Recent Decisions Explained
What the Court has decided
Every ruling, broken down into what happened, what it means, and how it touches everyday life.
National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Comm'n
The Supreme Court held that federal limits on a political party's campaign spending in coordination with its candidates violate the First Amendment.
Read the breakdown →
Trump v. Barbara
The Supreme Court held that the Constitution guarantees citizenship to children born in the United States even if their parents are unlawfully or temporarily present.
Read the breakdown →
Jones v. United States
The Supreme Court declined to review a case involving the enforceability of a legal waiver that prevents a defendant from challenging their conviction in court.
Read the breakdown →
West Virginia v. B. P. J.
The Supreme Court ruled that schools may limit participation on women’s and girls’ sports teams to biological females under Title IX and the Constitution.
Read the breakdown →
Trump v. Barbara Revisions: 7/01/26
The Supreme Court held that children born in the U.S. to parents who are temporarily or unlawfully present are citizens under the Fourteenth Amendment.
Read the breakdown →
Doe v. Hochul
The Supreme Court declined to hear a case where healthcare workers argued their employers violated federal law by firing them for refusing COVID-19 vaccines on religious grounds.
Read the breakdown →
Smith v. Kind
The Supreme Court declined to review a case where prison guards were granted immunity for keeping a naked inmate in a freezing cell for 23 hours.
Read the breakdown →
Dershowitz v. Cable News Network, Inc.
The Supreme Court declined to hear a case brought by Alan Dershowitz that challenged the high legal bar public figures must meet to win defamation lawsuits.
Read the breakdown →
Chatrie v. United States
The Supreme Court ruled that police conduct a Fourth Amendment search when they use geofence warrants to obtain cell-phone location history data from companies like Google.
Read the breakdown →
Watson v. Republican National Committee
The Supreme Court ruled that federal law does not prevent Mississippi from counting absentee ballots that are postmarked by election day but arrive up to five days later.
Read the breakdown →
Trump v. Cook
The Supreme Court refused to let the President fire a Federal Reserve Governor without first providing a specific legal reason and a formal opportunity to respond.
Read the breakdown →
Trump v. Slaughter
The Supreme Court ruled that the President can fire Federal Trade Commission members at will, striking down a law that only allowed removals for cause.
Read the breakdown →
Wolford v. Lopez
The Supreme Court ruled that Hawaii cannot prohibit licensed firearm owners from carrying handguns on private property open to the public without the owner's express consent.
Read the breakdown →
Mullin v. Doe
The Supreme Court held that federal law prevents courts from reviewing most challenges to the government's decision to end Temporary Protected Status for foreign nationals.
Read the breakdown →
Mullin v. Al Otro Lado
The Supreme Court ruled that noncitizens standing in Mexico are not considered to have arrived in the U.S. and are not entitled to asylum processing.
Read the breakdown →
Monsanto v. Durnell
The Supreme Court ruled that federal law prevents states from requiring cancer warnings on pesticide labels when the Environmental Protection Agency has determined such warnings are not necessary.
Read the breakdown →
Pung v. Isabella County
The Supreme Court ruled that when the government sells a home to pay back taxes, 'just compensation' is the actual auction price rather than the property's fair market value.
Read the breakdown →
Landor v. Louisiana Dept of Corrections and Public Safety
The Supreme Court ruled that state prison employees cannot be sued for money damages in their personal capacities under a federal religious protection law because they did not personally agree to the law’s terms.
Read the breakdown →
Cisco Systems, Inc. v. Doe
The Supreme Court ruled that federal courts cannot create new lawsuits for international law violations under the Alien Tort Statute and that the Torture Victim Protection Act does not allow for aiding-and-abetting claims.
Read the breakdown →
Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Corporación Cimex, S. A. (Cuba)
The Supreme Court ruled that the Helms-Burton Act allows U.S. nationals to sue Cuban government-owned companies for confiscated property without meeting the requirements of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.
Read the breakdown →
Blanche v. Lau
The Supreme Court ruled that border officers do not need clear and convincing evidence of a crime before treating a returning permanent resident as an applicant for admission.
Read the breakdown →
Landor v. Louisiana Dept of Corrections and Public Safety Revisions: 6/24/26
The Supreme Court ruled that under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), state employees cannot be sued in their personal capacities because they did not personally consent to such liability.
Read the breakdown →
Grayson v. United States
The Supreme Court vacated a lower court ruling after the federal government admitted that a specific wiretap law does not include a 'clean-hands' exception for admitting illegal recordings.
Read the breakdown →
Saldaño v. Texas
The Supreme Court declined to review a Texas court's refusal to grant a hearing to a death-row inmate who claims he is intellectually disabled.
