U.S. Supreme Court Begins a New Term

NPR's Nina Totenberg has a preview of cases that will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in their new term which starts this week. 4 min., 38 sec. transcript available.

Another presentation of some cases in the coming term in a Wall Street Journal podcast can be found here. 24 min. transcript available.

 U.S. Supreme Court End of Term

PBS News has a good summary here of several of the last big cases handed down by the Supreme Court on Friday June 27, with interviews with two Court experts. 10 min., transcript available.

 U.S. Supreme Court Ends Its Term

The U.S. Supreme Court ended its 2022-2023 term on Friday. Three "blockbuster" decisions involving affirmative action, student loan relief and services to same-sex couples were handed down in the final days of the term. NPR reports on these developments. The longest report, 12+ minutes, presents the affirmative action case.

It has two separate pieces about the same-sex wedding website case, a general presentation (5 min. 41 sec.) of the ruling and another concentrating on Justice Sonia Sotomayor's blistering dissent (4 min. 35 sec.)

Student loan relief problems might be hard for non-Americans to understand, but over 40 million Americans carry student loans. NPR has a piece about what this decision means for borrowers (4 min. 57 sec.). NPR's legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg's analysis of the legal arguments, with no audio, can be found here.

Other important decisions were also handed down this week. Totenberg explains one involving who has the last word on organising federal elections (5 min. 17 sec.).

More from NPR on SCOTUS here (11 min. 48 sec., transcript available).

 SCOTUS' End of Term Blitz

The U.S. Supreme Court term traditionally finishes by the end of June, with the most controversial cases handed down just before then. The first of those major cases concerns the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), which was under attack for the third time. In a 7-2 decision, the Court rejected the newest challenge on a point of procedure, saying the challengers lacked standing. NPR's Nina Totenberg has the report here. 4 min. 58 sec. transcript available. Another report by Totenberg, about the Affordable Care Act and another important case decided the same daywhich pitted religious freedom against anti-discrimination laws can be found here. 4 min, 40 sec. transcript available.

 U.S. Supreme Court and LGBTQ Rights

The U.S. Supreme Court, now sitting with 9 justices, will have to reconcile religious freedom and anti-discrimination laws in a case, argued last week, about a Catholic charity's refusal to allow same-sex couples to be foster parents. NPR's Nina Totenberg has the story here. 4 min. 27 sec., transcript available.

You can listen to the complete oral arguments (1h. 50 min.) here. Transcript available.

SCOTUS - end of term

The U.S. Supreme Court has handed down the last cases for the October 2019 term. You can find NPR's Nina Totenberg and attorney Tom Goldstein's summary of the Court's year here. 5 min. 36 sec., transcript available soon.
PBS has a summary of the Supreme Court's term here in a video interviewing Paul Clement, Neal Katyal,  and Marcia Coyle, 9 min., 15 sec. transcript available.

Reports of some individual cases decided as the term ended can be found elsewhere on NPR:

• Teachers at religious schools aren't protected by fair employment laws (5 min. 14 sec., transcript available).
• President Trump's claim of absolute immunity under the law is rejected (5 min, 12 sec., transcript available). 
• Nearly half of the state of Oklahoma falls within an Indian reservation (4 min., 14 sec., transcript available). 

More on the Oklahoma case from PBS (video) can be found here (4 min. 54 sec., transcript available).