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 federal court cases,and over state court cases that involve a point of U.S. Constitutional or 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.
The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies (FedSoc) is an American conservative and libertarian legal organization that advocates for a textualist and originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. Headquartered in Washington,D.C.,it has chapters at more than 200 law schools and features student,lawyer,and faculty divisions;the lawyers division comprises more than 70,000 practicing attorneys in ninety cities. Through speaking events,lectures,and other activities,it provides a forum for legal experts of opposing views to interact with members of the legal profession,the judiciary,and the legal academy. It is one of the most influential legal organizations in the United States.
Poletown East is an industrial district of Detroit,Michigan,bordering the enclave city of Hamtramck. The area was named after the Polish immigrants who originally lived in the area. A portion of residential area known as Poletown became the General Motors Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly plant in 1981 with those residents relocated by General Motors and the cities of Detroit and Hamtramck which claimed eminent domain in order to make way for a new automobile plant.
The Michigan State University College of Law is the law school of Michigan State University,a public research university in East Lansing,Michigan. Established in 1891 as the Detroit College of Law,it was the first law school in the Detroit,Michigan area and the second in the state of Michigan. In October 2018,the college began a process to fully integrate into Michigan State University,changing from a private to a public law school. The integration with Michigan State University was finalized on August 17,2020.
John Glover Roberts Jr. is an American lawyer and jurist who has served as the 17th chief justice of the United States since 2005. He has been described as having a moderate conservative judicial philosophy,though he is primarily an institutionalist. He has shown a willingness to work with the Supreme Court's liberal bloc,and has been regarded as a swing vote on the Court.
William Holcombe Pryor Jr. is an American lawyer who has served as the chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit since 2020. He was appointed as a United States circuit judge of the court by President George W. Bush in 2004. He is a former commissioner of the United States Sentencing Commission. Previously,he was the attorney general of Alabama,from 1997 to 2004.
Leonard Anthony Leo is an American lawyer and conservative legal activist. He was the longtime vice president of the Federalist Society and is currently,along with Steven Calabresi,the co-chairman of the organization's board of directors.
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. Roberts succeeded William Rehnquist as Chief Justice after the latter's death.
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.
The nomination and confirmation of justices to the Supreme Court of the United States involves several steps,the framework for which is set forth in the United States Constitution. Specifically,Article II,Section 2,Clause 2,provides that the president of the United States nominates a justice and that the United States Senate provides advice and consent before the person is formally appointed to the Court. It also empowers a president to temporarily,under certain circumstances,fill a Supreme Court vacancy by means of a recess appointment. The Constitution does not set any qualifications for service as a justice,thus the president may nominate any individual to serve on the Court.
Allison Lynn Hartwell Eid is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. She previously served as an associate justice of the Colorado Supreme Court.
Derrick Kahala Watson is an American lawyer who serves as the Chief United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii.
Joan Louise Larsen is an American attorney serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She previously was an associate justice of the Michigan Supreme Court from 2015 to 2017.
With the advice and consent of the United States Senate,the president of the United States appoints the members of the Supreme Court of the United States,which is the highest court of the federal judiciary of the United States. Following his victory in the 2016 presidential election,Republican Donald Trump took office as president on January 20,2017,and faced an immediate vacancy on the Supreme Court due to the February 2016 death of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia. During the 2016 campaign,Trump had released two lists of potential nominees to the Supreme Court. After taking office,he nominated Neil Gorsuch to succeed Scalia,and Gorsuch was confirmed in April 2017. In November 2017,five more names were added to the previous lists of potential nominees. In June 2018,Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement,creating a second vacancy on the Supreme Court. In early July 2018,Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh as his replacement;Kavanaugh was confirmed on October 6,2018. Following the death of Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on September 18,2020,Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett as her replacement on September 26,2020. Exactly a month later on October 26,2020,Barrett was confirmed by a vote of 52–48.
On January 31,2017,soon after taking office,President Donald Trump,a Republican,nominated Neil Gorsuch for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States to succeed Antonin Scalia,who had died almost one year earlier. Then-president Barack Obama,a Democrat,nominated Merrick Garland to succeed Scalia on March 16,2016,but the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate did not vote on the nomination. Majority leader Mitch McConnell declared that as the presidential election cycle had already commenced,it made the appointment of the next justice a political issue to be decided by voters. The Senate Judiciary Committee refused to consider the Garland nomination,thus keeping the vacancy open through the end of Obama's presidency on January 20,2017.
Trump v. Hawaii,No. 17-965,585 U.S. ___ (2018),was a landmark United States Supreme Court case involving Presidential Proclamation 9645 signed by President Donald Trump,which restricted travel into the United States by people from several nations,or by refugees without valid travel documents. Hawaii and several other states and groups challenged the Proclamation and two predecessor executive orders also issued by Trump on statutory and constitutional grounds. Citing a variety of statements by Trump and administration officials,they argued that the proclamation and its predecessor orders were motivated by anti-Muslim animus.
June Medical Services,LLC v. Russo,591 U.S. ___ (2020),was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled that a Louisiana state law placing hospital-admission requirements on abortion clinics doctors was unconstitutional. The law mirrored a Texas state law that the Court found unconstitutional in 2016 in Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt (WWH).
Bostock v. Clayton County,590 U.S. ___ (2020),is a landmark United States Supreme Court civil rights case in which the Court held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects employees against discrimination because they are gay or transgender.
California v. Texas,593 U.S. ___ (2021),was a United States Supreme Court case that dealt with the constitutionality of the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA),colloquially known as Obamacare. It was the third such challenge to the ACA seen by the Supreme Court since its enactment. The case in California followed after the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and the change to the tax penalty amount for Americans without required insurance that reduced the "individual mandate" to zero,effective for months after December 31,2018. The District Court of the Northern District of Texas concluded that this individual mandate was a critical provision of the ACA and that,with a penalty amount equal to zero,some or all of the ACA was potentially unconstitutional as an improper use of Congress's taxation powers.
Carrie Campbell Severino is an American lawyer and conservative political activist. She is the head of the Judicial Crisis Network (JCN),where she has played a leading role in the campaigns to support the Supreme Court nominations of Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh. She is the coauthor of Justice on Trial:The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court.
