range of creative industries, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday, May 18, that Andy Warhol infringed on a photographer’s copyrights for his portraits of Prince.

The court ruled 7-2 in favor of Lynn Goldsmith, whose photos of The Purple One were the original works, which Warhol then used for his own artwork. The court went against the Warhol Foundation’s argument that Warhol’s work was “transformative” enough that they were substantially different and constituted fair use.

The case dates back to the 1980s,...

Andy Warhol wasn’t allowed to use a photographer’s portrait of Prince for a series of pop-art images, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday in a decision limiting the reach of the fair use defense to copyright infringement claims.

Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing for the majority in the 7-2 decision, found that the Lynn Goldsmith’s “original works, like those of other photographers, are entitled to copyright protection, even against famous artists” like Warhol. Potentially overlapping commercial exploitation of the works was a key consideration.

“The purpose of the image is substantially the same as that of Goldsmith’s photograph,“ she wrote. “Both are portraits of Prince used in magazines to illustrate stories about Prince.”

Associate Justice Elena Kagan, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, sided with Warhol in a dissent saying that the majority is “uninterested in the distinctiveness and newness of Warhol’s portrait.” She...

The Supreme Court sided with a photographer in a dispute with the Andy Warhol Foundation over the late artist’s use of her photos as the basis for his own series of portraits of Prince.

The court’s ruling was closely watched by content creators, some of whom feared that it would widen the scope of copyrighted material that could be used for further derivative works. In fact, during oral arguments last fall, attorneys raised the issue of what the case would mean for sequels to Star Wars and spinoffs from shows like All in the Family.

In a 1984 issue, Vanity Fair used a Warhol work that was based on a Lynn Goldsmith photo, having obtained a license from the photographer. The problems came about after Prince died in 2016 and Conde Nast, in its tribute to the singer, used a different Warhol work that was part of a series of...

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Did Andy Warhol violate copyright law when he based a portrait of Prince on a prominent photographer’s work? That question was before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday, as it grappled with the potentially massive consequences of a case that could change the landscape for art that’s created using other art.

Several justices observed the possible implications. “Why can’t we imagine that Hollywood can take a book and make a movie about it without paying?” Justice Clarence Thomas asked a lawyer for the Andy Warhol Foundation.

Justice Elena Kagan raised the opposite concern, mainly how a ruling against Warhol could chill artistic expression. “The purpose of all copyright law is to foster creativity,” she said. “Why shouldn’t we ask if the thing we have here is new and entirely different.”

The justices often turned to ramifications in forms...

The Supreme Court heard a consequential copyright case on Wednesday, having to do with whether Andy Warhol’s estate owes a photographer a licensing fee for basing his portraits on Prince on one of her works.

A moment that stood out, however, was when Justice Clarence Thomas, posing a hypothetical to one of the lawyers, made a reference to being a Prince fan, “which I was in the 80s.”

“No longer?” interrupted Justice Elena Kagan.

The chambers erupted in laughter.

“Well,” Thomas said, as he himself chuckled, before pausing and adding, “Only on Thursday night.”

“Mmm hmmm,” Kagan replied.

The oral arguments actually were chalk full of pop culture references — one attorney at one point compared Mork & Mindy to Happy Days — given that it is a case that has potential implications over the future of the “fair use” doctrine in copyright law.

The case has to do with the Andy...

Cast members from Veep and The West Wing reunited for a virtual fundraiser for the Wisconsin Democratic Party on Sunday, an event that was a mix of amusing memories, their own brushes with fame and warnings about what was at stake in the upcoming midterms.

During the event, actors re-enacted an abortion-themed scenes from each of their shows. They also played a quiz in which contestants had to guess if lines came from Veep, The West Wing or the real world, with an eye toward highlight some of the statements made by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-wi). Democrats see a pickup opportunity with their candidate, Mandela Barnes.

By the end of the two-hour event, about 686,000 had been raised.

“I’m doing this because I am a concerned citizen. I am a patriot. And I believe that democracy is, without hyperbole, is on the line right now, and I know that Wisconsin is a pivotal state,...

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Ketanji Brown Jackson has been sworn in to the Supreme Court, shattering a glass ceiling as the first Black woman on the nation’s highest court.

The 51-year-old Jackson is the court’s 116th justice and she took the place Thursday of the justice she once worked for. Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement took effect at noon.

Moments later, joined by her family, Jackson recited the two oaths required of Supreme Court justices, one administered by Breyer and the other by Chief Justice John Roberts.

Jackson, a federal judge since 2013, is the first Black woman to serve as a justice. She joins three women, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett — the first time four women will serve together on the nine-member court.

Biden nominated Jackson in February, a month after Breyer, 83, announced he would retire at the end of the court’s term,...

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The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the Biden administration properly ended a Trump-era policy forcing some U.S. asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico.

The justices’ 5-4 decision for the administration came in a case about the “Remain in Mexico” policy under President Donald Trump. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the decision and was joined by fellow conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh as well as the court’s three liberal justices — Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

President Joe Biden suspended the program on his first day in office in January 2021. But lower courts ordered it reinstated in response to a lawsuit from Republican-led Texas and Missouri. The current administration has sent far fewer people back to Mexico than did the Trump administration.

The heart of the legal fight was about whether immigration authorities, with far less detention capacity than needed, had to...

The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the Environmental Protection Agency cannot regulate how much climate pollution power plants emit under the Clean Air Act. The court ruled 6-3, along idealogical lines, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing the majority opinion.

