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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news
Teachers Union Anti-Trump Lawfare Cases Have Little Connection to K-12 Public School Education
After President Donald Trump was sworn in for a second term in January, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten asserted she was “really sad” about the inaugural speech. “Rather than unifying people and building on America’s best qualities, Trump delivered a speech that was laden with divisiveness, showing that he is the president of… -
news
The High-Stakes SCOTUS Case Targeting Pregnancy Centers, Explained
As pregnancy centers have increasingly come under attack from Democrat lawmakers in recent years, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case next week that could protect pregnancy centers from lawfare. Ahead of the court’s scheduled oral arguments in First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, Inc. v. Platkin on Dec. 2, women who have been involved… -
opinion
Local Climate Lawfare Is Undermining US Foreign Policy and National Security
Lawfare has grown to be a huge problem. If a set of activists cannot win an election or get a favorable bill passed, they find and run to a sympathetic court. An additional emerging form of lawfare has now taken root in America: local governments and states suing domestic energy producers over their alleged role in climate change…. -
news
Supreme Court Case Could Have Major Effect on 2026 Midterms
THE CENTER SQUARE—The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take up a case that could have an effect on the 2026 midterm elections. The case, Watson v. Republican National Committee, centers around a Mississippi law that allows mail-in ballots to be counted up to five days after an election as long as they are postmarked… -
news
Supreme Court to Consider If Migrants Must Cross Border to Seek Asylum
DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—The Supreme Court will hear a case with massive implications for the government’s ability to limit asylum claims at the southern border. The justices agreed Monday to weigh whether migrants who show up on the Mexican side of the border must be allowed to apply for asylum. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act,… -
news
Supreme Court Considers Whether the First Step Act Allows Reduction in Criminal Sentences
The Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday on whether convicted felons can petition for reduced sentencing under the First Step Act, a criminal justice reform law that President Donald Trump signed during his first term. The cases focus on what criteria a federal judge can consider in reducing a prisoner’s sentence, and whether this can include… -
news
Why the Supreme Court May Never Review Gay Marriage
The Supreme Court declined Monday to hear a former Kentucky county clerk’s case that could have potentially challenged the 2015 decision Obergefell v. Hodges, which nationalized same-sex marriage. “This was completely predictable,” Thomas Jipping, a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal. “It was not the right case to raise the issue… -
news
Supreme Court Sides With Trump Admin on Transgender Passports
The Supreme Court delivered a victory to the Trump administration regarding a policy that passports should identify people based only on biological sex. “Displaying passport holders’ sex at birth no more offends equal protection principles than displaying their country of birth—in both cases, the Government is merely attesting to a historical fact without subjecting anyone… -
news
SCOTUS Agrees to Consider Whether Drug Users Can Own Guns
DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—The Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider whether it is constitutional to prohibit users of illegal drugs from owning guns. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals previously held that a federal law prohibiting anyone who is “an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance” from possessing firearms violates the… -
news
4 Takeaways From SCOTUS Redistricting Case That Could Shape Who Controls Congress
In a closely watched case that could have a significant impact on which party controls Congress and that could have national consequences when it comes to drawing congressional maps, the Supreme Court heard a second round of arguments Wednesday pertaining to a congressional redistricting case out of Louisiana. Liberal groups are sounding the alarm that… -
news
How Supreme Court Showdown Over Illinois Election Law Could Change Future of Ballots
The Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday about an Illinois law that allows ballots to be counted that arrive up to 14 days after Election Day. The plaintiffs, Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., and two presidential electors from the state, contend that federal law established Election Day and Illinois allows votes to come in two weeks longer… -
opinion
Supreme Court Skeptical of Colorado’s ‘Conversion Therapy’ Law
On just its second day of the 2025-26 term, the Supreme Court heard arguments in one of its most important cases. Chiles v. Salazar involves a challenge to a Colorado law that allows licensed counselors to address issues of sexuality and gender only from the state’s approved ideological perspective. The Supreme Court’s decision will have… -
news
5 Supreme Court Cases That Could Significantly Help or Hinder Trump’s Agenda
The Supreme Court hasn’t yet determined all the cases it will hear regarding legal challenges to President Donald Trump’s executive actions. But oral arguments have been scheduled for several cases involving trade as well as separation of powers when it comes to so-called independent agencies within the executive branch. Meanwhile, a decision on a case… -
news
At the Supreme Court This Fall: Men in Women’s Sports, Anti-Trans Counselors, Gerrymandered Districts
On Monday, the Supreme Court justices took their seats for the first oral arguments of the October 2025 term—marking the start of what many have suggested is shaping up to be yet another controversial season at the court. The Supreme Court has already agreed to hear over 40 cases—and its fall schedule has the justices… -
opinion
4 Cases to Watch at the Supreme Court This Term
The Supreme Court’s recent refusal to grant a stay of a lower court decision telling South Carolina it has to allow a transgender girl to use the boys’ bathroom in a public school emphasizes the importance of issues the court will be reviewing when its new term starts Oct. 6. The court’s last term featured… -
news
US Supreme Court Looks to Start Consequential New Term
THE CENTER SQUARE—The U.S. Supreme Court will hear the first oral arguments of its new term on Monday, with several high-profile cases already on the docket. The high court announced it will hear arguments on such consequential cases as the president’s power to fire individuals on federal boards, the president’s authority to impose tariffs, transgender… -
news
Supreme Court Rules on Trump Bid to Remove Lisa Cook From the Fed
Lisa Cook will keep her post on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors for now at least, as the Supreme Court denied an emergency appeal by the Trump administration. The high court will hear arguments in January 2026 in the case of Trump v. Cook, and decide the case later that year. President Donald Trump… -
opinion
Supreme Court Could Overturn One of the Worst Decisions of the Progressive Era
If the Supreme Court wants to correct one of the worst decisions of the progressive era, one that violated basic separation of powers principles and vitiated the constitutional authority of the president as head of the executive branch, it will finally overturn Humphrey’s Executor v. U.S. after 90 years of poisoning the government well. If you’ve never heard of… -
opinion
Supreme Court Finally Reconsiders Humphrey’s Executor
The Supreme Court Monday announced it would take up a case that gets to the heart of why the deep state exists—it will revisit a precedent that defended the bureaucracy against the executive power vested in the president. In Donald Trump v. Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, the Supreme Court blocked a lower court order forcing the… -
opinion
Arizona’s Attorney General Wages Lawfare on Families
Arizona is one of the nation’s leading states in offering families education choice—and families are loving it. Three out of four parents support the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts program, which enables families to choose the learning environments that work best for their children. Parents can use these funds to pay for private school tuition, tutoring,…