Supreme Court Brief

On this week's episode of Supreme Court Brief, host Jimmy Hoover touches on the recent leak of internal memos from a 2016 Supreme Court case, and previews an important First Amendment case set to be heard next term. This week's guest is Law.com and New York Law Journal reporter Alyssa Aquino, who joins the program to discuss Tuesday's Supreme Court hearing in a case over the SEC's power to order disgorgement from securities fraudsters. Host: Jimmy Hoover Guest: Alyssa Aquino Producer: Charles Garnar

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday on the constitutionality of President Donald Trump's efforts to restrict birthright citizenship, a hearing in which the president himself was in attendance. Joining host Jimmy Hoover to break down the arguments is former New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin, who led a challenge to Trump's executive order during his time as the state's top law enforcement official. Platkin explains why he thinks a majority of the court is poised to reject Trump's policy and clearly establish the citizenship of U.S. born children, regardless of their parents' immigration status. Host: Jimmy Hoover Guest: Matt Platkin Producer: Charles Garnar

On this week's episode, a look at a major Supreme Court case set to be heard Monday that could upend mail ballot laws in over a dozen states. Host Jimmy Hoover interviews law professor Michael Morley of Florida State University's Election Law Center about the central issues in the case. Also this week, Jimmy breaks down the court's recent action in a pair of cases involving the Temporary Protected Status designation of Haiti and Syria. Plus, the latest rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. of "dangerous" rhetoric attacking judges that he says "has to stop." Host: Jimmy Hoover Guest: Michael Morley Producer: Charles Garnar

On this episode of Supreme Court Brief, Jimmy recaps an action-packed week at the court, highlighting a major new environmental case, a unanimous decision against an ICE contractor, and four justices' "night out" at President Donald Trump's state of the union address. Later on, Jimmy interviews Law.com and New York Law Journal litigation reporter Alyssa Aquino about what comes next after Friday's landmark decision striking down President Trump's tariffs. Host: Jimmy Hoover Guest: Alyssa Aquino Producer: Charles Garnar

On this week's episode, Jimmy highlights new data revealing the incredible success that a small group of elite lawyers are having in taking their cases to the Supreme Court, and what it tells us about who gets to influence the direction of U.S. law. Law professors Tracey George, Mitu Gulati, and Albert Yoon join the program to discuss the findings of their recent paper, "The Inside Track." Plus, a look at the Department of Justice's efforts to have the Supreme Court throw out the contempt-of-Congress convictions of MAGA influencer Steve Bannon in the "interests of justice." Host: Jimmy Hoover Guest: Tracey George, Mitu Gulati & Albert Yoon Producer: Charles Garnar

On this episode of Supreme Court Brief, Jimmy interviews criminal defense attorney and Supreme Court advocate Jeff Green on the stark drop in the number of appeals being filed by indigent prisoners at the court, and how it could affect the development of the criminal law. Host: Jimmy Hoover Guest: Jeff Green Producer: Charles Garnar

On this episode of Supreme Court Brief, host Jimmy Hoover summarizes Tuesday's oral arguments over state laws that prohibit trans student athletes from competing in women's and girls' sports. Later, Jimmy interviews Supreme Court lawyer Adam Unikowsky on the promise and peril of using AI to litigate cases at the Supreme Court. Host: Jimmy Hoover Guest: Adam Unikowsky Producer: Charles Garnar

On this episode of Supreme Court Brief, host Jimmy Hoover interviews the lawyer for George Retes, a U.S. citizen and veteran who was detained for three days by ICE following an immigration raid in California. Institute for Justice attorney Marie Miller explains how the Supreme Court's rulings have both fueled the administration's aggressive immigration crackdown and made it nearly impossible to hold officers accountable in court for alleged civil rights violations. Plus, Jimmy talks through a new death penalty case taken up by the Supreme Court this week involving claims of racial discrimination during the jury selection process. Supreme Court Brief will return to regular programming in January after the holiday break. Host: Jimmy Hoover Guest: Marie Miller Producer: Charles Garnar

On today's episode of Supreme Court Brief, host Jimmy Hoover breaks down the latest highlights from the courtroom as the justices considered copyright liability for internet service providers, and a pro-life group's civil rights lawsuit over a Democratic attorney general's subpoena. Today's guest is Harvard Law Professor Richard Re, who joins Supreme Court Brief to discuss his latest scholarship on the "legal realignment" that has occurred between conservative and liberal members of the Supreme Court, and the federal judiciary writ large. Host: Jimmy Hoover Guest: Richard Re Producer: Charles Garnar

On this week's episode of Supreme Court Brief, host Jimmy Hoover discusses the court's intervention in a battle over food stamp benefits, new briefing over President Donald Trump's efforts to deploy the National Guard, and oral arguments in the case of a Rastafarian prisoner who was forcibly shaved by prison guards. This week's guest is law professor Carolyn Shapiro, who explains how the Supreme Court's under-the-radar shift in emergency docket cases is leading to a string of victories for the Trump administration. Shapiro argues that the court has quietly adopted the presumption that the government experiences "irreparable harm" any time a new policy is blocked by a federal court, essentially removing a crucial factor that the justices had long required all litigants to meet before awarding emergency relief. "It seems more and more clear that that is what the majority on the Supreme Court thinks: that it is just simply, by definition, 'irreparable harm' when the government is told it can't do what it wants," said Shapiro, who co-leads the Supreme Court clinic at the Chicago-Kent College of Law. "That's never been the standard before." "It is extraordinarily important and it is an enormous shift that the court is not even owning up to," argued Shapiro, a former clerk to Justice Stephen Breyer and the former solicitor general of Illinois. "It's acting as if that's always been the law and that has never been the law." Host: Jimmy Hoover Guest: Carolyn Shapiro Producer: Charles Garnar

On today's episode of Supreme Court Brief, Jimmy updates listeners on a significant development in the case over whether President Donald Trump can deploy the National Guard to Chicago. In an unusual order Wednesday, the court signaled that it is unlikely to take any action in the case until at least mid-November—despite Trump's desire for "immediate" permission to proceed with the deployment. Today's guest is law professor and legal commentator Dan Epps, who joins Supreme Court Brief for an in-depth discussion of next week's Supreme Court argument about the legality of President Trump's tariff policies. According to Epps, the hearing will be a revealing test of the conservative majority's commitment to a legal doctrine that they invoked to strike down several of former President Joe Biden's biggest policies, including his student debt relief plan in the 2023 case Biden v. Nebraska. Host: Jimmy Hoover Guest:: Dan Epps Producer: Charles Garnar

On today's episode of Supreme Court Brief from Law.com, host Jimmy Hoover breaks down the Supreme Court's Wednesday oral arguments in Louisiana v. Callais, involving a major challenge to the Supreme Court's Voting Rights Act cases. Jimmy explains why, following Wednesday's hearing, the Supreme Court's conservative majority now seems poised to strike a significant blow to minority voting districts by narrowing a key provision of the landmark 1965 law. Today's guest is conservative legal commentator and law professor Josh Blackman, who discusses his latest project as senior editor of the third edition of the Heritage Guide to the Constitution, which purports to supply an originalist understanding on the entirety of the U.S. Constitution. Blackman charts the rise of originalism—a method of interpreting the Constitution as it was understood at the country's founding—from a little known legal theory to the dominant form of constitutional interpretation practiced by the Supreme Court today. Host: Jimmy Hoover Guest: Josh Blackman Producer: Charles Garnar For more legal news, visit Law.com.