U.S. Supreme Court Oral Arguments

A case in which the Court will decide whether a prisoner’s claim based on a new constitutional rule counts as “previously unavailable”—which would allow the prisoner to file a second habeas petition—when the prisoner could have raised that claim in an earlier petition even if it would not have succeeded at that time.

A case in which the Court will decide whether a defendant who files an answer without including an affirmative defense may still raise that defense as the basis for a summary judgment motion — without ever amending its answer — and whether that remains true even when the deadline to seek such an amendment has already passed under the scheduling order.

A case in which the Court will decide whether a federal prisoner can use a habeas corpus petition to challenge the government's calculation of time credits earned under the First Step Act when seeking early transfer to a halfway house or home confinement.

A case in which the Court will decide whether the phrase “goods or services from a video tape service provider,” as used in the Video Privacy Protection Act’s definition of “consumer,” refers to all of a video tape service provider’s goods or services or only to its audiovisual goods or services.

A case in which the Court will decide (1) when the federal government submits a permit application to continue disposing of hazardous waste, whether that submission count as a final, reviewable government decision under federal law; and (2) before submitting that permit application, whether the federal government must first conduct the broad environmental review that federal law generally requires—even though the hazardous waste permitting process already includes its own, more limited environmental review.