U.S. Supreme Court Decisions  

The US Supreme court declined to hear former President Trump's petition to prevent the House Ways and Means committee from obtaining tax record related to his personal and business interests. In doing so, the Supreme Court vacated the temporary stay it had ordered on November 1. "TRUMP, DONALD J., ET AL. V. COMM. ON WAYS AND MEANS, ET AL. The application for stay of the mandate presented to The Chief Justice and by him referred to the Court is denied. The order heretofore entered by The Chief Justice is vacated."

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas temporarily blocked a subpoena issued by a Georgia grand jury seeking testimony from South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham. The grand jury is investigating the actions of former President Trump and his allies who contacted state election officials. Thomas, who's responsible for emergency applications from the 11th Circuit, issued the stay on his own, without referring the question to the rest of the court. In a brief court filing, the conservative justice said the subpoena is "stayed pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court."

Washington, D.C.’s attorney general Karl Racine issued a consumer alert urging residents to avoid using Facebook Messenger and other unencrypted messaging services for their abortion planning. In a statement, Racine referenced an earlier story about a Nebraska woman who's facing multiple felony charges for allegedly helping her teenage daughter illegally abort her pregnancy. She made arrangements using Facebook Messenger. “Stories like these confirm the importance of data privacy," said Racine. Racine welcomed people from states where abortion is banned — as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade — to receive the procedure in the district, where it remains legal. But he said they should communicate using secure, encrypted messaging apps, suggesting Signal and WhatsApp, which offer secure end-to-end encryption so messages can be only seen by the recipient.

The Supreme Court denied an emergency request from former President Trump to allow the special master to review about 100 classified documents that the Justice Department separated from the other documents recovered from Mar-a-Lago in August. There were no noted dissents. The rejection from the Supreme Court is brief, declaring only that "the application to vacate the stay entered by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on September 21, 2022, presented to Justice Thomas and by him referred to the Court is denied."

The Arizona Court of Appeals blocked a judge's decision that allowed immediate enforcement of a pre-statehood law that criminalizes nearly all abortions. The ruling means that abortions can again take place in Arizona. The three-judge panel agreed with Planned Parenthood that the judge should not have lifted the order blocking the law's enforcement, an order that came about when Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973. The new order says Planned Parenthood had shown they are likely to prevail on an appeal of the decision.

The U.S. Supreme Court announced it will not hear a challenge by Mike Lindell against Dominion Voting Systems as part of the voting machine company's defamation suit against the MyPillow CEO and the company, allowing the case to move forward. The Supreme Court did not comment on why it would not hear the challenge, saying only, "The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied." It did note, however, that Justice Jackson did not participate in the decision. Dominion's defamation case against Lindell, along with cases against Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, likely won't go to trial until late 2023 or early 2024, according to a schedule a federal judge has set.

An Arizona Superior Court judge ruled that a pre-statehood ban on abortions can be enforced. Judge Kellie Johnson granted a request by the state's attorney general to lift an injunction against the ban put into place when the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade in 1973. With the injunction lifted, the law banning abortions is effectively reinstated. "The court finds that because the legal basis for the judgment entered in 1973 has now been overruled," Johnson wrote, citing the Supreme Court's recent Dobbs decision, "it must vacate the judgment in its entirety." In her ruling, the judge also stated the Arizona legislature has passed several statutes concerning abortion in the nearly 50 years since the injunction and those laws will now become precedent. The judge made specific mention of a 2021 law in which the Arizona legislature criminalized all abortions except to save the life of the mother.

President Biden signed a second executive order in response to the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade. The new order directs the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to consider further actions it can take to "advance access" to reproductive health services. In particular, the order raises Medicaid as a potential means for low-income women to cross state lines to receive abortions. Biden's executive order also directs HHS to consider issuing new guidance for compliance with nondiscrimination laws and it instructs HHS to improve research and data collection so as to accurately assess the impact of the Supreme Court’s ruling on maternal health.

