Legal News
Reports on lawmaking, constitutional issues, and court cases. The Daily Signal combines news reporting with conservative commentary and legal analysis.
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opinion
How The Heritage Foundation Helped Deprogram Me From the Cult of Social Justice as a Teen
I have a confession to make. If you told me five years ago that I’d be an intern at The Heritage Foundation, the most influential conservative think tank in America, I would have been stupefied. I’m a Californian born and raised, so inevitably, I was a very passionate liberal for most of my teenage years…. -
news
For First Time, Senate Judiciary Committee Nixes Biden Judicial Nominee
The Senate on Thursday rejected President Joe Biden’s nominee to the Manhattan federal trial court. It was the first time a Biden judicial nominee has been rejected in the Democratic-majority Senate. The Senate Judiciary Committee, on an 11-10 vote, rejected federal magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn’s nomination to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District… -
opinion
Supreme Court’s Murthy v. Missouri Ruling: A Blow to Free Speech Protections
Last week, in Murthy v. Missouri, the U.S. Supreme Court hammered home the distressing conclusion that, under the court’s doctrines, the First Amendment is, for all practical purposes, unenforceable against large-scale government censorship. The decision is a strong contender to be the worst speech decision in the court’s history. (I must confess a personal interest in… -
opinion
‘No More Souters’: Strategies for Conservative Success on Judicial Nominees
The current Supreme Court term is now over, but conservatives have already suffered notable defeats in cases involving Big Tech censorship and free speech, states’ lawful ability to proscribe abortion, the ubiquity of the abortion pill (mifepristone), the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the possibility of a future wealth tax, and taxpayer responsibility… -
opinion
You Can Challenge Old Regulations Before the Government Sues You, Justices Rule
Certain that bureaucrats know best, the modern administrative state has long labored to snuff out challenges to its actions. So, when Corner Post—a convenience store and truck stop in North Dakota—challenged a federal rule governing fees for debit-card transactions shortly after it opened for business, but years after the regulation had taken effect, the government… -
news
AOC Aims to Impeach Supreme Court Justices Over Presidential Immunity Ruling
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., says she intends to file articles of impeachment against Supreme Court justices. The Supreme Court ruled Monday in Trump v. United States that presidents have immunity from prosecution pertaining to “official acts” taken in office. Afterward, Ocasio-Cortez said in a post on X that she intends to file articles of impeachment against the justices and… -
opinion
The Supreme Court Is Not Red v. Blue
The United States Supreme Court has been lauded by such diverse members as conservative Chief Justice William Rehnquist and liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as the “crown jewel” of the Constitution for its power of judicial review. The court should be venerated not because of the happenstance of personalities or ideological persuasion but because of… -
opinion
Supreme Court Gives Ominous Forecast for State Laws Regulating Social Media
The modern public square is private. That paradox is the lesson handed down by the Supreme Court in NetChoice v. Paxton and Moody v. NetChoice, two cases in which the world’s largest social media empires challenged state laws in Texas and Florida that curtailed their practice of online content moderation. Just a few terms ago,… -
opinion
Supreme Court Charts New Course in Sea Change for Administrative Law
A few fishermen just brought about a sea change in administrative law. In Loper Bright v. Raimondo and Relentless v. Department of Commerce, herring boat owners took aim at a mainstay of the Supreme Court’s administrative law jurisprudence: the doctrine of Chevron deference that required judges to defer to executive branch agency interpretations of ambiguous laws…. -
opinion
Supreme Court Decides Legislatures, Not Judges, Should Address Homelessness
The Supreme Court issued a 6-3 decision Friday holding that the government may punish the homeless by fines or imprisonment for trespassing or camping on public property. In 2013, the city of Grants Pass, Oregon, had a population of roughly 38,000 and as many as 600 homeless individuals on any given day. Many of… -
news
Supreme Court Rules on Anti-Obstruction Law in Jan. 6 Case
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of a Capitol riot defendant, a decision that could affect hundreds of other cases, and raises the question of whether federal prosecutors went too far in enforcing a statute about “corruptly” obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding. The high court’s ruling could affect the prosecutions of about… -
news
Supreme Court Throws Back ‘Chevron Deference’ in Ruling on Fishermen’s Case Against Government
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of commercial fishermen who challenged the U.S. government’s imposition of charges for onboard federal inspections. The case deals a massive blow to the power of federal agencies. Commercial fishermen in New Jersey initiated the case, Loper Bright Enterprises vs. Raimondo. The fishermen argued that they were unjustly charged… -
news
Supreme Court Rules Cities Can Ban Homeless Sleeping Outside
The Supreme Court sided with a small Oregon city’s crackdown on homeless people sleeping in public in its ruling Friday in the case of City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who dissented along with Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, wrote, “Sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime. For… -
opinion
Supreme Court Deals Major Blow to the Administrative State
The Constitution separates power, the administrative state fuses it. The Constitution gives Congress the power to make law, the president the power to enforce law, and the courts the power to apply law to specific cases. The administrative state takes all three for itself. On Thursday, however, the Supreme Court delivered an important blow against… -
opinion
Americans’ Right to Speak Suffers a Body Blow From Supreme Court
In a setback for First Amendment free speech rights, the Supreme Court on Wednesday held in Murthy v. Missouri that no plaintiff in the case had established standing to challenge the government’s coordinated censorship of dissenting views on COVID-19 and the 2020 election on social media platforms. Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the majority opinion,… -
news
BREAKING: Supreme Court Strikes Down Injunction Preventing Government From Pressuring Big Tech to Suppress Free Speech
The Supreme Court struck down a lower court’s injunction preventing the federal government from pressuring Big Tech companies to suppress free speech in a pivotal ruling Wednesday. The court did not rule on the question of whether the government may pressure social media companies to suppress speech in a way that would be illegal for… -
opinion
Supreme Court Upholds Law Allowing Confiscation of Firearms. Why All Is Not Lost.
After a string of consecutive victories at the Supreme Court, Second Amendment advocates suffered their first major setback Friday, failing for the first time since 2008’s landmark decision in D.C. v. Heller to convince the nation’s highest court to strike down a gun control law as unconstitutional. In an 8-1 opinion written by Chief Justice… -
news
Supreme Court Upholds Law Banning Gun Ownership by Those Under Domestic Violence Restraining Orders
The Supreme Court upheld the federal law banning gun ownership by those under domestic violence restraining orders on Friday morning. In its U.S. v. Rahimi ruling, the court rejected Zackey Rahimi’s claim that the statute that prohibits the possession of firearms by persons subject to domestic violence restraining orders violates the Second Amendment. The court… -
news
BREAKING: Supreme Court Rules ‘Bump Stock’ Ban Illegal
In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court has found that the federal government cannot use a decades-old ban on machine guns to ban bump stocks. “Semiautomatic firearms, which require shooters to reengage the trigger for every shot, are not machineguns. This case asks whether a bump stock—an accessory for a semiautomatic rifle that allows the… -
news
Secret Alito Recording Reveals Deeper Agenda to Delegitimize SCOTUS, Experts Say
Democratic lawmakers are escalating their attacks on Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito in the wake of secret recordings that were obtained last week of the justice agreeing that America should return “to a place of godliness.” Experts say that the legacy media and the Left’s ongoing campaign to target conservative justices is a concerted effort…