Nina Totenberg
ninatotenberg.bsky.social
Nina Totenberg
@ninatotenberg.bsky.social
NPR Legal Affairs Correspondent
In another #Trump admin shadow docket win, #SCOTUS majority says "Displaying passport holders' sex at birth no more offends equal protection principles than displaying their country of birth"

www.npr.org/2025/11/06/n...
Supreme Court allows Trump to prohibit gender election on passports
The court's decision is not a final ruling, however; it just permits Trump's passport policy to go into effect while litigation continues in the lower courts.
www.npr.org
November 6, 2025 at 11:29 PM
#SCOTUS appears skeptical of Trump tariff arguments, but Trump maintains that if he loses the tariff case, “Our country will be destroyed, and our military would be instantly obliterated.”
www.npr.org/2025/11/05/n...
Supreme Court justices appear skeptical of Trump's tariff arguments
At issue is whether the president can bypass Congress and impose tariffs by citing national security.
www.npr.org
November 5, 2025 at 10:23 PM
#SCOTUS Justice Anthony Kennedy, who stepped down from the court in 2018, earned a reputation as the court’s “swing justice,” bc his vote was so often determinative. But in an interview with NPR, he says, “ the cases swung, not me.”

www.npr.org/2025/09/27/n...
'The cases swung, not me': Ex-Justice Kennedy reflects on a changing Supreme Court
In an interview with NPR to be aired in October, Kennedy said he is "very worried" about America today.
www.npr.org
October 13, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Justice Anthony Kennedy, who retired from #SCOTUS in 2018, is worried about this country. In an NPR interview the Reagan appointee warns that “Democracy is not guaranteed to survive.”

www.npr.org/2025/10/13/n...
Former Supreme Court Justice Kennedy's new memoir is unusually revealing
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who stepped down from the court in 2018, has written a book about his life on the court and off. It's far more revealing than most books written by justices.
www.npr.org
October 13, 2025 at 9:49 PM
#SCOTUS seems skeptical of limits on conversion therapy for minors during yesterday's oral arguments

www.npr.org/2025/10/07/n...
Supreme Court seems highly doubtful of limits on conversion therapy for minors
The court appeared ready to invalidate laws in some two dozen states that bar therapists from practicing a version of therapy that seeks to change a teenager's sexual orientation or gender identity.
www.npr.org
October 8, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Humility is being the answer to a jeopardy question —for a second time—and none of the contestants knowing who you are

youtube.com/watch?v=AMeN...

@jeopardyofficial.bsky.social
Ari Shapiro on Listening | Category | JEOPARDY!
YouTube video by Jeopardy!
youtube.com
September 24, 2025 at 5:04 PM
#SCOTUS upholds Trump firing of FTC Commissioner on shadow docket. Kagan dissents for 3 court libs. “Our emergency docket should not be used, as it has been here, to transfer govt authority from Congress to the Prez & thus to reshape the nation’s separation of powers.”

www.npr.org/2025/09/22/n...
Supreme Court allows Trump to fire -- for now -- remaining Democrat on FTC
At issue is whether the president has the authority to dismiss the heads of those agencies that are protected by Congress.
www.npr.org
September 22, 2025 at 10:43 PM
#SCOTUS opens the gates for ICE raids to restart in LA and temporarily bars the reinstatement of the sole remaining Democratic member of the FTC www.npr.org/2025/09/08/n...
Supreme Court okays ICE raids in LA and the firing of an FTC member
The Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to resume immigration raids in Los Angeles. Chief Justice John Roberts also temporarily barred lower courts from reinstating a member of the FTC.
www.npr.org
September 8, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Trump won most of last term’s #SCOTUS cases, but most were on Shadow Docket and temporary. Now the chickens are coming home to roost & we will see what the court thinks on a truckload of cases it can no longer kick down the road.
www.npr.org/2025/09/03/n...
Trump administration policies make their way to the Supreme Court
From tariffs to the use of the National Guard in states and the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans -- many of the Trump administration's policies are winding their way to the Supreme Court.
www.npr.org
September 3, 2025 at 9:50 PM
#SCOTUS: In two days, two more unsigned court orders on emergency docket. Only one directly involved granting a Trump wish. www.npr.org/2025/07/24/g...

www.npr.org/2025/07/23/n...
Supreme Court blocks rule that blocks Voting Rights Act for now
The order guarantees voters, at least for now, the ability to sue to enforce rights guaranteed under the landmark 1965 law.
www.npr.org
July 24, 2025 at 10:42 PM
#SCOTUS blocks Florida's law banning undocumented people from crossing into the state. www.npr.org/2025/07/09/n...
Supreme Court blocks part of Florida's immigration law
Immigrant rights organizations sued the state arguing that its new law conflicts with federal immigration law, and under longstanding Supreme Court precedent, states must bow to federal law in the eve...
www.npr.org
July 9, 2025 at 9:44 PM
#SupremeCourt upholds, for now, Trump plan for major govt reorg that would kill many programs authorized by congress and eliminate hundreds of thousands of federal jobs. www.npr.org/2025/07/08/n...
Supreme Court allows Trump to resume mass federal layoffs for now
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was appointed to the court by President Biden, dissented.
www.npr.org
July 8, 2025 at 10:09 PM
#SCOTUS agrees to review two cases next term testing state laws banning transgender girls and women from women's sports.
July 3, 2025 at 3:44 PM
The "supreme irony" of today's Supreme Court Planned Parenthood decision
npr.org NPR @npr.org · Jun 26
BREAKING NEWS: The Supreme Court allowed South Carolina to remove Planned Parenthood clinics from its state Medicaid program, even though Medicaid funds cannot generally be used to fund abortions.
Supreme Court upholds South Carolina's ban on Medicaid funds for Planned Parenthood
The Supreme Court allowed South Carolina to remove Planned Parenthood clinics from its state Medicaid program, even though Medicaid funds cannot generally be used to fund abortions.
n.pr
June 26, 2025 at 10:19 PM
#SCOTUS in unsigned, unexplained order allows Trump admin to deport individuals not to countries where they come from, but to any place in the world that will take them w/o notice or an option to be heard. www.npr.org/2025/06/23/g...
U.S. Supreme Court allows -- for now -- third-country deportations
A federal judge had previously said people must get at least 15 days to challenge their deportations to countries they're not originally from.
www.npr.org
June 23, 2025 at 11:30 PM
CJ Roberts, writing for conservative supermajority, upholds bans on gender affirming care for minors in roughly half the states. Sotomayor suggests the standard he used would have upheld state bans on interracial marriage.
June 18, 2025 at 9:46 PM
#SCOTUS unanimously rules for a disabled Minn. teenager denied equal school time to accommodate her disabilities.
www.npr.org/2025/06/12/n...
Unanimous Supreme Court makes it easier to sue schools in disability cases
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the unanimous opinion, with Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson writing se...
www.npr.org
June 12, 2025 at 4:49 PM
#SCOTUS press corps waits in vain for a reply from chief justice on live streaming opinion announcements from the bench.

www.npr.org/2025/06/11/n...
Supreme Court press corps asks chief justice to live-stream court's opinions
The press corps' letter was sent to the chief justice a year ago, but there has been no response.
www.npr.org
June 11, 2025 at 7:11 PM