A look at the Supreme Court’s history and mysteries, its quirks and its clerks. We'll also alert you to new books, movies, documentaries and operas about the court, as well as recusals, aberrations and justices’ off-bench activities.
Tony Mauro | October 14, 2022
As the Supreme Court’s new term begins, some important new books about the court have arrived.
Tony Mauro | September 30, 2022
Chief Justice Warren Burger died in 1995, but efforts to write the biography of his life and legacy have taken time.
Tony Mauro | September 23, 2022
Cornelius Jones, one of the few Black Supreme Court advocates of his time, is remembered.
Tony Mauro | September 06, 2022
A compelling new book by a Ninth Circuit judge focuses on the conservation advocacy of Douglas and his high public profile, unlike any other.
Tony Mauro | August 26, 2022
During a recent conference, Justice Elena Kagan explained why colleagues were “very split” on how to make oral arguments work in the COVID-19 era.
Tony Mauro | August 15, 2022
A new book reveals the angst, drama and adventure of arguing before the Supreme Court.
Tony Mauro | August 10, 2022
Sebastian Graber, a lawyer who represented activists, was best known for a case about the right to demonstrate on Supreme Court grounds.
Tony Mauro | August 05, 2022
In letters recently uncovered, a former secretary for SCOTUS justices in the 1930’s wrote about life at the court and her least favorite justices.
Tony Mauro | July 27, 2022
In her nearly two years on the Supreme Court bench, Amy Coney Barrett has developed her own terse way of writing opinions.
Tony Mauro | July 21, 2022
In a Supreme Court oral argument this past term, something unusual happened: The longest argument by a single advocate in decades. Here is how it came about.
Tony Mauro | July 15, 2022
The late Justice Byron White was a famed football player in his younger days, but his basketball skill made a mark inside and outside the court.
Tony Mauro | June 30, 2022
Supreme Court justices, judges, law clerks, lawyers and journalists still follow Bashman’s blog for appellate news.
Tony Mauro | June 23, 2022
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s brother-in-law, William Jackson, is a partner in the firm’s complex litigation and dispute resolution practice.
Tony Mauro | June 17, 2022
It’s no surprise that Supreme Court justices have lawyers as relatives, but sometimes when they do, things get tricky.
Tony Mauro | June 09, 2022
Wednesday’s controversial Supreme Court decision included two photographs, a rare attachment to the court’s written words.
Tony Mauro | June 03, 2022
For the first time in five years, the Green Bag has issued a new bobblehead of a sitting Supreme Court justice, this time Sonia Sotomayor, complete with a baseball mitt and a slice of apple pie.
Tony Mauro | May 27, 2022
After Brown v. Board of Education, Chief Justice Earl Warren insisted on hiring an African-American student to become one of the court’s “pages” or aides.
Tony Mauro | May 19, 2022
A romance novel by Judge Wilkinson raises eyebrows, but he says creative writing helps him as a judge and makes his legal writing fresher and more accessible.
Tony Mauro | May 12, 2022
The Supreme Court of Canada gives journalists advance access to court decisions before they are made public, giving them time to better understand and report about the cases. Secrecy-prone SCOTUS is not likely to follow suit.
Tony Mauro | May 03, 2022
The stunning leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion shakes the foundation of the court’s ethic of confidentiality and discretion.
Tony Mauro | April 28, 2022
Williams & Connolly partner Lisa Blatt, honored Wednesday by fellow SCOTUS colleagues, said action, not talk, is needed to increase diversity among the Supreme Court bar.
Tony Mauro | April 21, 2022
A book by Jamie Raskin about the constitutional rights of students, sold at the Supreme Court Historical Society’s (virtual) gift shop and elsewhere, is on a Texas list of books to be removed from schools.
Tony Mauro | April 14, 2022
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers said “Let's Call the Whole Thing Off” when they disagreed on how to pronounce "tomato." But Justice Breyer and Justice-to-be Jackson will surely stay friends, even though they say the Latin word for friend differently.
Tony Mauro | April 08, 2022
With an auction of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s art collection opening on April 27, along with other awards and events, the interest in RBG’s life and artifacts lives on.