“Capping carbon dioxide emissions at a level that will force a nationwide transition away from the use of coal to generate electricity may be a sensible ‘solution to the crisis of the day,” Roberts wrote. “But it is not plausible that Congress gave the Epa the authority to adopt...

The three liberal justices who opposed Friday’s decision eliminating a constitutional right to an abortion did not hold back, writing a blistering dissent likening the “catastrophic” decision to a “loaded weapon” that “takes aim… at the rule of law.”

Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan, writing together, abandon legalese for plain language starkly laying out the consequences of the majority’s reactionary decision.

“It eliminates a 50-year-old constitutional right that safeguards women’s freedom and equal station,” they write, adding that it also “places in jeopardy other rights,...

Updated, June 24 at 12 p.m. Et: The Supreme Court ruled to overturn the 1973 landmark decision Roe v. Wade on June 24.

CNN reported that the opinion is the “most consequential Supreme Court decision in decades and will transform the landscape of women’s reproductive health in America.” Abortion right will be determined by states going forward, with 21 states already having laws or constitutional amendments in place to ban the right to terminate a pregnancy. An additional four states are expected to ban abortions as soon as possible without federal protections in place.

“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in his majority opinion, as previously leaked last month. “Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division.”

A joint dissenting opinion included Justices Stephen Breyer,...

President Biden is set to address the Supreme Court’s controversial overturning of Roe v. Wade. He will deliver remarks from the White House at approximately 12:30 pm Et, with all major TV networks expected to break in live.

Friday’s 6-3 decision will end constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years. Justice Samuel Alito delivered the opinion of the Court, supported by fellow Justices Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett. Dissenting were Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

More from TVLinePresident Biden to Address Nation After Texas School...

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The Supreme Court has ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years in a decision by its conservative majority to overturn Roe v. Wade. Friday’s outcome is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

The decision, unthinkable just a few years ago, was the culmination of decades of efforts by abortion opponents, made possible by an emboldened right side of the court that has been fortified by three appointees of former President Donald Trump.

The ruling came more than a month after the stunning leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating the court was prepared to take this momentous step.

It puts the court at odds with a majority of Americans who favored preserving Roe, according to opinion polls.

Alito, in the final opinion issued Friday, wrote that Roe and Planned Parenthood v.

Weeks after a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion threatened to roll back Roe v. Wade, a final decision Friday morning did just that, with a majority of justices casting votes to return authority over abortion rights to individual states.

The ruling reverses 50 years of precedent from the landmark 1973 case that gave women in the U.S. the right under federal law to terminate a pregnancy, and a subsequent 1992 decision — Planned Parenthood v. Casey — that largely maintained the right.

The case, from Mississippi, is called Dobbs V Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Read the court’s decision here.

“The Court finds that the right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and tradition,” says today’s opinion, in language very similar to the leaked draft of earlier this year.

“The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to...

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is set to announce his retirement at the age of 83, avoiding a repeat of the debacle created by Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s untimely death and handing the Biden administration a chance to install the first new liberal justice on the court since Elena Kagan in 2010.

Standing in the way, as always, is the Other Joe. Our task, once again, is to read the tea leaves and arcane symbols scrawled in clean coal on cavern walls in order to divine what West Virginian Senator Joe Manchin will do next.

President Biden will nominate a Black woman to fill the seat left vacant by retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.

Biden initially promised on the campaign trail to nominate a Black woman if he was elected and a Supreme Court seat became vacant. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirmed hours after Breyer’s retirement was reported that Biden stands by his pledge. “The president has stated and reiterated his commitment to nominating a Black woman to the Supreme Court, and certainly stands by that,” she said at a press briefing.

The United States Supreme Court has ruled that California Governor Gavin Newsom’s orders banning indoor church services may violate the Constitution’s protections on religion. The order effectively lifts the state ban on indoor religious gatherings.

In a 6-3 decision, the Justices granted an appeal late Friday evening from a south San Diego church that challenged the restrictions. The ruling set aside decisions by federal judges in San Diego and San Bernardino and the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. All of those courts upheld the state’s orders.

“While granting the rights to gather in worship, the Supreme Court said limiting attendance to 25% of the building’s capacity is okay, and further restrictions on singing and chanting – a sticking point with the San Diego church – could also be curtailed.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty said that California is “the only state to ban indoor...

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearings on the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court got underway Tuesday, with Democrats protesting the process and at least one of the Republicans serving on the committee already having made up his mind.

“Judge Kavanaugh, I’m proud of you,” Sen. Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah) said during his opening remarks Tuesday,. “ I know how good you are. I know you deserve this position. I’m proud of the president for nominating you. And frankly, I wish you the best, because we’re going to confirm you.”

Hatch’s prepared statement was frequently interrupted by shouting protesters, who were dragged out of the hearing room. He also accused some of his Democratic colleagues on the committee of grandstanding to the TV cameras in the early going Tuesday. “We have folks who want to run for president, who want their moment in the spotlight,...

A new web series offers a chuckle-worthy take on the Notorious R.B.G. Meg Anderson stars as Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in Scotus and the City, a comedy from Hard Four Productions.

In Scotus and the City, Justice Ginsburg resembles a typical sitcom protagonist. She spars with coworkers who are dim (John Roberts), annoying (Clarence Thomas), and combative (Jeff Sessions). On her breaks from work, she lunches with gal pals Sandra Day O'Connor, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan and also hits the gym. That last activity may seem out of character, but it all helps build up the legend that surrounds Scotus and the City's central figure.

The show's portrayal of certain political figures may rankle some, but Scotus and the City seems to operate on the principe that our nation's leaders aren't about parody.

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