A 24-year old Springfield man is expected to plead guilty Friday to charges related to hacking the U.S. Supreme Court’s electronic filing system, WSMV reports. In a motion filed Tuesday, Nicholas Moore stated he wishes to change his plea. Moore was charged in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia with one count of fraud under allegations that he repeatedly accessed the court’s protected computer systems without authorization during 2023.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday heard arguments from Idaho and West Virginia on decisions by lower courts finding that laws banning transgender students from participating on sports teams that align with their preferred gender violate the U.S. Constitution and federal anti-discrimination law. Twenty-five other states, including Tennessee, have similar laws on the books. Reuters reports that the challengers argued that the Idaho and West Virginia measures discriminate based on an individual's sex or status as a transgender person in violation of the Constitution's 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection under the law, as well as Title IX, which bars discrimination in education "on the basis of sex." Defenders of the bans said they are valid regardless of individual circumstances, and that physical advantages remain for trans women athletes despite medical treatments, making their participation in women's sports unfair.

U.S Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday released his year-end report. According to The Hill, the report reflects on the Declaration of Independence as its 250th anniversary approaches this year. Roberts detailed how the country has gradually moved closer to its ideals in a historical review stretching from Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” to the civil rights era. “Those of us in the Third Branch must continue to decide the cases before us according to our oath, doing equal right to the poor and to the rich, and performing all of our duties faithfully and impartially under the Constitution and laws of the United States,” he wrote.

Twelve attorneys licensed in Tennessee were admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court during the 39th annual TBA Academy this month. TBA President Heidi Barcus moved for admission of the members during a regular court session in Washington, D.C. Those admitted before the high court were Nashville attorney Paige Bernick; Knoxville lawyer Stefanie Bowen; Nashville attorney Stuart Burkhalter; Memphis lawyer Chad Cardwell; Nashville attorney Stephanie Celada; Morristown lawyer Aaron Chapman; Lewisburg attorney Louisa Davis; Alabama lawyer Charles “Chip” Dawson Jr.; Texas attorney Orlando Dizon; Chattanooga lawyer Michael Kuebler; Knoxville attorney Brandon Morrow, and Nashville lawyer Bernadette Welch. See a photo from the event.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request from the Trump administration to immediately halt a free speech lawsuit filed by immigration judges over restrictions on their public speaking engagements. According to the Associated Press, an order from the high court on Friday denied the request to dismiss the suit but left open the possibility for the government to seek relief later as the case proceeds. The judges sued over a policy implemented during the Biden administration that barred them from making statements about immigration, saying the restrictions violated their First Amendment rights and interfered with their ability to lecture at universities or speak to community groups. The justices did not rule on the free speech claims of the suit, instead focusing on the proper venue for resolving complaints by government employees. “At this stage, the Government has not demonstrated that it will suffer irreparable harm without a stay,” the order states.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 8 declined to hear an appeal from a Tennessee woman challenging the rejection of her '69PWNDU' personalized plate, The Tennessean reports. Leah Gilliam argued that states’ rules for what is and isn’t allowed on personalized plates are often unclear and can amount to a “dizzying array of censorship.” She had asked the court to rule that her plate expressed her own views, not the government’s. The justices let stand a ruling from Tennessee’s highest court that vanity plates constitute government speech under the Supreme Court’s 2015 Walker precedent. The Tennessee Supreme Court issued its opinion in February, rejecting Gilliam’s First Amendment challenge to the state’s personalized plate program.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide the legality of President Donald Trump’s directive to restrict birthright citizenship in the United States, Reuters reports. The order, signed on Trump’s first day back in office, directs federal agencies not to recognize the citizenship of children born to mothers not legally in the country or here temporarily, and whose fathers are not citizens or lawful permanent residents at the time of the birth. The court will take up a U.S. Justice Department appeal of a lower court ruling that blocked the policy. The lower court found that the order violated the 14th Amendment and a federal law codifying birthright citizenship. The executive order was challenged in a class-action lawsuit brought by parents and children affected by the directive. The justices are expected to hear arguments this term and issue a ruling by June, the news source reports.

The U.S. Supreme Court will kick off 2026 with a series of arguments in several high-profile cases, including those involving transgender athletes, gun rights and the president’s effort to remove a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. The court will hear seven arguments in total over five days beginning on Jan. 12 and running through Jan. 21. Read more about the cases from SCOTUSblog.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an effort to overturn its landmark 2015 ruling guaranteeing same-sex marriage nationwide, The Hill reports. Former Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis asked the justices to overrule the decision after a jury awarded damages to a couple she refused to marry. In a brief order, the court declined to hear Davis’s appeal. No dissents were noted. Davis drew national attention for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples on religious grounds, and she was jailed for five days before the couple obtained their license. Kentucky later passed a law allowing clerks to omit their signatures from marriage certificates. The couple she refused to serve filed suit for emotional damages and attorneys fees. After a jury found for the couple, Davis challenged the award, arguing she had a private First Amendment religious defense. Her appeal to the Supreme Court also included an outright challenge to the Obergefell decision.

The Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to enforce a policy blocking transgender and nonbinary individuals from choosing passport sex markers that match their gender identity, SCOTUSblog reports. The ruling halts a lower court order that required the government to let people select "male," "female" or "X" on new and renewed passports to reflect their gender identity. It permits the administration to continue enforcing its policy while a lawsuit over the issue moves through the courts. The lawsuit argues that listing the sex assigned at birth on passports could lead to harassment or violence against transgender people. The court found that the State Department’s policy does not appear to discriminate against transgender individuals and “attests to a historical fact.”