Tony Mauro | March 23, 2022
In a virtual service honoring the late Walter Dellinger, President Joe Biden declared him as "the protector of American democracy," and Justice Elena Kagan praised him as a "clear-eyed optimist."
Tony Mauro | March 18, 2022
If Ketanji Brown Jackson becomes a Supreme Court justice, she’ll be the third member of the court through history with that last name. The previous two Jacksons were very different.
Tony Mauro | March 10, 2022
Duke Law professor Marin Levy has found a way to make Supreme Court history approachable and interesting, with small bites and Twitter threads.
Tony Mauro | March 04, 2022
A legendary Washington law firm that is remembered for attracting young talent, including future Supreme Court justices.
Tony Mauro | February 18, 2022
A former clerk reminisces about his favorite Supreme Court-related movie. What’s your favorite SCOTUS movie?
Tony Mauro | February 04, 2022
Once he is retired, Justice Stephen Breyer may resume his fervor for all things architectural.
Tony Mauro | January 27, 2022
Justice Breyer livened up oral arguments with odd hypotheticals and rambling questions that kept advocates on their toes.
Tony Mauro | January 20, 2022
Appeals Judge Gilbert Merritt Jr., who died on Jan. 17, is heralded as a “devoted champion of justice” and “a great mentor, boss, friend, and jurist.”
Tony Mauro | January 14, 2022
Roy Reardon, the Simpson Thacher lawyer who won a landmark Supreme Court case in 2001 for a golfer with a disability, has died at age 92.
Tony Mauro | January 07, 2022
The scar of "Plessy v. Ferguson" still reverberates in the current Supreme Court.
Tony Mauro | December 30, 2021
Judges, lawyers, law professors and even journalists weigh in on how the Supreme Court and other courts could help calm the divisions in the nation.
Tony Mauro | December 21, 2021
Just in time for December holidays: A Supreme Court recipe for eggnog, unearthed from the papers of Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone.
Tony Mauro | December 15, 2021
After seven years of trying, Fix the Court is chalking up fixes that are coming to fruition at the Supreme Court.
Tony Mauro | December 08, 2021
The Supreme Court’s gift shop is the (online) place for holiday presents for the SCOTUS aficionados in your life.
Tony Mauro | November 30, 2021
Opinion announcements from the bench, a long tradition that is an important part of justices’ public roles, may become a thing of the past
Tony Mauro | November 18, 2021
Recent sharp-edged speeches by members of the high court have been controversial, but history shows that speechmaking by justices is nothing new.
Tony Mauro | November 11, 2021
In 1997, the Supreme Court publicly tried to discourage parties from filing pleas and applications in a way that made the justices make weighty decisions late at night.
Tony Mauro | November 04, 2021
There was some suspense at the Supreme Court when new Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar took to the lectern for her first appearance: Would she be called General Prelogar?
Tony Mauro | November 01, 2021
Is it time to give the Supreme Court building a name? And would John Marshall Harlan be the right name?
Tony Mauro | October 27, 2021
“I was a regular customer of Diego’s for the past 15 years, and I always looked forward to seeing him,” Justice Alito said of the death of Diego D’Ambrosio.
Tony Mauro | October 22, 2021
You may wonder what Grisham and his book have to do with the U.S. Supreme Court, but there are connections.
Tony Mauro | October 15, 2021
The Supreme Court has a new voice: Gail Curley, the court’s new marshal.
Tony Mauro | October 13, 2021
Justice Clarence Thomas has asked the first question of 10 of 11 lawyers at the lectern so far.
Tony Mauro | October 06, 2021
A solo appellate lawyer discusses why he made a photo collage to visualize the diversity of the lawyers arguing before the Supreme Court this term.
Tony Mauro | October 01, 2021
This upcoming Red Mass may be historic. For the first time, seven of the Supreme Court’s nine justices are Catholics or have Catholic roots.
Tony Mauro | September 29, 2021
A scattering of bloopers has been made public on the court’s website after it announced a change in how opinions are publicly corrected.
Tony Mauro | September 27, 2021
One justice is credited with starting the annual long conference 50 years ago.
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