The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, as well as over state court cases that involve a point of federal law. It also has original jurisdiction over a narrow range of cases, specifically "all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party." The court holds the power of judicial review, the ability to invalidate a statute for violating a provision of the Constitution. It is also able to strike down presidential directives for violating either the Constitution or statutory law. However, it may act only within the context of a case in an area of law over which it has jurisdiction. The court may decide cases having political overtones but has ruled that it does not have power to decide non-justiciable political questions.
Byron "Whizzer" Raymond White was an American lawyer and professional football player who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1962 to 1993. Born and raised in Colorado, he played college football, basketball, and baseball for the University of Colorado, finishing as the runner up for the Heisman Trophy in 1937. He was selected in the first round of the 1938 NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates, later called the Steelers, and led the National Football League in rushing yards in his rookie season. White was admitted to Yale Law School in 1939 and played for the Detroit Lions in the 1940 and 1941 seasons while still attending law school. During World War II, he served as an intelligence officer with the United States Navy in the Pacific Theatre. After the war, he graduated from Yale Law ranked first in his class and clerked for Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson.
This page serves as an index of lists of United States Supreme Court cases. The United States Supreme Court is the highest federal court of the United States.
Stephen Gerald Breyer is an American lawyer and jurist who has served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 1994. He was nominated by President Bill Clinton, and replaced retiring justice Harry Blackmun. Breyer is generally associated with the liberal wing of the Court.
Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President George W. Bush on October 31, 2005, and has served since January 31, 2006. He is the second Italian-American justice to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, after Antonin Scalia, and the eleventh Roman Catholic.
John Glover Roberts Jr. is an American lawyer and jurist serving as the 17th chief justice of the United States since 2005. He was nominated by President George W. Bush to succeed associate justice Sandra Day O'Connor, but was withdrawn and renominated to replace Chief Justice William Rehnquist after Rehnquist's death in 2005. Roberts presided over the first impeachment trial of Donald Trump in early 2020; however, he declined to preside over the second impeachment trial of Trump, who was impeached as president, but whose term had expired by the time of the trial.
The Roberts Court is the time since 2005 during which the Supreme Court of the United States has been led by John Roberts as Chief Justice. It is generally considered more conservative than the preceding Rehnquist Court, as well as the most conservative court since the Vinson Court of the 1940s and early 1950s. This is due to the retirement of moderate Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy, and the death of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the subsequent confirmation of the conservative Justices Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett in their places, respectively.
Neil McGill Gorsuch is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on January 31, 2017, and has served since April 10, 2017.
Anthony McLeod Kennedy is an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1988 until his retirement in 2018. He was nominated to the court in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan, and sworn in on February 18, 1988. After the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor in 2006, he was the swing vote on many of the Roberts Court's 5–4 decisions.
Clarence Thomas is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He was nominated by President George H. W. Bush to succeed Thurgood Marshall, and has served since 1991. Thomas is the second African American to serve on the Court, after Marshall. Since 2018, Thomas has been the longest-serving member of the Court with a tenure of over 30 years, making him the most senior associate justice on the Supreme Court.
Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society International, Inc., 570 U.S. 205 (2013), also known as Alliance for Open Society I, was a United States Supreme Court decision in which the court ruled that conditions imposed on recipients of certain federal grants amounted to a restriction of freedom of speech and violated the First Amendment.
The 2020 term of the Supreme Court of the United States began October 5, 2020, and concluded October 3, 2021. The table below illustrates which opinion was filed by each justice in each case and which justices joined each opinion.
The Supreme Court of the United States handed down thirteen per curiam opinions during its 2020 term, which began October 5, 2020 and concluded October 3, 2021.
The 2021 term of the Supreme Court of the United States began October 4, 2021, and will conclude October 2, 2022. The table below illustrates which opinion was filed by each justice in each case and which justices joined each opinion.
The shadow docket is the use of emergency orders and summary decisions by courts, most notably, the Supreme Court of the United States without oral argument. The term was popularized in 2015 by University of Chicago Law professor William Baude.