Federal court

Supreme Court of the United States

The 40 most recent opinions analysed by LawDiver, newest first. The case name opens the published case page. Read full opinion opens the opinion text.

Recent opinions

SCOTUSFCC v. Brown

October 14, 2026

The Court, per curiam, granted the FCC’s application to stay the Fourth Circuit’s mandamus order requiring a final agency decision within 48 hours, pending the filing and disposition of a timely petition for certiorari.

The supplied decision is an unpublished per curiam opinion of the Michigan Court of Appeals, not a United States Supreme Court opinion. It affirmed Morris’s convictions and sentences, rejecting claims that counsel was ineffective for failing to object to other-acts evidence and a detective’s testimony about delayed…

SCOTUSTrump v. California

August 24, 2026

The Court, per curiam, granted the Government’s application to stay the District Court’s injunction pending appellate review and denied Alabama’s separate stay application as moot.

SCOTUSWest Virginia v. B. P. J.

June 30, 2026

Justice Kavanaugh, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Barrett, held that Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause permit States to reserve women’s and girls’ school sports teams for biological females, without exceptions for transgender athletes who take puberty blockers or…

SCOTUSJones v. United States

June 30, 2026146 S.Ct. 2547

The Court denied certiorari without addressing the merits of enforcing Jones’s collateral-review waiver against his constitutional challenge to his conviction. Justice Sotomayor, writing alone respecting the denial, agreed that the case should not be granted, vacated, and remanded in light of Hunter v.

SCOTUSTrump v. Barbara

June 30, 2026146 S.Ct. 2438

Chief Justice Roberts, joined by Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Barrett, and Jackson, held that children born in the United States to parents unlawfully or temporarily present are citizens at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment and affirmed the District Court’s preliminary injunction.

SCOTUSSmith v. Kind

June 29, 2026146 S.Ct. 2346

The Court denied certiorari without explaining its decision or resolving the merits of Smith’s Eighth Amendment and qualified-immunity claims. Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson, dissented and would have summarily reversed the Seventh Circuit’s grant of qualified immunity.

SCOTUSDoe v. Hochul

June 29, 2026146 S.Ct. 2351

The Court denied certiorari without addressing the merits of the healthcare workers’ Title VII claims. Justice Gorsuch, joined by Justices Thomas and Alito, dissented. He argued that a state law prohibiting religious accommodations cannot automatically establish an employer’s undue-hardship defense under Title VII…

The Court denied certiorari without addressing the merits of Dershowitz’s request to overrule New York Times Co. v. Sullivan and related public-figure defamation precedents. Justice Thomas, joined by Justice Gorsuch, dissented from the denial.

SCOTUSWatson v. Republican National Committee

June 29, 2026225 L. Ed. 2d 841

Justice Barrett, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson, held that the federal election-day statutes do not preempt Mississippi’s allowance for counting absentee ballots postmarked by election day but received up to five business days afterward.

SCOTUSTrump v. Slaughter

June 29, 2026146 S.Ct. 2283

The Court held that the FTC Commissioners’ statutory protection against removal without cause violates Article II because the FTC exercises executive power and must remain subject to presidential control. President Trump therefore could remove Slaughter without establishing statutory cause.

SCOTUSTrump v. Cook

June 29, 2026146 S.Ct. 2234

Chief Justice Roberts, joined by Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Kavanaugh, and Jackson, denied the Government’s application to stay the preliminary injunction protecting Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook from removal.

SCOTUSChatrie v. United States

June 29, 2026146 S.Ct. 2193

Justice Kagan, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Sotomayor, Kavanaugh, and Jackson, held that police conducted a Fourth Amendment search by obtaining Chatrie’s Google Location History data.

SCOTUSMullin v. Doe

June 25, 2026146 S.Ct. 2121

Justice Alito's opinion for a six-Justice majority held that the TPS statute bars review of respondents' nonconstitutional challenges to termination of Syria's and Haiti's designations and that the Haitian respondents were unlikely to establish racial discrimination warranting interim relief.

SCOTUSMullin v. Al Otro Lado

June 25, 2026146 S.Ct. 2079

Justice Alito, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, held that a noncitizen standing in Mexico has not arrived in the United States under the INA and therefore is not entitled under the provisions at issue to inspection or to apply for asylum.

SCOTUSMonsanto v. Durnell

June 25, 2026146 S.Ct. 2001

Justice Kavanaugh, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas, Alito, Sotomayor, Kagan, and Barrett, held that FIFRA expressly preempts Durnell’s failure-to-warn claim because it would require a cancer warning additional to or different from the EPA-approved Roundup label that federal law requires Monsanto to…

SCOTUSPung v. Isabella County

June 23, 2026609 U.S. 30

Justice Alito's opinion holds that, following a tax foreclosure sale fairly conducted in light of the Nation's history of tax sales, the Takings Clause measures compensation by the auction proceeds rather than hypothetical fair market value.

The Court, in an opinion by Justice Gorsuch joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, held that RLUIPA cannot impose personal-capacity liability on state prison employees who have not knowingly and voluntarily agreed to answer suits under its Spending Clause provisions.

SCOTUSExxon Mobil Corp. v. Corporación Cimex, S. A. (Cuba)

June 23, 2026225 L. Ed. 2d 431

Justice Kavanaugh, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Barrett, held that the Helms-Burton Act itself abrogates the sovereign immunity of Cuban agencies and instrumentalities, so plaintiffs suing those entities under the Act need not independently satisfy an exception under the…

SCOTUSCisco Systems, Inc. v. Doe

June 23, 2026225 L. Ed. 2d 460

Justice Barrett, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh, held that courts cannot create new causes of action under the Alien Tort Statute and that the Torture Victim Protection Act does not authorize aiding-and-abetting liability.

