The Marble Palace Blog: Supreme Court

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: New SCOTUS Books Coming In Over the Transom

Tony Mauro | October 14, 2022

As the Supreme Court’s new term begins, some important new books about the court have arrived.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: Stalled for Years, Warren Burger's Biography Is Back on Track

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.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: The Story of a Forgotten Black Supreme Court Advocate From the 19th Century

Tony Mauro | September 23, 2022

Cornelius Jones, one of the few Black Supreme Court advocates of his time, is remembered.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: Justice William O. Douglas, an Early Activist of the Environmental Movement

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.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: An Inside Look at How Justices Handled Oral Arguments During the Pandemic

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.

News

The Marble Palace Blog: What It's Really Like to Argue Before SCOTUS

Tony Mauro | August 15, 2022

A new book reveals the angst, drama and adventure of arguing before the Supreme Court.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: A Lawyer Who Won a 1983 SCOTUS Free Speech Case on Behalf of His Wife Has Died at Age 70

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.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: An Unearthed Cache of Letters From a SCOTUS Secretary Reveals How Unliked Some Justices Were

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.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: Justice Barrett's 'Austere and Desert-Like' Writing Style

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.

Analysis

The Marble Palace Blog: The Longest SCOTUS Oral Argument

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.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: Byron White, Supreme Court Justice and Basketball Star

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.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: After 20 Years, Howard Bashman Still Shows How Appealing Appellate Law Can Be

Tony Mauro | June 30, 2022

Supreme Court justices, judges, law clerks, lawyers and journalists still follow Bashman’s blog for appellate news.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: Goodwin Procter Prepares for Recusal Issues Given Partner's Family Ties to Ketanji Brown Jackson

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.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: When Justices Have Lawyers in the Family

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.

Conversation

The Marble Palace Blog: In New SCOTUS Ruling, Words Were Not Enough

Tony Mauro | June 09, 2022

Wednesday’s controversial Supreme Court decision included two photographs, a rare attachment to the court’s written words.

Conversation

The Marble Palace Blog: Sotomayor’s Bobblehead, Easy as Apple Pie

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.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: How a 14-Year-Old Student Made Supreme Court History

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.

Chart

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: A Famed Federal Judge Pens a Romance Novel. Yes, a Romance Novel.

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.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: At Canada's Supreme Court, There Are No Leaks

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.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: The Alito Leak and the SCOTUS Ethic of Confidentiality

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.

News

Marble Palace Blog: Celebrated as a Top SCOTUS Advocate, Lisa Blatt Laments 'Appalling Disparity' Among Lawyers Before the Court

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.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: Book Banning Trend Reaches SCOTUS Gift Shop

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.

News

The Marble Palace Blog: Ketanji Brown Jackson and Stephen Breyer Are Friends, But They Pronounce 'Amicus' Differently

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.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: RBG's Legacy Continues With Awards, Auctions and Donations

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.

News

The Marble Palace Blog: Kagan, Biden, Clinton and Other Friends of Walter Dellinger Pay Tribute

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."

News

The Marble Palace Blog: Will There Be a Third Justice Jackson?

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.

News

The Marble Palace Blog: Tweeting Supreme Court History

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.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: The Bygone Boutique Law Firm That Enticed Ketanji Brown Jackson and Amy Coney Barrett

Tony Mauro | March 04, 2022

A legendary Washington law firm that is remembered for attracting young talent, including future Supreme Court justices.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: A Former Law Clerk’s Favorite SCOTUS Movie

Tony Mauro | February 18, 2022

A former clerk reminisces about his favorite Supreme Court-related movie. What’s your favorite SCOTUS movie?

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: Breyer’s Passion for Buildings (Including the Marble Palace)

Tony Mauro | February 04, 2022

Once he is retired, Justice Stephen Breyer may resume his fervor for all things architectural.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: Recalling Breyer's Quirky Hypotheticals and Epic Questions

Tony Mauro | January 27, 2022

Justice Breyer livened up oral arguments with odd hypotheticals and rambling questions that kept advocates on their toes.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: 6th Circuit Judge Merritt, Once Considered for SCOTUS Seat, Has Died at Age 86

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.”

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: Roy Reardon's SCOTUS Hole in One

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.

News

The Marble Palace Blog: 'Plessy' and Precedent

Tony Mauro | January 07, 2022

The scar of "Plessy v. Ferguson" still reverberates in the current Supreme Court.

News

The Marble Palace Blog: The Role of Justices and Judges in a Tumultuous Time

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.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: The Supreme Court's Powerful Eggnog Recipe

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.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: Seven Years of Trying to Fix the Supreme Court

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.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: Gifts for SCOTUS Devotees

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.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: Will Opinion Announcements Fade Away?

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

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: Justices as Speechmakers

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.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: Midnight at SCOTUS

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.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: General Prelogar

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?

Analysis

'The Marble Palace Blog': Should It Become the Harlan Palace?

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?

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: Farewell to the Justices' Barber

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.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: Author John Grisham and Supreme Court Thrillers

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.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: 'OYEZ! OYEZ!' Meet the New Marshal

Tony Mauro | October 15, 2021

The Supreme Court has a new voice: Gail Curley, the court’s new marshal.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: First Questioner

Tony Mauro | October 13, 2021

Justice Clarence Thomas has asked the first question of 10 of 11 lawyers at the lectern so far.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: What SCOTUS Lawyers Look Like

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.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: Before the Supreme Court's First Monday Comes the Sunday Red Mass

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.

Commentary

The Marble Palace Blog: Yes, Justices Make Mistakes

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.

Commentary

News

The Marble Palace Blog: How the SCOTUS Long Conference Started + Did Scalia Really Watch RBG Parasail?

Tony Mauro | September 27, 2021

One justice is credited with starting the annual long conference 50 years ago.