Cases and Controversies

By Bloomberg Law

What's Cases and Controversies about?

Bloomberg Law's Cases and Controversies brings you the latest from the Supreme Court. Each week we preview oral arguments at the Court or feature in-depth interviews. We explore critical legal issues with Supreme Court advocates, judges, law professors, lawyers, and legal journalists. Hosts: Kimberly Robinson and Greg Stohr.

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Justices Suggest Narrow Rul...

12.01.2023

The Supreme Court appeared likely to require the Securities and Exchange Commission to bring certain enforcement actions in federal court, rather than resolve them in-house. The only question appeared to be whether the justices' ruling will ensnare other federal agencies. ...

Cases and Controversies episodes:

12.01.2023 Justices Suggest Narrow Ruling on SEC Enforcement The Supreme Court appeared likely to require the Securities and Exchange Commission to bring certain enforcement actions in federal court, rather than resolve them in-house. The only question appeared to be whether the justices' ruling will ensnare other federal agencies. ...
11.17.2023 Supreme Court’s First Ethics Code Gets Cool Reception The Supreme Court’s inaugural code of conduct, issued under pressure from transparency advocates and Congress, does little to quell concern over how the justices conduct themselves on ethics, critics say. The Brennan Center’s Jennifer Ahearn joins Cases and Controversies to ...
11.09.2023 Justices Weigh New Gun Test in Domestic Violence Case A lopsided Supreme Court appeared ready to side with the Biden administration in a Second Amendment challenge to a federal gun ban for those subject to domestic violence restraining orders. The real issue for the justices is how to apply ...
11.03.2023 Justices Seek Balance for Online Speech Protections The justices searched for the proper line to balance free speech protections for public officials and their constituents online, in the first of several disputes involving social media this term. The Electronic Frontier Foundation's David Greene joins Cases and Controveries ...
10.20.2023 Barrett Rocks Out As Justices Return to Courtroom Justice Amy Coney Barrett made news this week when she became the latest justice to back a high court ethics code, but her tale of rocking out to the turn-of-the-century hit "Who Let the Dogs Out" in the stately halls ...
10.13.2023 Justices Take Up South Carolina Redistricting Dispute Fresh off last term’s win in an Alabama redistricting case, civil rights groups returned to the Supreme Court to argue that voting maps drawn by South Carolina Republicans disenfranchise Black voters and should be redrawn. But arguments in Alexander v. ...
10.06.2023 Barrett, Kavanaugh Could Be Key in CFPB Funding Fight Whether funding of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is unlawful or not could rest with conservative Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, one court watcher says. Brennan Center for Justice President and CEO Michael Waldman joins Cases and Controversies ...
09.29.2023 Blockbuster Fallout Looms Over New Supreme Court Term The Supreme Court kicks off its 2023 term on Monday with guns, abortion, and affirmative action potentially coming back—whether the justices are ready for them or not. Advocates and lower courts are emboldened by the high court’s recent rulings in ...
09.26.2023 Death Row Defendants Find Few Wins at Supreme Court Death penalty cases are often adjudicated for years, if not decades, before they reach the Supreme Court. But once they do, the justices must make life-or-death decisions in a relatively quick amount of time. Death penalty cases at the Supreme ...
09.22.2023 'Cases and Controversies': A Dramatic First Decade From Antonin Scalia’s sudden death, to four new justices, a leaked opinion draft, the overturning of abortion rights, and the pandemic-era introduction of live audio for oral arguments—a lot has happened at the Supreme Court in the past decade and ...
07.07.2023 Supreme Court ‘Supersized’ Major Questions Doctrine Rejection of Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness plan suggests Supreme Court conservatives are going to be more comfortable with second-guessing federal agency determinations even when they fall within a federal statute. UCLA law professor Adam Winkler joins Cases and Controversies ...
06.30.2023 Supreme Court Wraps Up With Conservative Trifecta on Big Cases Conservative justices asserted themselves in a big way in the final days of the Supreme Court term. The six Republican-appointed justices joined together in striking down affirmative action, rejecting Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, and supporting religious liberty in ...
06.23.2023 Biggest Cases Loom as Supreme Court Hits Homestretch The Supreme Court heads into the final week of the term for argued cases with a flurry of opinions on tap, including what could be a blockbuster on affirmative action in higher education and the fate of Joe Biden’s student ...
06.16.2023 Tribal Adoption Law Survives Colorblind Challenge In upholding a landmark measure meant to keep adopted American-Indian children with tribal families, the Supreme Court again declined to embrace a colorblind view of federal law. The conservative argument that race should almost never be a factor in setting ...
06.09.2023 Justices Surprise by Refusing to Remake Voting Rights The Supreme Court declined to make it harder to bring racial challenges to voting rules, shocking court watchers who expected the majority conservative court to make major changes to the law. Goodwin's William Jay joins Cases and Controversies to discuss ...
