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

    Alaskan Hunter Triumphs Over Federal Agency in Supreme Court, for Now

    For more than 15 years, John Sturgeon used a hovercraft to reach moose-hunting grounds in Alaska without any incident or objection. Then, one day in 2007, two National Park Service rangers told Sturgeon that he was on federal property and hovercraft were illegal. What followed was nine years of litigation. Sturgeon lost his case in the…
    Paul J. Larkin
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    • Opinion

    Supreme Court Got It Wrong: Noncitizens Shouldn’t Be Counted

    In a loss for voters, the Supreme Court has ruled unanimously against two residents of Texas who had argued that the Texas legislature diluted their votes when it used total population to redraw state Senate districts. In Evenwel v. Abbott, the Supreme Court allowed states to use total population in redrawing district lines, even though…
    Hans von Spakovsky
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    • News

    Illinois Town Among New Fronts on Nation’s Right-to-Work Map as Supreme Court Deadlocks

    Despite the lack of a definitive ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court on the constitutionality of mandatory union dues, workers across the nation have ample opportunity to challenge why they’re forced to pay for political activism they don’t support. That’s clear from a state-by-state map that measures the current level of worker freedom in both…
    Kevin Mooney
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    • Opinion

    Supreme Court Hands Down Big Sixth Amendment Right to Counsel Win

    On Wednesday, the Supreme Court delivered a win for the Sixth Amendment right to counsel in Luis v. United States. Five justices—Justice Stephen Breyer, who wrote a plurality opinion joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor, and Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote a separate concurring opinion—sided with challenger…
    Jason Snead
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    • Opinion

    Supreme Court Request Gives Little Sisters Cause for Hope

    In an order Tuesday afternoon, the Supreme Court asked the petitioners and Obama administration to file supplemental briefs in the consolidated challenge to Obamacare’s requirement that nonprofit employers provide employee health insurance coverage that includes potentially life-ending drugs and devices. Many employers, such as the Little Sisters of the Poor, Priests for Life, and religious…
    Elizabeth Slattery
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    • Opinion

    The Next Supreme Court Justice

    It now seems highly likely that the next president of the United States will have the opportunity to nominate someone to fill the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court created by the sudden passing of Justice Antonin Scalia. That may not be the only vacancy the president will have the opportunity to fill. By the…
    John G. Malcolm
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    • News

    Little Sisters to the Supreme Court: We’ll Have ‘Nun of It’

    In a rare public appearance, a group of nuns stood before the Supreme Court Wednesday to rally against a provision in the Affordable Care Act that they believe forces them to violate their deeply-held religious beliefs. The provision, often called the “contraceptive mandate,” requires employers, including the Little Sisters of the Poor, to offer coverage…
    Kelsey Bolar
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    • Opinion

    Big Brother Bullies Little Sisters at the Supreme Court

    The plaza of the U.S. Supreme Court and the courtroom itself were full of people you don’t normally see at the court—priests, ministers, and nuns of various religious orders. They were there Wednesday to hear the U.S. government argue that the Little Sisters of the Poor—an order of Catholic nuns who have served the elderly…
    Hans von Spakovsky
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    • Opinion

    Little Sisters of the Poor Case Heads to Supreme Court

    The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments this week in a group of cases challenging the Obamacare requirement that nonprofit employers offer their employees health care coverage that includes Plan B, ella, and other potentially life-ending drugs and devices, contraception, and sterilization. The challengers in the consolidated cases, captioned Zubik v. Burwell, include the Little…
    Elizabeth Slattery
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    • Opinion

    The People Should Determine What Kind of Supreme Court They Wish to Have

    The opening words of the preamble to the United States Constitution are familiar to us all: “We the People.” But what exactly do they mean? It was by “the People” that the Constitution was written and ratified. It is for “the People” that my colleagues and I, along with every other public official across these…
    Sen. Mike Lee
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    • News

    Poll: Majority Support Delaying Supreme Court Replacement

    Republican opposition to any Supreme Court nominee by President Barack Obama may be politically popular, a new poll claims. Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, distributed the poll findings in a memo to members of the Republican Senate Conference to show public perceptions on filling the current Supreme Court vacancy, Politico reports. The opinion poll was conducted…
    Mariana Barillas
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    • Opinion

    Attorney General Lynch Looks Into Prosecuting ‘Climate Change Deniers’

    In news that should shock and anger Americans, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that not only has she discussed internally the possibility of pursuing civil actions against so-called “climate change deniers,” but she has “referred it to the FBI to consider whether or not it meets the criteria…
    Hans von Spakovsky
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    • News

    Washington Supreme Court Will Hear Case of 70-Year-Old Florist Sued for Declining Gay Wedding Request

    The Washington Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case of a 70-year-old florist who declined to make flower arrangements for a gay couple’s wedding. The florist, Barronelle Stutzman, was found guilty by lower courts of violating the state’s anti-discrimination and consumer protection laws. “Barronelle and many others like her around the country have been…
    Kelsey Bolar
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    • Opinion

    Give the American People a Voice on the Next Supreme Court Justice

    President Barack Obama will soon nominate a justice to fill Antonin Scalia’s seat on the Supreme Court. Senate Republicans have vowed to ignore him until after the voters decide in November who will serve as our next president. That’s exactly what should happen.  
    Daily Signal Staff
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    • Opinion

    How a New Liberal Supreme Court Justice Would Change America

    It’s another day, and another tantrum from Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. But it doesn’t matter how much he jumps up and down and stomps his feet—we aren’t going to let the far left get away with denying the American people the opportunity to be heard. Letting the American people decide this question is the reasonable approach….
    Sen. Chuck Grassley
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    • News

    Will Tie Votes on the Supreme Court Be a Problem? These 2 Justices Don’t Think So.

    For more than a century, the Supreme Court’s bench has had nine spots, enough to round out the roster of a baseball team. With the death of Antonin Scalia, eight justices remain. Now President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats are pushing Republicans to OK an Obama recruit to replace Scalia. But Republicans say the court can field cases…
    Philip Wegmann
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    • News

    Democrats Count on Public Pressure as Their ‘Best Weapon’ in Supreme Court Fight

    From the steps of the Supreme Court, Senate Democrats unleashed their latest messaging barrage in the battle over whether President Obama should fill the open seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., blasted Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, after the chairman of the Judiciary Committee accused Democrats earlier Thursday of throwing…
    Philip Wegmann
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    • News

    6 Supreme Court Rulings That Could Be Overturned If a Liberal Replaced Scalia

    If President Barack Obama or a future Democratic successor were to replace late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia with a liberal, a host of prior high court decisions that favored conservatives could be revisited, and possibly be overruled completely. The reach of cases that could get another look by a liberal majority Supreme Court touch on…
    Josh Siegel
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    • News

    Flashback to 1992: When Democrats Halted a Republican President’s Judicial Nominees

    If Senate Democrats get their way, Republicans won’t follow their example. That is, Senate Republicans in 2016 won’t act as Democrats did when they blocked court confirmations in 1992. Twenty-four years ago looked a lot like the inverse of today. On the eve of a presidential election, there was a Republican in the White House and…
    Philip Wegmann
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    • News

    Next President Could Stack the Deck as Supreme Court Justices Near Retirement

    With three of the surviving Supreme Court justices in or near their 80s, successors named by the next president could shift the ideological makeup of the nation’s highest court. Within hours of Justice Antonin Scalia’s death Saturday at age 79, President Barack Obama and Senate Republicans began to clash over whether he should nominate, and the Senate confirm, a…
    Leah Jessen
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