WHAT WE'RE READING

The morning read for Friday, April 18

Each weekday, we select a short list of news articles and commentary related to the Supreme Court. Here’s the Friday morning read:

• Supreme Court keeps hold on Trump’s restrictions on birthright citizenship but sets May arguments (Mark Sherman, The Associated Press)
• Supreme Court to hear arguments over injunctions on Trump bid to end birthright citizenship (Devin Dwyer, ABC News)
• Supreme Court to hear arguments on Trump’s bid to start implementing his plan to end birthright citizenship (Erica Orden, Politico)
• Defiance of US Supreme Court is tricky to price (Gabriel Rubin, Reuters)
• Can Trump fire Jerome Powell? The Supreme Court may soon offer some clues (John Fritze, CNN)

OPINION ANALYSIS

Justices clarify pleading rules for retirement-plan litigation

Cunningham v. Cornell University will not go into the history books as one of the most important 30 decisions of the 2024-25 term. The case involves a technical problem about pleading standards under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, and the court’s resolution of the problem was, in a word, technical.

ERISA establishes a series of detailed rules to deal with retirement plans, much of which tracks traditional rules of trust law. Among those rules, not surprisingly, is a rule that prevents any transaction between the plan and an insider of the plan. To be specific, the rule (in Section 1106) says that, “[e]xcept as provided in Section 1108,” the fiduciary of the plan “shall not cause the plan to [transact with a] party in interest.” Section 1108, in turn, has an exemption that permits “reasonable arrangements with a party in interest … if no more than reasonable compensation is paid therefor.”

EMERGENCY DOCKET

Justices will hear arguments on Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on May 15 on the federal government’s request to be allowed to implement President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship – the guarantee of citizenship to almost everyone born in the United States, which dates back to the post-Civil War era.

The court left in place orders by three federal judges that prohibit the government from enforcing the executive order anywhere in the country until it can hear oral arguments and rule on the Trump administration’s request.

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution provides that “[a]ll persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” It was intended to overrule one of the Supreme Court’s most infamous decisions, its 1857 ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford, holding (by a vote of 7-2) that a Black person whose ancestors were brought to the United States and sold as enslaved persons was not entitled to any protection from the federal courts because he was not a U.S. citizen.

WHAT WE'RE READING

The morning read for Thursday, April 17

We are expecting one or more opinions from the court this morning. Join us for the live blog and on TikTok at 9:45 a.m. EDT.

Each weekday, we select a short list of news articles and commentary related to the Supreme Court. Here’s the Thursday morning read:

• Mexican family asks Supreme Court for deportation shield (Kelsey Reichmann, Courthouse News Service) 
• A Supreme Court Ruling on Labor Boards Could Let Trump Take Over the Federal Reserve (Claire Heddles, NOTUS)
• Mahmoud v. Taylor: Everything to know about the Supreme Court case to ban LGBTQ+ books (Ryan Adamczeski, Advocate) 
• Trump again makes John Roberts and the court look weak (Joan Biskupic, CNN) 
• The Supreme Court Can’t Save America, but Here’s What It Can Do (David French, The New York Times)

WHAT WE'RE READING

The morning read for Wednesday, April 16

Each weekday, we select a short list of news articles and commentary related to the Supreme Court. Here’s the Wednesday morning read:

• US judge presses Trump administration on its refusal to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia (Michael Kunzelman & Ben Finley, The Associated Press)
• Justice Department must provide details of attempts to return illegally deported man, judge says (Steve Thompson & Katie Mettler, The Washington Post)
• How a Supreme Court Ruling Could Weaken Fed Independence, Shake Markets (Greg Ip, The Wall Street Journal)
• Former top government lawyers are jumping into the Big Law fight against Trump (Daniel Barnes, Politico)
• ‘We are in a moment of constitutional crisis’ (Kelsey Reichmann, Courthouse News Service)