The Justice Department announced the establishment of the Reproductive Rights Task Force in response to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. According to a statement, the task force will monitor state legislation and enforcement that infringes on federal legal protections, prevents women from seeking abortions in other states, impairs individuals' ability to inform and counsel each other, bans Mifepristone, or imposes criminal or civil liability on federal employees who provide abortion services.

President Biden signed an executive order aimed at protecting abortion access after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. While it will not restore access to abortion in those states that have restricted or will restrict the procedure, the order is intended to help educate people on their existing rights. In his remarks at the signing, Biden urged Americans to vote in order to codify Roe as federal law, acknowledging that to do so the Senate needs "two additional pro-choice senators" to change the filibuster rules. In addition, he said that if Republican lawmakers are able to pass a nationwide abortion ban, he would veto it.

A majority of Americans surveyed in a new poll by the Pew Research Center disapprove of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade's constitutional right to an abortion. In a survey of 6,174 individuals from June 27 to July 4, the poll found 57% of respondents disapprove of the court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, compared to 41% who approve. Overall, 62% of Americans surveyed said that they believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

Google announced that, in the coming weeks, it will erase location history if it identified that an individual had visited an abortion or other medical facility. In a blog post, a Google representative said the change in its location data gathering is due to the personal nature of some places people visit, including "medical facilities like counseling centers, domestic violence shelters, abortion clinics, fertility centers, addiction treatment facilities, weight loss clinics, [and] cosmetic surgery clinics."

Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in as the 104th Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Roberts administered the Constitutional Oath and Justice Stephen Breyer administered the Judicial Oath. In his retirement letter to President Biden, Breyer reiterated that he informed the president in January of his intent to retire and noted, "You have nominated and the United States Senate has confirmed the Honorable Ketanji Brown Jackson to succeed me in the office." "It has been my great honor to participate as a judge in the effort to maintain our Constitution and the Rule of Law," Breyer added.

In West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the EPA, restricting it from regulating power plant emissions through the Obama-era Clean Air Plan. In a 6-3 decision along ideological lines, the majority ruled that Congress did not authorize the EPA to use the approach. “Congress did not grant EPA…the authority to devise emissions caps based on the generation shifting approach the Agency took in the Clean Power Plan,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts in the majority opinion. Justice Elena Kagan, writing the dissent for the three liberal justices, said, "Whatever else this Court may know about, it does not have a clue about how to address climate change. And let's say the obvious: The stakes here are high...The Court appoints itself — instead of Congress or the expert agency — the decision-maker on climate policy. I cannot think of many things more frightening."

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a high school football coach in Washington state who was suspended by the school district for leading post-game prayers on the field. The 6-3 decision, with all conservative justices in the majority, concluded the school district was wrong to reprimand the coach for encouraging students to engage in prayer in violation of school policy. "Respect for religious expressions is indispensable to life in a free and diverse Republic," wrote Justice Neil Gorsuch for the majority, "whether those expressions take place in a sanctuary or on a field, and whether they manifest through the spoken word or a bowed head.” In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, "This decision does a disservice to schools and the young citizens they serve, as well as to our Nation's longstanding commitment to the separation of church and state."

A district court blocked Louisiana's "trigger" laws that would have made nearly all abortions illegal in the state following the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade. The court order occurred in response to a lawsuit from abortion providers calling the bans unconstitutional. A group representing the providers, The Center for Reproductive Rights, argued that the state's abortion bans are "vague," do not have a "clear and unambiguous effective date," and "lack adequate standing for enforceability." A hearing for the providers' lawsuit has been set for July 8.

In Dobbs v. Jackson, the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, the court's 1973 decision that federally protected abortion rights. The court's six conservative justices joined the majority opinion with the court's three liberal members dissenting.

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a New York law that placed limits on carrying concealed guns outside the home, saying it violated the Second Amendment of the Constitution. The vote was 6 to 3, with the court’s three liberal members in dissent. The New York law required that people seeking a license to carry a concealed handgun outside their homes show a "proper cause." Two New York men who were denied gun licenses sued, saying that "the state makes it virtually impossible for the ordinary law-abiding citizen to obtain a license." In the majority opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the New York law prevents "citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their right to keep and bear arms in public." In his dissent, Breyer wrote, "In 2020, 45,222 Americans were killed by firearms," adding, "Many states have tried to address some of the dangers of gun violence...The Court today severely burdens States' efforts to do so."

