Amy Howe

The Supreme Court on Monday morning added one new case to its docket for the 2026-27 term. The justices will hear arguments sometime in the fall on whether employees can bring lawsuits for sex discrimination under a federal law that applies to schools that receive federal funding.

We realized Ask Amy was making our Friday newsletters rather long, so we’ll now run this on Wednesdays in place of a Closer Look.

When the justices meet for their private conference on Thursday, there is one high-profile petition for review they will not consider, even though it has been fully briefed since late January: an appeal by President Donald Trump seeking review of the $5 million jury verdict entered against him in the sexual abuse and defamation case filed by journalist E. Jean Carroll.

The Supreme Court on Thursday left in place a ruling by a federal appeals court in favor of an Alabama man who has been on that state’s death row for more than two decades. In a one-sentence, unsigned order, the court dismissed Alabama’s petition for review in Hamm v. Smith as “improvidently granted” – that is, without deciding it. That order leaves undisturbed a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit holding that Joseph Smith is intellectually disabled and therefore cannot be executed.

More than 65 years after the confiscation by Cuba’s communist government of assets owned by U.S. businesses there, the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled in favor of a U.S. business that is seeking to recover for its losses under a 1996 law that targets the Cuban regime. By a vote of 8-1, the justices ruled in

A history of Supreme Court leaks

The Supreme Court on Tuesday morning reversed a ruling by a federal appeals court that had revived a dispute over a policy governing speaking engagements by immigration judges. In a list of orders

Plus, Amy answers a question about recusal decisions.

The U.S. Supreme Court (unlike some ) does not divide its docket between civil and criminal cases. So I do. With about five weeks left in the current Supreme Court term, it’s time for a quick update on how the court is handling its criminal cases this term, and a brief description of “big” criminal cases that still await decision. As Justice Amy Coney Barrett

Justice Amy Coney Barrett was the target of a “swatting” incident – a false call reporting gunshots intended to provoke a response from law enforcement officials – on Wednesday night, according to a report on social media. Andrew Leyden, a freelance photographer who posts frequently on X as @PenguinSix, indicated on Thursday morning that police had responded to a call at Barrett’s home on Wednesday night, “but quickly realized it was a swatting call” and left “after meeting with her security detail.”