Judge Julia Smith Gibbons, a member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, received the Edward J. Devitt Award on Friday for distinguished, lifetime service to the judiciary. The ceremony was held at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., the Daily Memphian reports. In remarks at the ceremony, Gibbons said she has enjoyed the solitary and collective work of an appellate judge, along with years of work on judiciary panels. Her activities have included serving as chair of the U.S. Judicial Conference’s Budget Committee, and member of the Judicial Resources Committee and Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. Gibbons had actually been named the award recipient in 2021, but the pandemic delayed the public recognition and reception. 

The U.S. Postal Service will honor the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as “an icon of American culture” with a stamp in the new year, the Associated Press reports. The design, unveiled this week, is a painted portrait based on a photo of Ginsburg in a black robe with an intricate white collar. The postal service did not say when the stamp would be available for purchase. Ginsburg died in 2020 at the age of 87.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said the leak of his draft opinion eliminating the constitutional right to abortion made members of the majority “targets for assassination.” Speaking in Washington, D.C., yesterday, Alito gave no indication the court has determined who leaked the opinion but called it a “grave betrayal of trust by somebody.” Alito said the leak gave people a “rational reason to think they could prevent” the decision from being issued “by killing one of us.” He also directly linked the leak to a planned attempt to kill Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Alito also addressed proposals to expand the size of the court, the impact of the Citizens United case and the state of free speech on college campuses. Read more from Bloomberg Law.

The U.S. Supreme Court today denied former President Donald Trump’s request to intervene in his legal battle over classified documents seized at Mar-a-Lago, The Hill reports. The Supreme Court’s denial of the request means fewer than five justices voted in Trump’s favor, though a vote breakdown was not publicly disclosed. Trump’s legal team had wanted the high court to lift a stay granted by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit that allowed the Justice Department to review more than 100 classified records taken from Mar-a-Lago during its August search.

The U.S. Supreme Court opened a new term on Monday, hearing arguments in an environmental dispute and welcoming history-making Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman justice. Read about Day 1 from Reuters. Among the cases the court decided to hear this term is one dealing with attorney-client privilege in so-called "dual purpose" communication. JD Supra has more on that case. It declined to hear a challenge to U.S. vaccine rules for health workers and a challenge to a ban on gun “bump stocks.” SCOTUSBlog has a list of all grants and denials.

Attorneys for former President Donald Trump today asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in its legal battle to have a third party review the thousands of pages of government records he stored at his Florida home. The filing asks SCOTUS to lift a stay granted by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit that allowed the Justice Department to review more than 100 classified records taken from Mar-a-Lago during its August search. Trump’s legal team argues the federal appeals court erred by allowing the Justice Department to appeal a move that was procedural in nature. Read the full story from The Hill.

The U.S. Supreme Court today held a ceremonial investiture for Ketanji Brown Jackson. She was officially sworn in on June 30 and will join the court when it opens its October session on Monday. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris attended the event as did Belmont College of Law Dean Alberto Gonzales. Read about the ceremony in the Washington Post. During the next term, the court is expected to tackle cases dealing with free speech, affirmative action and election law. Read more about the upcoming docket in the ABA Journal.

The Tennessee Supreme Court today declined to hear an appeal from the Davidson County Election Commission over Metro Nashville’s handling of an anti-tax referendum, the Tennessean reports. The denial ends a legal battle that began in 2020 when petition group 4 Good Government attempted to trigger a referendum vote to strike down the city’s 34% property tax increase and curb Metro’s power to increase property taxes. After that effort was struck down by a trial court, the group launched another referendum effort in 2021. It was also struck down. The commission took the case to the Tennessee Court of Appeals, which ruled the commission had acted illegally in its decision to hold the 2021 referendum. The commission voted to take the case to the Supreme Court in April. As of that time, the legal battle for both referendums had cost county taxpayers upwards of $955,000.

The U.S. Supreme Court has opted to keep live audio broadcasts of oral arguments for its upcoming term, the Associated Press reports. The nation’s highest court began providing live audio after COVID-19 forced the courtroom to close to the public in March 2020. As the justices begin their new term on Monday, the public will once again be allowed to enter the courtroom during oral arguments, but a link to access the live audio feed will still be available. The court will provide that link on the homepage of its website.

In an exclusive interview with CNN’s Chris Wallace, retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer warned his former colleagues against “writing too rigidly” in their opinions, saying that such decisions could “bite you in the back” in a world that is constantly changing. In a wide-ranging interview, Breyer also bemoaned his position in the court’s minority liberal bloc during his final year on the bench, addressed the court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade and condemned the leak of the court’s draft abortion opinion. CNN has a wrap up of the interview.