06.02.2023 New Jackson Milestone as Supreme Court Term Nears End Ketanji Brown Jackson continues to draw notice on the Supreme Court, this time writing the first solo dissent from a first-term justice since Clarence Thomas in 1991. Cases and Controversies hosts Kimberly Robinson and Greg Stohr discuss Jackson’s dissent in ...
05.26.2023 Unanimity Doesn’t Mean Supreme Court Agrees Completely · Court clips EPA authority over clean water · Chides local government on home seizure Although Supreme Court justices were unanimous in backing landowners in a Big EPA case, their reasoning in the latest check on administrative authority shows there ...
05.19.2023 Jackson Breaks Mold for New Justices at Oral Argument Jackson spoke significantly more than any other justice Was joined by other liberals as most talkative Ketanji Brown Jackson made her mark on US Supreme Court arguments like no other new justice in memory. Her historic confirmation as the first ...
05.12.2023 High Court Veteran Examines Changing Oral Arguments The Supreme Court kicked off opinion season with five rulings, leaving 39 more to get out before the term wraps up in June. Hosts Kimberly Robinson and Greg Stohr break down decisions covering immigration, public corruption, and state morality laws. ...
05.04.2023 Supreme Court Ethics, Agency Powers Draw Spotlight The Supreme Court hasn’t released an opinion in weeks, but it did add a major case on May 1 to its docket looking at the power of administrative agencies. A dispute that started over a federal rule for companies fishing ...
05.01.2023 Supreme Court Opinion Season Begins With Big Backlog With scheduled arguments over for the term, Supreme Court justices now turn their attention to their remaining opinions, and it’s going to be a heavy lift over the next two months. The court has worked at a historically slow pace ...
04.20.2023 Supreme Court Abortion Dispute, Ethics Saga Intensify The Supreme Court enters its final week of scheduled arguments, rounding out the calendar to date with a property case that plaintiffs say amounts to home equity theft by local governments. Pacific Legal Foundation’s David Deerson joins “Cases and Controversies” ...
04.13.2023 No Opinions or Arguments, But Not Quiet at High Court Another Texas abortion case headed the justices’ way and a bombshell report on Clarence Thomas and his luxury vacations upended a usual quiet spring break from Supreme Court arguments and opinions. Cases and Controversies host Kimberly Robinson explains the fast-moving ...
04.06.2023 Worker Religious Accommodation Test Set for Top Court An Evangelical Christian postal carrier in Pennsylvania, who says he was forced out of the job for refusing to work on Sundays, wants the US Supreme Court to do more to accommodate workers’ religious practices. Cases and Controversies explores the ...
03.30.2023 ‘True Threats’ Free Speech Test for US Supreme Court The US Supreme Court is set to hear a free speech case that tests when statements are considered true threats not protected by the First Amendment. The justices are being asked in Counterman v. Colorado if the government has to ...
03.27.2023 Murder-For-Hire Trial Tests Reach of Sixth Amendment The Supreme Court is considering an appeal that could force prosecutors to reconsider their tactics in criminal cases. This includes what evidence to introduce and how to try multiple defendants. Cases and Controversies hosts Kimberly Robinson & Greg Stohr will ...
03.20.2023 Supreme Court Faces Growing Calls for Ethics Code Questions involving their family ties and associations with other powerful people are nothing new for US Supreme Court justices. But now those relationships are generating more attention and criticism, and are partly fueling calls for them to adopt an ethics ...
03.10.2023 Jack Daniel's and Bad Spaniels Spat to Hit High Court The Jack Daniel’s brand is at the heart of the US Supreme Court’s latest intellectual property dispute that pits free speech protections against trademark concerns. Debevoise & Plimpton’s Megan K. Bannigan joins “Cases and Controversies” in search of a middle ...
03.02.2023 CFPB Challenge Latest in Separation of Powers Remake The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau faces a challenge to its existence in a case the US Supreme Court will take up next term. The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled the agency’s funding mechanism violates separation of ...
02.23.2023 Minority Borrowers Aim to Influence Court in Loan Case Genevieve Bonadies Torres, an associate director with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, joined “Cases and Controversies” podcast to discuss the amicus brief she filed in a pair of cases, Biden v. Nebraska and Dept. of Education v. ...
02.16.2023 Internet’s Future Up to Justices in Social Media Cases Deadly terror attacks behind a pair of cases set for argument at the Supreme Court could change the legal landscape for social media and other online companies. Families of victims in the violence abroad say in separate cases that tech ...
02.09.2023 Rare Rehearing Could Derail High Court Voting Ruling A potential blockbuster ruling on the way states determine their voting rules could be hijacked by the North Carolina Supreme Court after the 2022 elections flipped control of the state court to Republicans. The justices heard arguments in Moore v. ...
