U.S. Supreme Court Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Elana Kagan testified before the House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday to defend the court’s $207 million budget request. The pair appealed to Congress for more security funding, citing personal experiences with “swatting” attacks and other threats. According to Bloomberg Law, the U.S. Marshals Service tracked 564 threats against judges last fiscal year, up from 509 the year before. The federal court system’s request for the high court includes $14.6 million for more agents to protect the justices. The justices also answered questions about whether the court needs an independent ethics code panel. The Hill reports on that discussion.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he will immediately request a rehearing from the U.S. Supreme Court after it struck down his executive order restricting birthright citizenship last week. Trump called that ruling a "miscarriage of justice." The 6-3 decision, issued on June 30, held that children born in the U.S. and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens at birth under the Constitution. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that Trump's order could not be reconciled with the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment. According to The Hill, legal experts note such rehearing requests are rarely granted — the court has not agreed to rehear an argued case since 1965 — so the petition is more likely to affect the timing of the case's return to lower courts than to change the outcome.

Eight of nine U.S. Supreme Court justices have released their 2025 financial disclosure statements. According to SCOTUSblog, the disclosures are relatively opaque and are intended to provide information about potential conflicts of interest and the justices’ compliance with ethical standards, rather than snapshots of the justices’ wealth. Justice Sonia Sotomayor received concert tickets valued at more than $4,000 from the record company that represents the Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny. Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh earned $33,285 by teaching at Notre Dame Law School, while Chief Justice John Roberts earned $25,000 for teaching at New England Law School. Justice Elena Kagan traveled to judge a moot court at Pepperdine University’s Caruso School of Law in September 2025, and several justices reported overseas travel. The ABA Journal also reports on the disclosures.

The U.S. Supreme Court on June 29 ruled 6-3 that law enforcement's use of geofence warrants to access cell phone location history constitutes a Fourth Amendment search requiring a warrant, though the majority opinion by Justice Elena Kagan declined to define when such warrants are constitutionally valid. Bloomberg Law reports that the case arose from Okello Chatrie's conviction in a 2019 Virginia credit union robbery, where a multi-step geofence warrant to Google ultimately identified him as a suspect. Rather than resolving the case, the court sent it back to the 4th Circuit to determine whether the warrant satisfied the Constitution's particularity and probable cause requirements. Justices Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett dissented while Neil Gorsuch concurred only in the judgment. The ruling builds on the court's 2018 Carpenter decision and arrives as Google says it can no longer comply with such warrants, having migrated location history data off its servers last year. Read the ruling.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the concept of birthright citizenship in the Trump v. Barbara case on Tuesday. According to SCOTUSblog, the justices voted 6-3 to uphold to reject an executive order issued by President Donald Trump that would have limited birthright citizenship to children with at least one parent with permanent legal status. In the decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court held that children born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens at birth under the Constitution. Roberts wrote that Trump's order could not be reconciled with the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment. Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed the executive order was invalid but said it conflicted with federal law rather than the Constitution. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented. Trump issued the executive order in January of 2025 and was subsequently sued by the Legal Defense Fund, American Civil Liberties Union and others. Last fall, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti filed an amicus brief supporting the executive order.

The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld state laws barring transgender girls and women from participating on female school sports teams, ruling that bans in Idaho and West Virginia do not violate the Constitution, the Associated Press reports. In a 6-3 decision, the court also concluded that the laws do not violate Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education. More than two dozen states, including Tennessee, have enacted similar restrictions. The ruling "seems certain to extend to them as well" according to the news outlet.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that states may continue counting mail-in ballots received after Election Day, rejecting a challenge brought by the Republican National Committee, Action News 5 reports. In a 5-4 decision, the court upheld a Mississippi law allowing election officials to count mail-in ballots received up to five days after Election Day, provided they are postmarked by Election Day. Writing for the majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said federal law establishes when voters "shall give their Votes" but does not specify when ballots must be received. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined Barrett's opinion. Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch dissented, while Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined most of the dissent. President Donald Trump called the ruling a "tremendous loss" in a post on social media.

The U.S. Supreme Court has made it more difficult for Tennesseans to sue the maker of Roundup for failing to warn consumers that the weedkiller could cause cancer, according to WKRN. In a 7-2 decision issued last week, the court sided with Monsanto, ruling that federal law preempts state law. Writing for the majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said Monsanto cannot be held liable under state law for failing to include a cancer warning label when federal law requires the company to use an Environmental Protection Agency-approved label that does not contain such a warning. The decision comes months after Tennessee lawmakers considered legislation that would have protected pesticide manufacturers from similar failure-to-warn lawsuits so long as product labels were approved by the EPA. The ruling could affect hundreds of pending claims against Monsanto, according to the news station. Monsanto has long maintained that Roundup does not cause cancer.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday barred a former Louisiana inmate from suing prison officials who cut off his dreadlocks, in what he argued was a violation of his Rastafari religious beliefs, WSMV 4 reports. The justices condemned what happened to the former inmate, but ruled that a federal law designed to protect the religious rights of inmates does not permit lawsuits for money damages against individuals even when rights are violated. In a 6-3 decision, the court agreed with lower courts that,  without exception, the law Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, cannot be used to hold those who violate inmates’ rights financially responsible. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority, while Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, arguing the decision weakens incentives for prison officials to comply with federal protections for inmates' religious rights.

The U.S. Supreme Court and a federal district court in California ruled recently on a number of Trump administration immigration policies. The Supreme Court today allowed the government to terminate temporary legal protections for thousands of Haitians and Syrians. The court also today ruled that the government may legally turn back asylum seekers before they physically enter the country. The policy, called metering, began under former President Barack Obama but officially was rescinded by the Biden administration in 2021. In addition, earlier this week, the court made it easier this week for the government to remove green card holders who commit crimes. SCOTUSblog reports on these three decisions. In addition, a federal judge in California has issued a nationwide ban on the arrest of immigrants going to and from immigration hearings at courthouses. Reuters has more on that ruling.