SCOTUS

President Donald Trump didn't get what he wanted in some of the biggest Supreme Court cases this year. The list includes tariffs, birthright citizenship and the attempted firing of Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook. But he also emerged from the term with even greater power. However, the 1964 decision in an Alabama legal case that helped define freedom of the press and defamation in the U.S. went unchallenged.

The fate of Alabama death row inmate Jeffrey Lee remains in limbo following actions by the U.S. Supreme Court and a federal judge in Montgomery. This situation appears to be spilling over to other states and the debate over capital punishment.

U.S. Rep. Barry Moore won the Republican runoff Tuesday for Alabama's open U.S. Senate seat, advancing to the fall election with the help of President Donald Trump’s endorsement. Moore defeated political newcomer and former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson. Races for AG, lieutenant governor, and U.S. House district 5.

Alabama on Friday asked permission to execute a man by lethal injection after court rulings blocked the use of nitrogen gas and cast doubt on the future of the state’s gas method. The Alabama Attorney General’s office filed a motion asking the Alabama Supreme Court to authorize a death warrant for Jeffery Lee, this time using lethal injection. The request came less than 24 hours after the state was thwarted in plans to use nitrogen to execute Lee, who was convicted of killing two people during a 1998 robbery.

Less than one day after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to allow Alabama to use nitrogen gas to execute Jeffrey Lee for a 1998 double homicide, his legal team spoke out over Alabama’s former policy called “judicial override.” The loophole allowed the judge in Lee’s case to ignore his jury’s recommendation of life in prison and impose a death sentence. Alabama Public Radio focused on this controversial policy in its 2016 national award-winning investigation titled ‘…and justice for all.” Four months later, Governor Kay Ivey signed legislation ending “judicial override.”

An Alabama man facing the death penalty by nitrogen gas was spared Thursday as the U.S. Supreme Court refused to set aside a lower-court ruling that found the method is unconstitutionally cruel, issuing a brief order that came well after the hour originally planned to initiate Jeffery Lee’s execution.

A no-holds-barred bout of partisan redistricting has been won by Republicans. Now it's up to voters to decide whether it matters for control of Congress. The previous map for Alabama had two Democrats, five Republicans. The U.S. Supreme Court in June allowed the state to use a congressional map approved by Republican state lawmakers that improves the GOP's chances of winning an additional seat by reshaping a Democratic-held district that has a large number of Black voters.

The Supreme Court allowed Alabama to use a congressional map favoring Republicans in this year’s elections, blocking a lower court ruling that the redistricting plan intentionally discriminates against Black people.

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas is reporting considering arguments on overturning a lower court injunction. That’s all standing between the Alabama GOP and its plan to erase an African American U.S. House seat and redraw three others before a plan August 11th special Congressional primary.

The NAACP and ACLU are now on the clock regarding GOP plans to erase a Democratic U.S. House seat and rewrite District maps in four Congressional seats. Multiple published reports say Associate U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence says opponents to Alabama’s plan have a deadline by Monday to respond to the state’s request for the high court to stay a lower court ruling. The three judges on the U.S. Northern District Court wrote that the replacement maps were designed to discriminate against blacks.