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
Justice Thomas and the Uneven Scales of Scrutiny
There is no worse example of a biased, tendentious mainstream media with ulterior motives than the castigation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas during the past half year. The latest example stems from flyspecking Thomas’ amended financial disclosure reports, repeating what has never been disputed and attempting to cast a dark shadow on otherwise innocent,… -
opinion
Supreme Court Sends Mixed Signals on Constitutionality of CFPB Funding in Oral Arguments
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services, argued Tuesday before the Supreme Court, is nominally an industry challenge to the bureau’s payday-lending rule. But the challengers’ effort to invalidate that rule has called into doubt the constitutionality of the bureau’s independent funding scheme. Thus, the issues the court must decide are: (1) whether the… -
news
Justice Thomas to Hear NY Gun Rights Lawsuit
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas will consider a lawsuit by Second Amendment groups challenging New York’s strict concealed-carry firearm laws. Thomas has scheduled a conference with the full court on Oct. 6 to weigh a challenge to a provision of New York’s Concealed Carry Improvement Act on background checks for ammunition purchases, which went into… -
news
House Democratic Leader Targets Supreme Court Justices: ‘Right-Wing Extremists’
Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries accused Supreme Court justices on Tuesday of being “right-wing extremists.” “It appears there is no bottom to the unethical conduct of the right-wing extremists on the Supreme Court,” said the New York Democrat, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Signal. It’s not… -
opinion
5 Cases to Watch in Supreme Court’s 2023-24 Term
School isn’t the only thing back in session this fall. The Supreme Court will resume hearing cases when its new term begins Oct. 2. So, what’s on the docket? If you’d like an in-depth analysis of the cases the high court will hear this term, watch The Heritage Foundation’s annual Supreme Court Preview on Wednesday… -
opinion
How 3 Supreme Court Cases Could Impact Administrative State
With the Supreme Court‘s 2023-2024 term just three weeks away, there are three cases before the nation’s highest court that two legal fellows write “could shake up the administrative state.” The three cases are Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo; Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy; and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Association… -
news
Emails: Two Weeks After Attempted Kavanaugh Assassination, USMS ‘Unaware’ of ‘Specific, Targeted Threat’ to Justices Before Overturn of Roe
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL: An internal email from the U.S. Marshals Service to staff members states that the agency was unaware of any "specific, targeted threat to a USMS-protected facility or person" one day before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The Marshals Service email does not mention Nicholas Roske's alleged assassination attempt… -
news
‘We Finished the Race,’ Coach Kennedy Says After Taking Knee in Prayer on Field Following Supreme Court Victory
BREMERTON, Wash.—Fans from both teams cheered as Joe Kennedy knelt in silent prayer for 10 seconds at the 50-yard line. It was the moment of culmination after a more than 7-year legal battle over prayer that ended with a victory for Kennedy at the Supreme Court. “I used to run marathons quite a bit and… -
opinion
3 Supreme Court Cases Could Shake Up the Administrative State
The major theme of the coming Supreme Court term is administrative law. Once obscure, this body of statutes, rules, and cases governing the structure and conduct of the federal government’s administrative agencies gained public attention through recent eye-catching cases—like the ones that downed the student loan cancellation plan and set aside the clean power plan… -
opinion
More Courts Uphold Bans on ‘Gender-Affirming’ Care for Minors. Is Supreme Court Next Stop?
Activist judges who believe the propaganda on “lifesaving” “gender-affirming” care for minors are weeping into their lattes this month as a second federal appellate court has just upheld a duly enacted state law banning these practices for children. A few short weeks after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit upheld Tennessee’s law… -
opinion
South Carolina Supreme Court Upholds Ban on Post-Heartbeat Abortions
In June 2022, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the U.S. Supreme Court said what we can all read for ourselves, that the U.S. Constitution “does not confer a right to abortion.” That shifted the venue for those who want to eliminate any legal protection for the unborn to state courts and state constitutions…. -
news
Pence Pledges to ‘Clean House’ at the Justice Department
ATLANTA—Former Vice President Mike Pence pledged that, if elected president in 2024, he would fire the senior leaders at the Department of Justice in the wake of the Russia collusion hoax and the FBI’s targeting “radical-traditional Catholics.” “If I become president of the United States, we’re going to clean house on the entire top floor of the… -
opinion
The Left’s Relentless, Unjustified Assaults on the Supreme Court’s Legitimacy
In recent years, the Supreme Court has been the target of a relentless and strategic campaign aimed at undermining its credibility and impartiality. Left-wing publications such as ProPublica, Slate, and The Guardian have led an orchestrated assault against the high court’s Republican-appointed justices, and their message has been amplified by Senate Democrats. Their motive? To… -
opinion
Joe Biden’s DOJ: Where Justice Goes to Die
The Department of Justice should be honest and call itself Biden Campaign Headquarters. As a fearsome whiff of East Germany wafts through its windows, this Cabinet agency persecutes Donald Trump, the president’s chief political rival, and keeps the heat off of the Bidens. Regardless, temperatures are hotter than July. Special counsel Jack Smith’s four-count indictment… -
opinion
Upcoming Supreme Court Cases Could Dramatically Rein in Regulatory Agencies
This fall, the Supreme Court will hear several cases affording promising opportunities to rein in the federal administrative state. The court has agreed to decide cases that challenge the practice of federal courts showing judicial deference to agency interpretations of the laws they are charged with enforcing as well as the constitutionality of an agency… -
news
Bureaucrats ‘Don’t Give a Damn’: Ted Cruz EVISCERATES Chevron Deference in New Supreme Court Filing
Sen. Ted Cruz took aim Thursday at a Supreme Court precedent that empowers the administrative state at the expense of the people's will and the Framers' vision in the Constitution. This Supreme Court doctrine has "played an enormous role in the expansion of the administrative state," Cruz, a Texas Republican, told The Daily Signal in… -
news
‘NEVER WHAT FOUNDERS INTENDED’: Supreme Court Should Strike Down Chevron Deference, Conservatives Say
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—A conservative nonprofit launched by former Vice President Mike Pence is representing 11 conservative groups in supporting fishermen challenging the extensive power of the federal bureaucracy. Advancing American Freedom, which plays no role in Pence's 2024 presidential campaign, filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court case Loper Bright Enterprises v…. -
opinion
Harvard Law Professor Forgets Why Judicial Review Exists
G.K. Chesterton, that extraordinary author and philosopher, once told a story about a fence blocking a road. Two people approach it, and the first says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” The second person, however, is smarter and says, “If you don’t see the use of it, I won’t… -
news
Woman at Center of Supreme Court Case Describes Death Threats, Harassment, ‘Doxxing’
United States Supreme Court cases have become fraught with peril for those who differ from leftist ideology: Litigants face potential death threats, protesting, harassment, and "doxxing" (putting their personal information, even their addresses, online to encourage harassment). Justices have faced the same—including at least one attempted assassination. Following the leak of the draft Supreme Court… -
opinion
How Democrats and Their Media Allies Cooked Up a Phony Supreme Court ‘Legitimacy Crisis’
The legacy media has signaled that it’s all in on the Left’s cooked-up Supreme Court “legitimacy crisis.” This week, Senate Democrats plan to vote on Supreme Court ethics rules that are clearly meant to give them the ability to hector and harass the court to get the decisions they want. The vote coincides with an…