SCOTUS Week in Review: Back to school, home spirits and a rare decision

The Supreme Court spent the past week expanding its workload and issuing several unexplained orders, with some of the most notable signals coming from individual justices. On Monday it agreed to hear two more appeals, one over race in middle school admissions and one over whether Congress may ban home distilling. That follows the prior week's decision to review a discovery fight tied to Elon Musk's government efficiency effort. Rulings in argued cases usually arrive by July, according to MS NOW.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Neil Gorsuch again joined forces, this time criticizing constitutional problems with car seizures in Chicago, in a case the court declined to take. Justice Samuel Alito noted he would have heard Missouri's appeal over a rule requiring registered sex offenders to post Halloween signs; a lower court found the rule unconstitutionally compelled speech. Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas also wanted to grant the Trump administration's request to enforce its gender-affirming care policy in prisons, but the court refused, a temporary win for transgender people.

Justice Elena Kagan, speaking at a Washington law school, said the court's conservative-leaning members have ignored how their rulings harm democracy.

Summarized by PolitiKool from MS NOW’s reporting. Read the full story at MS NOW →