U.S. Supreme Court

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.

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.

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.

Alabama on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to allow it to use a congressional map favoring Republicans in this year's elections, despite a lower court's ruling that the redistricting plan intentionally discriminates against Black people.

Clarence B. Jones, who helped argue the Alabama based U.S. Supreme Court case “New York Times v. Sullivan," has died. The civil rights activist and attorney also wrote part of the iconic “I Have A Dream” speech delivered by Doctor Martin Luther King, Junior in 1963 in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Jones was 95.

A three judge panel is ruling against the state of Alabama and its plans to erase a African American U.S. House seat. There’s also reportedly separate deadline associated with this case starting Tuesday. The three judges in the Northern District of Alabama, Southern Division, in Birmingham, says the state cannot use voting maps that delete the African American and Democratic District two.