Read the breakdown →
United States v. Carter
The Supreme Court declined to review a case regarding whether a person's race should be considered when determining if a police encounter was a seizure.
Read the breakdown →
McCarthy v. Hernandez
The Supreme Court reversed a ruling that granted a new trial to Pedro Hernandez, holding that federal law did not require a state court to instruct a jury on legal rules regarding tainted confessions.
Read the breakdown →
United States v. Hemani
The Supreme Court ruled that prosecuting a person for possessing a firearm while being an unlawful drug user violates the Second Amendment when the law lacks a historical tradition of similar regulation.
Read the breakdown →
Hunter v. United States
The Supreme Court held that appeal waivers in plea agreements are unenforceable if a sentence would result in a miscarriage of justice.
Read the breakdown →
Hunter v. United States Revisions: 6/19/26
The Supreme Court held that an appeal waiver is unenforceable when it would result in a miscarriage of justice involving egregious judicial error.
Read the breakdown →
T. M. v. University of Md. Medical System Corporation
The Supreme Court ruled that federal district courts cannot review state-court judgments, even if those judgments are still being appealed in state court.
Read the breakdown →
T. M. v. University of Md. Medical System Corporation Revisions: 6/19/26
The Supreme Court held that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine prevents federal district courts from reviewing state-court judgments even if those judgments are still being appealed in state court.
Read the breakdown →
Alabama v. Powell
The Supreme Court declined to review an Alabama court's decision that reversed a murder conviction due to a prosecutor's comments at trial.
Read the breakdown →
E.D. v. Noblesville School District
The Supreme Court declined to hear a case about a school's refusal to allow a student club to display pro-life posters.
Read the breakdown →
FS Credit Opportunities Corp. v. Saba Capital Master Fund, Ltd.
The Supreme Court ruled that Section 47(b) of the Investment Company Act does not allow private investors to sue for contract rescission.
Read the breakdown →
Abouammo v. United States Revisions: 6/16/26
The Supreme Court decided that a defendant charged with falsifying documents to obstruct a federal investigation must be tried where the falsification occurred.
Read the breakdown →
Abouammo v. United States
The Supreme Court ruled that a person accused of falsifying documents to obstruct an investigation must be tried where the falsification actually happened.
Read the breakdown →
Keathley v. Buddy Ayers Construction, Inc.
The Supreme Court overturned a rule that made it too difficult for bankruptcy debtors to prove an omission in their filings was an honest mistake.
Read the breakdown →
Clark v. Mississippi
The Supreme Court declined to review a case involving a claim that a lawyer’s failure to properly challenge race-based jury selection violated the right to effective counsel.
Read the breakdown →
Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. v. Amarin Pharma, Inc.
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a generic drug manufacturer's labels and marketing materials did not illegally encourage doctors to use its product for patented medical purposes.
Read the breakdown →
Sripetch v. SEC
The Supreme Court ruled that the SEC can force fraudsters to give up illegal profits even if they cannot prove investors suffered a specific financial loss.
Read the breakdown →
FCC v. AT&T
The Court ruled that the FCC’s process for issuing civil fines without a jury is constitutional because the fines cannot be collected until the government wins a new trial in front of a jury.
Read the breakdown →
Allen v. Milligan
The Supreme Court paused a lower court order that had blocked Alabama from using its 2023 congressional map, allowing the state’s preferred lines to proceed for the 2026 elections.
Read the breakdown →
Whitton v. Dixon
The Supreme Court vacated a lower court judgment because it wrongly considered DNA evidence that did not exist at the time of the original trial to decide if a witness's false testimony affected the jury's verdict.
Read the breakdown →
Fernandez v. United States
The Supreme Court ruled that federal prisoners cannot use compassionate release motions to challenge the legal validity of their convictions.
Read the breakdown →
Rutherford v. United States
The Supreme Court ruled that a sentence disparity created by a law change Congress chose not to make retroactive cannot qualify as an extraordinary reason for reducing a prison term.
Read the breakdown →
Flowers Foods, Inc. v. Brock
A worker who delivers goods on an intrastate leg of an interstate journey can qualify for the arbitration exemption without crossing state lines.
Read the breakdown →
Pitchford v. Cain
The Supreme Court ruled that a Mississippi court unreasonably failed to follow proper procedures for investigating whether a prosecutor used race-based jury strikes.
Read the breakdown →
Florida v. California
The Supreme Court declined to hear a lawsuit brought by Florida against Washington and California over those states' practices in issuing commercial driver’s licenses to foreign nationals.
Read the breakdown →