The Supreme Court will consider a case at the end of March that could limit Congress’ ability to let federal regulators determine what public health and safety standards are necessary. Depending on what the court decides, any statute that grants discretion to an agency could be open for re-review, said Jessica Ellsworth, a partner at Hogan Lovells. "There's probably hundreds of thousands of places in the US code that there are terms used like 'in the public interest,' whether something is 'necessary' and 'appropriate,' whether something is 'reasonable,' whether something is 'fair' or 'unfair ..read more

After a slow start, Supreme Court justices will hear consequential disputes as they head into second half of the term. "This might be the eye in the storm that this was kind of a bit of a slower term," said Goodwin partner Brian Burgess. "There's some big, big cases ahead." Burgess highlights cases involving religious rights, Obamacare, and forum shopping with Cases and Controversies hosts Lydia Wheeler and Kimberly Robinson. Do you have feedback on this episode of Cases and Controversies? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690 ..read more

A fight over plans for a privately owned nuclear waste storage facility in Texas seemed to divide the US Supreme Court as the justices wrestled with a federal agency’s regulatory authority and who can challenge it. Cases and Controversies hosts Greg Stohr and Lydia Wheeler unpack Wednesday’s arguments in the dispute over a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license that would have moved as much as 40,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel to a privately owned facility. The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled the agency didn’t have the authority to grant the license after Texas and neighboring l ..read more

The US Supreme Court hears argument March 4 in a case over gun industry protections from lawsuits. The dispute involving Mexico and Smith & Wesson Brands Inc. centers on whether exceptions to the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act open manufacturers to court challenges. Mexico alleges gunmakers intentionally trade with suppliers for drug cartels and the law allows suits when industry knowingly violates firearms laws in a way that causes injury. Industry says it's shielded, but the Boston-based US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has said not so fast. Cases and Controversi ..read more

The Supreme Court- has been pulled into its first dispute over a Trump administration action with more cases likely coming its way. Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris asked the justices in an emergency request to toss out a temporary restraining order that stopped President Donald Trump from firing the head of the US Office of Special Counsel. Lower courts have issued TROs in response to Trump’s executive actions now testing presidential authority to reshape the federal workforce, government spending, and citizenship rights. Thomas Berry, the director of the Center for Constitutional Studie ..read more

The US Supreme Court is confronting the stark reality that, unlike the other two branches of government, the court has no real power to enforce its decisions. Should someone — whether government official or private citizen — refuse to comply, the justices have no army or constitutional spending power to use as a cudgel, Bloomberg Supreme Court reporter Greg Stohr writes in a new longform essay. That age-old quandary is becoming newly relevant as Donald Trump tries to bulldoze his way through longstanding legal constraints in the opening weeks of his second term as president. As ..read more

The US Supreme Court will hear arguments in a reverse discrimination case when the justices return to the bench at the end of the month.  A heterosexual woman is asking the court to revive her lawsuit against the Ohio Department of Youth Services where she's worked since 2004 after the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit said she hadn't shown the "background circumstances" necessary to take her case to trial. The court didn't just ask for a little bit more evidence, it asked for a lot more, said Xiao Wang, director of the University of Virginia's Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, who ..read more

President Donald Trump’s executive orders have sparked a flurry of legal challenges that tee-up constitutional questions about the breadth of executive power the US Supreme Court may be forced to settle. Daniel Cotter, a partner at Dickinson Wright who writes a column on the Supreme Court for the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, joins Cases and Controversies to talk about which disputes could get Supreme Court review. Hosts Greg Stohr and Lydia Wheeler also chat about new cases the justices tacked on to the term, including one over a taxpayer-funded religious charter school in Oklahoma, and discuss ..read more

Supreme Court justices seemed to agree courts should look at the totality of circumstances when analyzing whether a police officer's use of deadly force was reasonable. During arguments Wednesday, the US Supreme Court appeared ready to rule the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit had used the wrong test when it considered the claims of a mother who argues a Texas police officer unjustly shot and killed her son during a traffic stop in 2016. Cases and Controversies hosts Kimberly Robinson and Lydia Wheeler discuss the arguments in that dispute over the officer’s use of deadly force and th ..read more

Several justices on the Supreme Court seemed eager this week to debate the constitutionality of a Texas law that requires porn sites to verify the age of users to keep kids from viewing obscene content online. But the court was only asked in the case argued Wednesday to answer whether the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit applied the correct standard when assessing whether the law violated the free speech rights of adults. “I don't know if there is going to be sufficient alignment on how to get to the answers here,” said Mark Brennan, who works with a variety of companies in the online ..read more