Less than a year after creating a narrow right to make a federal ineffective assistance of counsel claim in a post-conviction proceeding despite a procedural default in state court, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court tried to carve out the contours of that ruling during oral arguments in Trevino v. Thaler.

Exactly two weeks after Gov. Scott Walker proposed expanding DNA collection efforts in Wisconsin for those arrested on felony charges, the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday heard oral arguments in a related case Justice Samuel Alito Jr. called “perhaps, the most important criminal procedure case that this court has heard in decades.”

The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court appeared reluctant Wednesday to make a federal case out of a legal malpractice claim arising from a patent suit.

Attempts to sort out the meaning of a confusing and oddly worded statute to determine whether a Navy surgeon is immune from liability for allegedly performing eye surgery without obtaining consent left the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court bleary-eyed.

In a case that raises the question of whether judges, rather than juries, can constitutionally decide factors that could trigger an increase in the minimum sentence, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court seemed reluctant to shake up a sentencing scheme that Congress and the courts have relied upon for more than a decade.

During oral arguments that included a rare comment from Justice Clarence Thomas, the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether a state’s failure to give money to court-appointed counsel for a murder defendant should be weighed against the state in determining whether speedy trial rights were violated.

The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court appeared unwilling Wednesday to allow police to take blood samples from suspected drunk drivers without a warrant.

The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court seemed divided over whether the federal Medicaid Act preempts a North Carolina law authorizing the state to recoup as much as one third of any medical malpractice jury award or settlement, regardless of how much of the award was designated for medical expenses.

Justice Antonin Scalia is drawing a lot of media attention for comments he made this week as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear two same-sex marriage law challenges.

The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court tussled on Wednesday over the issue of whether a plain error sentencing appeal must be decided according to the law in effect at the time of sentencing or at the time of appeal.

There are plenty of big cases on the docket at the U.S. Supreme Court this term, dealing with issues ranging from search and seizure standards to affirmative action.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued its first opinion of the new term, saying a lawyer cannot combine two laws to sue the federal government for violating identity theft protection laws banning the printing of credit card numbers and expiration dates on receipts.

You may not expect to see one of the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court in the pages of a glossy fashion magazine. After all, their clothes are usually obscured by those black robes. But Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg graces the pages of the latest issue of Glamour.

The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court tackled a tough question on Tuesday, considering what consequences result under the Double Jeopardy Clause from an acquittal that was caused by a judge’s error.

The issue of whether criminal defendants’ Sixth Amendment right to be warned of the immigration consequences of guilty pleas, as established by a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, is retroactive was front and center during oral arguments on Thursday.

The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court seemed disinclined to back a lower court ruling allowing police to detain someone incident to the execution of a search warrant after the person had driven a mile away from the location being searched.

Justice Antonin G. Scalia has thrown sharp barbs at 7th Circuit Judge Richard Posner in their ongoing public spat about the role of history in legal interpretation.

Sometimes employment litigation is complicated, so much so that the parties and judges can’t even agree on which court has jurisdiction to hear an appeal.

Justice Antonin Scalia says his method of interpreting the Constitution makes some of the most hotly disputed issues that come before the Supreme Court among the easiest to resolve.

The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide if the federal government can be sued for damages for violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

In the most anticipated decision of the U.S. Supreme Court’s last term, the fate of the American health care system hinged on the meaning of a single word: “penalty.”

With attorneys still analyzing the health care ruling and the other big decisions from last term, the U.S. Supreme Court is preparing for a new term with even more major issues on its docket, from affirmative action to the standards of proof for class certification.

Justice Antonin Scalia told NPR’s Nina Totenberg that people should not believe that divided Supreme Court rulings, like the one in the health care law decision, causes hard feelings among the justices.

The Confrontation Clause does not bar an expert from testifying at a criminal trial that a DNA profile produced by an outside laboratory matched the defendant’s state lab DNA profile, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in a fractured opinion.

The Supreme Court has ruled that sales representatives for pharmaceutical companies do not qualify for overtime pay under federal law, a big victory for the drug industry.

The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a rape conviction over objections that the defendant did not have the chance to question the reliability of the DNA evidence that helped convict him.

Home borrowers suing Quicken Loans for violating the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act were required to show that the lender split an allegedly unearned fee with another party, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in a unanimous decision.

The question of whether the Constitution imposes an age limit on being sentenced to life in prison has left the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court struggling over where to draw difficult lines.

The last oral argument of the U.S. Supreme Court’s term was an explosive one, as the justices considered whether SB 1070, the controversial Arizona immigration statute, is preempted by federal law.

The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court took up a complicated bankruptcy case Monday, parsing the language of the Bankruptcy Code to determine if a Chapter 11 debtor must give a secured creditor the right to credit bid items being sold at auction.