SCOTUSBlanche v. Lau

June 23, 2026146 S.Ct. 1981

The Court, in an opinion by Justice Thomas joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, held that the INA does not require border officers to possess clear and convincing evidence that a returning lawful permanent resident committed a crime involving moral turpitude before…

SCOTUSUnited States v. Carter

June 22, 2026146 S.Ct. 1871

The Court denied certiorari without explaining its decision or resolving the merits of the Fourth Amendment question. Justice Alito, joined by Justice Thomas, dissented from the denial.

SCOTUSSaldaño v. Texas

June 22, 2026146 S.Ct. 1868

The Court denied certiorari without explaining its reasons or deciding the merits of Saldaño’s intellectual-disability claim. Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson, dissented.

SCOTUSGrayson v. United States

June 22, 2026

The Court granted certiorari, vacated the judgment, and remanded to the Sixth Circuit for further consideration in light of the Solicitor General’s position, without deciding the merits of the suppression or harmless-error questions. Justice Alito dissented without any noted joiners.

SCOTUSMcCarthy v. Hernandez

June 22, 2026146 S.Ct. 1873

The Court held per curiam that AEDPA did not permit habeas relief based on the trial court’s refusal to instruct the jury about attenuation under Missouri v. Seibert. No clearly established Supreme Court holding required such an instruction, and federal habeas courts could not second-guess the state courts’…

SCOTUSUnited States v. Hemani

June 18, 2026146 S.Ct. 1677

Justice Gorsuch's opinion for seven Justices held that the government failed to justify prosecuting Hemani under 18 U.S.C. §922(g)(3) solely because he regularly used marijuana while possessing a firearm.

SCOTUSHunter v. United States

June 18, 2026

Justice Kagan delivered the Court’s opinion, joined by every Justice except Justice Thomas. The Court held that a knowing and voluntary sentencing-appeal waiver is unenforceable when enforcement would produce a miscarriage of justice: an obvious, egregious sentencing error that would bring the judicial system into…

The Court denied certiorari without addressing the merits of a student's First Amendment challenge to her school's refusal to approve club flyers containing photographs of students holding anti-abortion advocacy placards. Justice Alito dissented, with no other Justice joining his opinion.

SCOTUSAlabama v. Powell

June 15, 2026146 S.Ct. 1581

The Court granted Powell leave to proceed in forma pauperis and denied Alabama's petition for certiorari without explaining its reasons or deciding the merits. Justice Alito, joined by Justice Thomas, dissented.

SCOTUSKeathley v. Buddy Ayers Construction, Inc.

June 11, 2026225 L. Ed. 2d 214

Justice Jackson, writing for a unanimous Court, held that courts assessing whether a debtor’s failure to disclose a claim was inadvertent or mistaken for judicial-estoppel purposes must consider the totality of the circumstances.

SCOTUSAbouammo v. United States

June 11, 2026608 U.S. 597

Justice Kagan delivered the unanimous opinion holding that a prosecution for falsifying a document under 18 U. S. C. §1519 must occur in the district where the falsification occurred, not a different district where the targeted investigation was located.

SCOTUSClark v. Mississippi

June 8, 2026146 S.Ct. 1529

The Court denied certiorari without resolving the merits. Justice Sotomayor, writing alone respecting the denial, criticized Mississippi’s requirement that a defendant alleging ineffective assistance in presenting a Batson challenge show that a successful challenge would have changed the trial’s substantive outcome.

SCOTUSAllen v. Milligan

June 2, 2026608 U.S. 511

The Court, per curiam, granted Alabama’s applications to stay the District Court’s injunction pending further review. It concluded that Alabama was likely to succeed against both the intentional-vote-dilution and statutory claims because the District Court failed to respect the presumption of legislative good faith…

SCOTUSWhitton v. Dixon

June 1, 2026146 S.Ct. 1368

The Court held per curiam that the Eleventh Circuit improperly considered post-trial DNA evidence when reviewing the Florida Supreme Court’s determination that a witness’s testimony was immaterial to the jury’s verdict.

SCOTUSRutherford v. United States

May 28, 2026146 S.Ct. 1320

Justice Barrett, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh, held that sentencing disparities resulting from Congress’s nonretroactive reduction of §924(c) penalties cannot establish eligibility for compassionate release, either alone or combined with other factors.

SCOTUSPitchford v. Cain

May 28, 2026225 L. Ed. 2d 11

Justice Kavanaugh's majority opinion held that the Mississippi Supreme Court unreasonably applied clearly established Batson precedents and unreasonably determined that Pitchford waived his opportunity to challenge the prosecutor's explanations for striking four black prospective jurors.

SCOTUSFernandez v. United States

May 28, 2026225 L. Ed. 2d 26

The Court, in an opinion by Justice Barrett joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh, affirmed the Second Circuit. It held that challenges to a conviction’s validity, including claims of actual innocence, cannot constitute grounds for compassionate release under 18 U.S.C.

SCOTUSFlorida v. California

May 26, 2026146 S.Ct. 1290

The Court denied without explanation Florida’s motion for leave to file a bill of complaint against California and Washington concerning their issuance of commercial driver’s licenses. It did not decide Florida’s preemption or public-nuisance claims.

Recent U.S. Supreme Court Opinions | LawDiver