Related Content: Supreme Court

Supreme Court Hears Historic Healthcare Law

On The Radar

President Barack Obama's sweeping healthcare overhaul on Monday went before the U.S. Supreme Court where the nine justices began hearing arguments in a historic test of the law's validity under the U.S. Constitution. The sweeping law intended to transform healthcare for millions of people in the United States has generated fierce political debate. Republican presidential hopefuls and members of Congress have vowed to roll back the March 23, 2010, law they say will financially burden states, businesses and individuals.

Employers Monitor Health Care Law Arguments

On The Radar

The Supreme Court won't rule on President Obama's health care case until June. Republicans vow to repeal the law if they win big in November. David Wessel, economics editor of The Wall Street Journal, talks to David Greene about how the ruling could affect doctors, hospitals, employers and consumers.

Why Supreme Court may uphold healthcare law

On The Radar

Conventional political wisdom holds that the Supreme Court, scheduled to hear a challenge to President Barack Obama's healthcare law beginning on Monday, is likely to strike it down on partisan lines. The court's Republican appointees enjoy a 5-4 majority. But a review of lower court rulings by conservative judges, subtle signals from individual justices, and interviews with professors and judges across the ideological spectrum suggest that presumption is wrong - and that the court will uphold the law.

PBS NewsHour: Supreme Court Weighs Life Without Parole for Juvenile Murder Convicts

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The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday on whether 14-year-olds convicted of murder should be required to spend life in prison without the possibility of parole. Gwen Ifill and The National Law Journal's Marcia Coyle discuss the arguments and the issues under consideration.

PBS NewsHour: Supreme Court Weighs Corporate Liability in Human Rights Cases

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The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday, weighing whether victims of abuses overseas should have the right to use U.S. courts to prove companies should pay for alleged involvement in human rights atrocities. Gwen Ifill and The National Law Journal's Marcia Coyle discuss the potential liability implications for corporations.

PBS NewsHour: Will Prop. 8 Ruling Lead Supreme Court to Consider Same-Sex Marriage?

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A federal appeals court ruled 2-1 Tuesday against banning same-sex marriage in California, upholding a lower court's ruling. Spencer Michels reports and Gwen Ifill discusses the decision and the next steps with David Boies of the American Foundation for Equal Rights and John Eastman of the National Organization for Marriage.

Supreme Court Rorschach Test on Voting Rights

On The Radar

As state legislatures have increasingly used sophisticated computers to draw voting maps configured to their political interests, districts have taken on odder shapes and prompted cracks about Rorschach ink blots. Friday’s Supreme Court decision in the Texas voting rights case offered its own kind of Rorschach test.
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Tracking Suspects via GPS

On The Radar

Justices Side with Death Row Inmate Abandoned by Counsel

On The Radar

An Alabama death row prisoner should not be prevented from appealing because he missed a deadline after his lawyers dropped his case and failed to tell him, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled by a 7-2 vote Wednesday. The two lawyers at the New York office of Sullivan and Cromwell did not alert Alabama court authorities that they were withdrawing, so that when a court clerk sent papers to the lawyers, the firm's mailroom sent them back unopened and marked, "Return to Sender — Left Firm" and "Returned to Sender — Attempted, Unknown."

January 13, 2012

Weekly Show

Will Mitt Romney’s momentum from successive wins in Iowa and New Hampshire help him win South Carolina? Plus, the Supreme Court will decide on the FCC’s authority to regulate the airwaves, and President Obama’s aims to shrink government. Joining Gwen: Beth Reinhard, National Journal; Jeanne Cummings, Bloomberg News; Alexis Simendinger, RealClearPolitics.com; Pete Williams, NBC News.