Supreme Court Brief

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 takes an inside look at Monday's blockbuster hearing on the fate of independent federal agencies and how it could vastly expand the powers of the presidency. Plus: a breakdown of Tuesday's arguments on the constitutionality of a campaign finance law aimed at preventing public corruption by federal officials. Jimmy looks at why one key issue is whether Vice President J.D. Vance intends to run for the White House in 2028. Today's guest is Bill Kovacic, a former chairman of the Federal Trade Commission during the late Bush and early Obama administrations. Kovacic speaks with Jimmy about the "disappointing" aspect of Monday's Supreme Court hearing in Trump v. Slaughter about whether President Donald Trump should be allowed to fire members of so-called "independent agencies" like the FTC.  The case centers around Trump's purported firing of Democratic FTC member Rebecca Slaughter. It could spell the end of roughly a century of Supreme Court precedent upholding removal restrictions for members of multi-member government commissions. Supreme Court Brief will be back with another podcast episode next week. Listen and subscribe to the show on Apple and Spotify. The show is produced by Charles Garnar. For more of the latest news on the U.S. Supreme Court, go to Law.com.   Host: Jimmy Hoover Guest: Bill Kovacic 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 episode of Supreme Court Brief, host Jimmy Hoover interviews Second Amendment scholar Haley Proctor of Notre Dame Law School on the major gun cases to be decided during the 2025-2026 term. Plus, a look at the court's decision this week to take up a case about the right of immigrants facing persecution to seek asylum in the U.S., and a recent trend of retired judges filing amicus briefs to the justices.      Supreme Court Brief will be back after the week of Thanksgiving with more news and analysis of the nation's top court. Host: Jimmy Hoover   Guest: Haley Proctor    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