U.S. Supreme Court · April sitting closes · April 29, 2026
6–3Equal protection and congressional maps
A six-justice majority concluded Louisiana could not defend its second majority-Black district as compelled by § 2 of the Voting Rights Act — the capstone to a week that also brought a unanimous win for pregnancy-resource centers in First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, Inc. v. Davenport, closely watched arguments over ending Temporary Protected Status for Haiti and Syria, a generics patent fight in Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. v. Amarin Pharma, Inc., and fresh emergency filings over mifepristone dispensing after a Fifth Circuit order.
October Term 2025 · No. 24-109 · Apr. 29, 2026
Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion in Louisiana v. Callais affirmed the three-judge district court’s bar on using Louisiana’s 2024 map, which added a second majority-Black district after litigation over the state’s 2022 plan. The court treated the state’s predominant use of race as failing strict scrutiny: compliance with the VRA, the majority reasoned, did not supply a compelling interest here because the plaintiffs who challenged the 2022 map had not carried their Gingles vote-dilution showing. Justice Elena Kagan dissented for three justices; she read her summary from the bench and closed without the customary “respectfully” before “I dissent.”
Majority blocks · Dissent blocks
Sources: Supreme Court slip opinion PDF, No. 24-109 · SCOTUSblog — Amy Howe, opinion analysis, Apr. 29, 2026
Civil procedure / First Amendment · No. 24-781
In First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, Inc. v. Davenport, the justices unanimously reversed the Third Circuit and held that a religious nonprofit may challenge a state investigatory subpoena seeking donor identities in federal court — rejecting the view that such claims belong exclusively in state court.
Sources: Supreme Court slip opinion PDF, No. 24-781 · SCOTUSblog — Amy Howe, Apr. 30, 2026
Interim docket · Louisiana primaries
Within hours of the Callais judgment, challengers asked the Supreme Court to transmit the mandate immediately instead of waiting the usual 32 days so Louisiana could redraw before the 2026 primaries. The state confirmed it would postpone congressional primaries scheduled for May 16; Governor Jeff Landry issued an executive order encouraging the legislature to adopt a new map. Black voters who defended the 2024 map asked the Court to keep the judgment from taking effect until after the November election, citing mailed ballots already in circulation.
“Non-African American” voters who prevailed in Callais filed on the interim docket to bypass the standard 32-day transmission window.
Louisiana responded with the governor’s emergency posture while Black voters opposed immediate mandate transmission; the district court indicated its injunction against using the 2024 map remains in effect.
Sources: SCOTUSblog — Amy Howe, Apr. 30, 2026 · CourtListener — district court docket entry (Callais v. Landry)
Immigration · No. 25-1083 · Argued Apr. 29, 2026
In Mullin v. Doe, the justices heard roughly 105 minutes of argument over the Trump administration’s termination of TPS designations for Haiti and Syria. The government defended a statutory reading that would sharply limit judicial review of the Secretary’s termination decisions; challengers emphasized mandatory consultation steps and warned that skipping review would leave Congress’s procedural safeguards meaningless.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that the TPS statute bars courts from reviewing the Secretary’s designation and termination choices — including the chain of steps leading to them — because those judgments implicate foreign policy and national interest.
Counsel countered that Congress prescribed notice, Federal Register publication, and inter-agency consultation, and that courts can police compliance with those requirements even if substantive termination choices receive deferential review.
Sources: Supreme Court argument transcript PDF, No. 25-1083 · SCOTUSblog — Amy Howe, argument analysis, Apr. 29, 2026
Federal Circuit law · No. 24-889 · Apr. 29, 2026
The Federal Circuit had allowed Amarin’s induced-infringement suit against generic manufacturer Hikma to proceed based on FDA-compelled labeling, investor-facing press releases, and website copy. At argument, several justices treated the label as largely non-probative of intent to induce pharmacists to dispense for patented uses; the bench also aired skepticism about treating investor materials as evidence of intent toward prescribing decisions.
Sources: SCOTUSblog — Ronald Mann, argument analysis, Apr. 30, 2026 · Supreme Court — argument transcript PDF, No. 24-889
FDA · Fifth Circuit · May 2, 2026
On Saturday, Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro asked the Supreme Court to stay a Fifth Circuit order that, according to the companies, reinstated in-person dispensing requirements for mifepristone while Louisiana’s separate suit proceeds. The applications emphasize regulatory disruption and echo the Court’s 2024 holding that objecting doctors lacked standing to challenge FDA’s risk-benefit judgments — here arguing Louisiana’s downstream fiscal theories are even more attenuated.
