QUESTION PRESENTED: On January 20, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14,160, Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship. This order reflects the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment, which guaranteed citizenship to the children of former slaves, not to illegal aliens or temporary visitors. ★ Support this podcast on …

Issue(s): (1) Whether the academic and pedagogical choices of a privately owned and run school constitute state action simply because it contracts with the state to offer a free educational option for interested students; and (2) whether a state violates the First Amendment's free exercise clause by excluding privately run religious schools from th…

Issue(s): Whether a federal court may certify a class action pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(3) when some members of the proposed class lack any Article III injury. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★By Better Informed Network

Issue(s): (1) Whether the Constitution's supremacy clause bars claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act when the negligent or wrongful acts of federal employees have some nexus with furthering federal policy and can reasonably be characterized as complying with the full range of federal law; and 2) whether the discretionary-function exception is ca…

Issue(s): Whether the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and Rehabilitation Act of 1973 require children with disabilities to satisfy a uniquely stringent "bad faith or gross misjudgment" standard when seeking relief for discrimination relating to their education. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★…

Issue(s): Given the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's holding that a claim for compensation under 10 U.S.C. § 1413a is a claim involving "retired pay" under 31 U.S.C. § 3702(a)(1)(A), does 10 U.S.C. § 1413a provide a settlement mechanism that displaces the default procedures and limitations set forth in the Barring Act? ★ Support this…

Issue(s): (1) Whether a party may establish the redressability component of Article III standing by relying on the coercive and predictable effects of regulation on third parties. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★By Better Informed Network

Issue(s): Whether public schools burden parents' religious exercise when they compel elementary school children to participate in instruction on gender and sexuality against their parents' religious convictions and without notice or opportunity to opt out. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★By Better Informed Network

Issue(s): Whether a proceeding under 26 U.S.C. § 6330 for a pre-deprivation determination about a levy proposed by the Internal Revenue Service to collect unpaid taxes becomes moot when there is no longer a live dispute over the proposed levy that gave rise to the proceeding. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★…

Issue(s): Whether a litigant who files a notice of appeal after the ordinary appeal period under 28 U.S.C. § 2107(a)-(b) expires must file a second, duplicative notice after the appeal period is reopened under subsection (c) of the statute and Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★…

Issue(s): Whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit erred in holding that the structure of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force violates the Constitution's appointments clause and in declining to sever the statutory provision that it found to unduly insulate the task force from the Health & Human Services secretary's supervision. ★ S…

Issue(s): Whether the Medicaid Act's any-qualified-provider provision unambiguously confers a private right upon a Medicaid beneficiary to choose a specific provider. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★By Better Informed Network

Issue(s): Whether the Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act violates the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★By Better Informed Network

Issue(s): Whether 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b)(2) applies only to habeas filings made after a prisoner has exhausted appellate review of his first petition, to all second-in-time habeas filings after final judgment, or to some second-in-time filings depending on a prisoner's success on appeal or ability to satisfy a seven-factor test. ★ Support this podcast…

Issue(s): Whether a state violates the First Amendment's religion clauses by denying a religious organization an otherwise-available tax exemption because the organization does not meet the state's criteria for religious behavior. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★By Better Informed Network

Issue(s): (1) Whether Congress violated the nondelegation doctrine by authorizing the Federal Communications Commission to determine, within the limits set forth in 47 U.S.C. § 254, the amount that providers must contribute to the Universal Service Fund; (2) whether the FCC violated the nondelegation doctrine by using the financial projections of t…

Issue(s): Whether a final action by the Environmental Protection Agency taken pursuant to its Clean Air Act authority with respect to a single state or region may be challenged only in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit because the agency published the action in the same Federal Register notice as actions affecting other…

Issue(s): Whether venue for challenges by small oil refineries seeking exemptions from the requirements of the Clean Air Act's Renewable Fuel Standard program lies exclusively in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit because the agency's denial actions are "nationally applicable" or, alternatively, are "based on a determina…

Issue(s): (1) Whether 8 U.S.C. § 1252(b)(1)'s 30-day deadline is jurisdictional, or merely a mandatory claims-processing rule that can be waived or forfeited; and (2) whether a person can obtain review of the Board of Immigration Appeals' decision in a withholding-only proceeding by filing a petition within 30 days of that decision. ★ Support this …

Issue(s): (1) Whether the majority of the three-judge district court in this case erred in finding that race predominated in the Louisiana legislature"s enactment of S.B. 8; (2) whether the majority erred in finding that S.B. 8 fails strict scrutiny; (3) whether the majority erred in subjecting S.B. 8 to the preconditions specified in Thornburg v. …

QUESTION PRESENTED: Whether the Hobbs Act, which authorizes a “party aggrieved” by an agency’s “final order” to petition for review in a court of appeals, allows nonparties to obtain review of claims asserting that an agency order exceeds the agency’s statutory authority; and whether the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of…

QUESTION PRESENTED: Whether the production and sale of firearms in the United States is the proximate cause of alleged injuries to the Mexican government stemming from violence committed by drug cartels in Mexico; and whether the production and sale of firearms in the United States amounts to “aiding and abetting” illegal firearms trafficking becau…

QUESTION PRESENTED: Whether Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(6)’s stringent standard applies to a post-judgment request to vacate for the purpose of filing an amended co ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★By Better Informed Network

QUESTION PRESENTED: Whether plaintiffs must prove minimum contacts before federal courts may assert personal jurisdiction over foreign states sued under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★By Better Informed Network

QUESTION PRESENTED: Whether, in addition to pleading the other elements of an employment discrimination claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a majority-group plaintiff must show “background circumstances to support the suspicion that the defendant is that unusual employer who discriminates against the majority.” ★ Support this pod…