In the case Carson v. Makin, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Maine may not exclude religious schools from a state tuition aid program, saying that doing so is unconstitutional. The program allows parents in rural areas without public high schools to receive state assistance to cover tuition costs at "nonsectarian" schools in other communities. In the 6-3 opinion, with the court's three liberal justices in dissent, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that Maine's program "operates to identify and exclude otherwise eligible schools on the basis of their religious exercise." In her dissent, Justice Sotomayor said, "This Court continues to dismantle the wall of separation between church and state that the Framers fought to build."

The New York Governor's Office announced Governor Kathy Hochul signed a legislative package to protect the rights of patients and reproductive healthcare providers "in anticipation of a final decision by the Supreme Court on abortion access." "Today, we are taking action to protect our service providers from the retaliatory actions of anti-abortion states," said the governor at the signing, "and ensure that New York will always be a safe harbor for those seeking reproductive healthcare."

A criminal complaint was filed against Nicholas John Roske of Simi Valley, California, charging him with attempted murder of a Supreme Court Justice. According to the Justice Department, in the early morning of June 8, 2022, two U.S. Deputy Marshals saw an individual dressed in black and carrying a backpack and a suitcase get out of a taxi in front of the residence of a sitting Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Shortly thereafter, emergency services received a call from Roske allegedly informing them that he traveled to Maryland to kill a specific Supreme Court Justice. Police officers were dispatched and apprehended Roske, who was still on the telephone. A search of bags yielded a tactical chest rig and knife, a pistol with two magazines, duct tape, and hiking boots with padding on the bottom, among other items. Roske allegedly told detectives that he was upset about the leak of a recent Supreme Court draft decision regarding abortion rights, as well as the recent school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. If convicted, Roske faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison for attempted murder of a United States Judge.

In a new Gallup poll, mostly conducted after the leaked draft of a Supreme Court decision addressing abortion rights, the percentage of Americans identifying as pro-choice jumped six points to 55% from a year ago, just short of the record high of 56% in 1995. Along party lines, 88% of Democratic-leaning respondents identified as pro-choice, marking an 18% increase from last year, while 23% of Republican-leaning respondents said they are pro-choice. Among the 18 to 34 age group, 67% of respondents said they identified as pro-choice, while 58% aged 35 to 54 said the same.

A Texas law, HB20, that bars social media companies from banning users based on their political views was temporarily blocked in a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling. Justices John Roberts, Amy Coney Barrett, Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer, and Brett Kavanaugh ruled in favor of tech industry groups looking to block the law, with Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch dissenting, and Elena Kagan denying the application.

Starbucks announced it will cover travel expenses for employees enrolled in its health care plan when accessing abortion or gender-affirming medical care and those services are not available within 100 miles of an employee's home. The benefit will also apply to dependents of Starbucks employees. In a letter to employees, Starbucks executive Sarah Kelly said, "Like many of you, I’m deeply concerned by the draft Supreme Court opinion related to the constitutional right to abortion that was first established by Roe v. Wade. I know this is weighing on many of you, so let me be clear up front – regardless of what the Supreme Court ends up deciding, we will always ensure our partners have access to quality healthcare."

Following the draft ruling leak from the Supreme Court, the Pew Research Center released the results of a nationwide poll that examined Americans' views on abortion conducted in March, after oral arguments were heard in the case before the court that could overturn Roe v. Wade. The poll found that 19% of U.S. adults think abortion should be legal in all cases, 71% say it should be mostly legal or mostly illegal, and less than 8% believe it should be illegal in all cases, without exception. The research found that Americans' views on abortion largely depended on a variety of circumstances, including the length of the pregnancy and the health of the mother. "The abortion debate in America is often framed as a legal binary," read a statement, "with 'pro-life' people on one side, seeking to restrict abortion's availability, and 'pro-choice' people on the other, opposing government restrictions on abortion [but] relatively few Americans on either side of the debate take an absolutist view on the legality of abortion."