Justice Samuel Alito receives emergency matters from the Fifth Circuit; the shadow-docket posture typically includes a short response window for the state before the Court acts on a stay or administrative pause.
Sources: SCOTUSblog — Amy Howe, May 2, 2026 · SCOTUSblog case file — FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine (2024 merits decision)
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit · Apr. 28, 2026
A unanimous Second Circuit panel held that the administration cannot categorically deny bond hearings to longtime residents arrested in the interior, reasoning that the government’s reading of the 1996 detention statutes defies their text and history. Panels in the Fifth and Eighth Circuits have upheld the policy — teeing up Supreme Court review if the Solicitor General seeks certiorari.
90%+
Judge Joseph F. Bianco’s opinion noted that more than 370 district judges — about ninety percent of those who ruled — have rejected the same interpretation in habeas challenges arising from the nationwide enforcement posture.
Source: Associated Press — Rebecca Boone, Second Circuit bond decision, Apr. 29, 2026
Second Circuit · Defamation judgment
The Second Circuit declined rehearing en banc after a three-judge panel affirmed the $83.3 million defamation judgment for writer E. Jean Carroll. The order keeps pressure on parallel Supreme Court petitions over related aspects of the underlying litigation.
“[A] rehearing en banc is not favored and ordinarily will not be ordered unless: … the proceeding involves a question of exceptional importance.”via Fed. R. App. P. 35(a) (Legal Information Institute)
Sources: Legal Information Institute — FRAP Rule 35 · USA Today — Aysha Bagchi, Apr. 29, 2026 (Carroll appeal) · DocumentCloud — Second Circuit en banc denial (Carroll)
National Fraud Enforcement Division · May 1, 2026
Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald unveiled a West Coast Health Care Fraud Strike Force surging at least ten new prosecutors across California, Arizona, and Nevada. A companion “This Week in Fraud” release catalogued indictments, guilty pleas, sentences, and a $2 million seizure tied to alleged sham wound-care billings in the Central District of California.
Sources: DOJ Office of Public Affairs — May 1, 2026 press release · DOJ — West Coast Health Care Fraud Strike Force announcement
119th Congress · Immigration statute
While the justices parsed nonreviewability and consultation duties at One First Street, Senate dynamics on extending Haiti protections continued to draw coverage — a reminder that statutory text in the Immigration and Nationality Act often moves on parallel legislative and judicial tracks.
Merits briefing and argument in Mullin address whether federal courts can police DHS’s termination process for Haiti and Syria after district courts enjoined immediate implementation.
Reporting highlighted a House-passed extension facing a sixty-vote threshold in the Senate — a procedural fact pattern immigration counsel watch alongside any Supreme Court mandate timing.
TPS derives from 8 U.S.C. § 1254a, enacted through the Immigration Act of 1990’s framework for “extraordinary and temporary” country conditions.
Sources: Courthouse News Service — Benjamin S. Weiss, Apr. 29, 2026 · Congress.gov — S.358, 101st Congress (TPS-enacting legislation, historical text)
State responses · National implications
National reporting tied the Callais holding to immediate redistricting politics beyond Louisiana — including Florida’s same-day legislative action referenced in coverage of the ruling’s downstream effects on competitive seats.
Source: The New York Times — Nick Corasaniti, Emily Cochrane, and Tim Balk, Apr. 29, 2026
Institutional rhythm
The Supreme Court publishes consolidated calendars linking opinion sessions, conferences, and non-argument days for October Term 2025. When interim applications and mandate timing overlap with state election codes, clerks’ offices pair the Court’s PDF calendar with PACER notices and state filing portals.
Source: Supreme Court of the United States — Calendars and Lists
Forward calendar
May opens with conference orders, continuing merits decisions, and shadow-docket decisions that can reset dispensing rules or detention practices overnight.
SCOTUSblog expects the public order list after the justices’ private conference; cert grants and denials will reset briefing clocks for summer merits schedules.
SCOTUSblog’s TPS argument analysis projects a decision alongside other late-term immigration merits cases.
Watch for Justice Alito’s response schedule on Danco and GenBioPro requests to pause the in-person dispensing order during FDA review.
The district court ordered compliance briefings shortly after mandate transmission; map drawers and election officials face compressed timelines ahead of November 2026.
Solicitor General’s office may seek Supreme Court review of the Second Circuit’s rejection of nationwide mandatory detention without bond — mirroring earlier circuit conflicts noted in habeas filings.
Sources: SCOTUSblog — Kelsey Dallas, Apr. 30, 2026 (order list timing) · SCOTUSblog — TPS decision timing · SCOTUSblog — mifepristone emergency applications, May 2, 2026