QUESTION PRESENTED: Whether, in cases subject to the Prison Litigation Reform Act, prisoners have a right to a jury trial concerning their exhaustion of administrative remedies where disputed facts regarding exhaustion are intertwined with the underlying merits of their claim. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★…

QUESTION PRESENTED: Whether, even though Congress excluded 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(2)(A) from 18 U.S.C. § 3583(e)’s list of factors to consider when revoking supervised release, a district court may rely on the Section 3553(a)(2)(A) factors when revoking supervised release. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★…

QUESTION PRESENTED: Whether Article III standing requires a particularized determination of whether a specific state official will redress the plaintiff’s injury by following a favorable declaratory judgment. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★By Better Informed Network

QUESTION PRESENTED: Whether a plaintiff can state a claim by alleging that a plan fiduciary engaged in a transaction constituting a furnishing of goods, services, or facilities between the plan and a party in interest, as proscribed by 29 U.S.C. § 1106(a)(1)(C), or whether a plaintiff must plead and prove additional elements and facts not contained…

QUESTION PRESENTED: Whether courts should apply the "moment of the threat" doctrine when evaluating an excessive force claim under the Fourth Amendment. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★By Better Informed Network

QUESTION PRESENTED: Whether the Hobbs Act required the district court in this case to accept the Federal Communications Commission’s legal interpretation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★By Better Informed Network

QUESTION PRESENTED: Whether a manufacturer may file a petition for review in a circuit (other than the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit) where it neither resides nor has its principal place of business, if the petition is joined by a seller of the manufacturer’s products that is located within that circuit. ★ Support this …

QUESTION PRESENTED: Whether the court of appeals erred as a matter of law in applying rational-basis review, instead of strict scrutiny, to a law burdening adults’ access to protected speech. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★By Better Informed Network

QUESTION PRESENTED: Whether a voluntary dismissal without prejudice under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41 is a “final judgment, order, or proceeding” under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b). ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★By Better Informed Network

QUESTION PRESENTED Whether 18 U.S.C. § 1014, which prohibits making a “false statement” for the purpose of influencing certain financial institutions and federal agencies, also prohibits making a statement that is misleading but not false. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★By Better Informed Network

The Supreme Court case, Stanley v. City of Sanford, Florida. The central question is whether a former employee, who alleges disability discrimination regarding post-employment benefits, can sue under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) even if the alleged discrimination occurred before the employee's retirement. The arguments presented by bot…

The Supreme Court case, Hewitt v. United States. The case centers on whether the Act applies to resentencings following vacated sentences, a point of contention regarding the interpretation of the phrase "a sentence for the offense has not been imposed." The justices debated the statutory language's ambiguity, considering the present-perfect tense …

QUESTION PRESENTED: Whether, under the Americans with Disabilities Act, a former employee — who was qualified to perform her job and who earned post-employment benefits while employed — loses her right to sue over discrimination with respect to those benefits solely because she no longer holds her job. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★…

QUESTION PRESENTED: Whether the First Step Act’s sentencing reduction provisions apply to a defendant originally sentenced before the act’s enactment, when that original sentence is judicially vacated and the defendant is resentenced to a new term of imprisonment after the act’s enactment. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★…

The Supreme Court case, TikTok, Inc., et al. v. Merrick B. Garland, and a consolidated case. The arguments center on the constitutionality of a law mandating TikTok's divestiture from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, due to national security concerns. The petitioners argue the law violates TikTok's First Amendment rights, while the respondent…

QUESTION PRESENTED: - Whether the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, as applied to petitioners, violates the First Amendment. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★By Better Informed Network

The Supreme Court case, Dewberry Group v. Dewberry Engineers. The core dispute centers on the calculation of disgorgement of profits under the Lanham Act, specifically whether a defendant's profits can include those of legally distinct affiliates. The petitioner argues that corporate separateness should be respected and that the lower courts erred …

The Supreme Court case, Seven County Infrastructure Coalition, et al., v. Eagle County, Colorado, et al. The central issue concerns the scope of environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for infrastructure projects. The justices debate the appropriate standard for determining which environmental impacts an agency must …

The Supreme Court case, Feliciano v. Department of Transportation. This concerns the interpretation of a statute determining differential pay for reservists called to active duty during a national emergency. The petitioner argues that "during" implies a purely temporal connection, while the respondent contends it requires a substantive connection t…

The Supreme Court case, Kousisis v. U.S. The central issue is the interpretation of federal fraud statutes, specifically whether a property interest must be harmed to constitute property fraud. Petitioners argue that only cases involving actual economic loss qualify, while the government contends that any material misrepresentation resulting in the…

QUESTION PRESENTED: Whether an award of the “defendant’s profits” under the Lanham Act can include an order for the defendant to disgorge the distinct profits of legally separate non-party corporate affiliates. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★By Better Informed Network

QUESTION PRESENTED: Whether the National Environmental Policy Act requires an agency to study environmental impacts beyond the proximate effects of the action over which the agency has regulatory authority. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★By Better Informed Network

QUESTION PRESENTED: Whether a federal civilian employee called or ordered to active duty under a provision of law during a national emergency is entitled to differential pay even if the duty is not directly connected to the national emergency. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★By Better Informed Network

QUESTION PRESENTED: Whether deception to induce a commercial exchange can constitute mail or wire fraud, even if inflicting economic harm on the alleged victim was not the object of the scheme; whether a sovereign’s statutory, regulatory, or policy interest is a property interest when compliance is a material term of payment for goods or services; …

This episode discusses the Supreme Court oral argument in the case United States v. Skrmetti. The case centers on the constitutionality of a Tennessee law (SB1) restricting access to gender-affirming care for minors. The petitioner argues SB1 constitutes unlawful sex discrimination, requiring heightened judicial scrutiny under the Equal Protection …