01.20.2023 Lapses Shown in Leak Probe Raise Questions for Court Although no suspect’s been identified so far in last year’s leak of a draft opinion in the Supreme Court’s blockbuster abortion case, investigators have revealed details about the inner workings of a court draped in mystique. A report on the ...
01.19.2023 Criminal Prosecution of Turkish Bank Divides Justices The US government’s criminal prosecution of a Turkish-owned bank stumped Supreme Court justices who were torn at argument between potentiality harmful implications for foreign affairs and executive branch authority in that area. University of Chicago law professor Curtis Bradley joins ...
01.12.2023 Slow Start, Smaller Docket Contrasts Hot-Button Term A lack of opinions and an increasingly smaller caseload stand in contrast to the hot-button issues that the Supreme Court has agreed to tackle this term. Empirical SCOTUS founder Adam Feldman joins Cases and Controversies to discuss the possible reasons ...
01.05.2023 Covid Rules, Attorney Client Privilege Await Justices The scope of attorney client privilege headlines a lower-profile first sitting of the new year for the Supreme Court, which returns to the bench for arguments Jan. 9. But things won’t stay quiet for long. The February argument calendar features ...
12.29.2022 Supreme Court Slow on Opinions with Big Cases Ahead The US Supreme Court is off to a historically slow start having released no opinions in argued cases so far. Kimberly Robinson and Madison Alder break down possible reasons for the drought, including hearing cases early in the term that ...
12.08.2022 Justices Search For Middle Ground In Election Fight The US Supreme Court heard marathon arguments over the role state courts play in setting federal election rules. University of Iowa law professor Derek Muller says there was little appetite on the court during arguments Dec. 7 to cut state ...
12.01.2022 LGBTQ Rights, Elections On Tap In Year-End Arguments The justices next week will hear two of the term’s most consequential cases—one in the ongoing clash between LGBTQ and religious rights and another that could change the rules of election law nationwide. Cases and Controversies hosts Kimberly Robinson and ...
11.17.2022 Texas Bid Spotlights Litigation Pressure on High Court A Supreme Court immigration case is center stage for a familiar showdown between Republican-led states suing Democratic administrations to rein in executive policies they say go too far. Cases and Controversies hosts Kimberly Robinson and Greg Stohr talk with University ...
11.10.2022 Justices May Further Limit Where Business Can Be Sued The Supreme Court could continue to pull back on places where companies can be sued in a jurisdictional case that’s gotten little notice despite its importance to business. Kimberly Robinson and Lydia Wheeler break down Tuesday’s high-court back and forth ...
11.03.2022 Trump Shadow Docket, Election-Week Cases at SCOTUS High profile shadow docket disputes from Donald Trump and others keep hitting the US Supreme Court as the justices gear up to hear an array of arguments during midterm-election week. Bloomberg Law Supreme Court reporters Kimberly Robinson and Jordan Rubin ...
10.27.2022 Affirmative Action, Habeas, and Supreme Court Stamp Affirmative action is making headlines as a Supreme Court blockbuster, but there’s a closely watched financial reporting case and two others dealing with criminal matters on tap as well in the November sitting that actually kicks off on Halloween. Bloomberg ...
10.20.2022 American Indian Child Welfare Gets High-Court Hearing The Supreme Court is gearing up for its next argument sitting that will feature closely watched disputes about race and identity. While most attention may be on the affirmative action cases set for argument Oct. 31, the Nov. 9 hearing ...
10.13.2022 Race at Supreme Court in Voting, DNA-Testing Appeals The Supreme Court just wrapped up its October argument session, hearing disputes on voting, the environment, copyright, and more. The Legal Defense Fund’s Samuel Spital joins the latest Cases and Controversies to help hosts Kimberly Robinson and Jordan Rubin break ...
10.06.2022 Animal Cruelty, Andy Warhol Top High Court Arguments A dispute over a California animal-cruelty law and the potential impact on other cultural and social issues tops Week 2 of the new Supreme Court term. The case to be argued on Oct. 11, National Pork Producers v. Ross, centers ...
09.29.2022 Voting Rights, Environment Kick Off Supreme Court Term The First Monday in October kicks off Supreme Court arguments in a short week featuring disputes over the future of voting rights and environmental regulation. Bloomberg Law reporters Kimberly Robinson and Jordan Rubin give a sneak peek of the action ...
09.22.2022 Andy Warhol, Prince, and the New Supreme Court Term With the new US Supreme Court term set to start Oct. 3, Cases and Controversies returns with a deep dive episode on a big copyright dispute over Andy Warhol images of Prince. Orrick partner Mel Bostwick joins hosts Kimberly Robinson ...
07.08.2022 Nothing Comes Close: The Historic Supreme Court Term From shifts in the law to public reaction to its rulings, the US Supreme Court’s just-concluded term appears to be a blockbuster like no other. Since the Warren Court of the 1950s and 1960s, “I don’t think we’ve seen any ...
07.01.2022 Blockbuster Term Ends, Jackson Joins and Makes History The Supreme Court is finished with its blockbuster term but the focus is already shifting to the next one, with Ketanji Brown Jackson now sworn-in as the first Black woman justice. Jackson comes aboard following a tumultuous nine months that ...

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