Jun 22 · Per curiam
McCarthy v. Hernandez
Reversed · AEDPA
Summarily reversed the Second Circuit's habeas grant — no clearly established federal law required a Seibert jury instruction on post-warning confessions.
June 22–28, 2026 · October Term 2025 · decision season finale
6–3
Wolford v. Lopez · No. 24-1046
On the term's penultimate opinion Thursday, Justice Samuel Alito held 6-3 that Hawaii's law barring licensed concealed-carry permit holders from carrying handguns on private property open to the public — without the owner's express authorization — violates the Second and Fourteenth Amendments. The Court declined to adopt a categorical rule for all private property but struck the open-to-the-public restriction as inconsistent with historical tradition after Bruen.
Sources: SCOTUSblog — June 25 opinion day · LII — No. 24-1046
Nine opinions in four days
Jun 22 · Per curiam
Reversed · AEDPA
Summarily reversed the Second Circuit's habeas grant — no clearly established federal law required a Seibert jury instruction on post-warning confessions.
Jun 23 · Gorsuch, J.
6–3 · RLUIPA
Spending Clause statutes cannot impose personal-capacity liability on state prison officials who never consented to be sued.
Jun 23 · Thomas, J.
6–3 · INA
Border officers need not have clear and convincing evidence before treating a returning green card holder as seeking admission.
Jun 23 · Barrett, J.
6–3 · ATS
Federal courts may not create new causes of action under the Alien Tort Statute; TVPA has no aiding-and-abetting liability.
Jun 23 · Kavanaugh, J.
6–3 · FSIA
Helms-Burton independently abrogates sovereign immunity for Cuban government entities — no separate FSIA exception required.
Jun 23 · Thomas, J.
6–3 · Takings
Just compensation for tax foreclosure sales is measured by the sale price, not hypothetical fair market value.
Jun 25 · Alito, J.
6–3 · 2d Am.
Hawaii cannot bar concealed carry on private property open to the public without owner consent.
Jun 25 · Alito, J.
6–3 · TPS
Courts may not review the Secretary of Homeland Security's TPS designation decisions.
Jun 25 · Kavanaugh, J.
7–2 · FIFRA
FIFRA expressly preempts state failure-to-warn claims requiring cancer labels EPA has not approved.
Alito, J. · Kagan & Jackson, JJ., dissenting
Jason Wolford and George Young challenged Hawaii's Act 52, which required concealed-carry licensees to obtain express permission from any private-property owner before carrying on premises open to the public. Alito's majority applied the Bruen historical-tradition test and found no analogue for stripping carry rights on commercial property by default.
Justice Elena Kagan dissented, joined by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, arguing Hawaii's regulation fell within the state's authority over commercial spaces. Jackson wrote separately to warn the majority's reasoning could reach further than the Court acknowledged.
Source: SCOTUSblog — Wolford, June 25
0K+
Syrian & Haitian nationals with TPS protections
In a companion immigration ruling issued the same morning as Wolford, the Court held 6-3 that the Immigration and Nationality Act bars federal courts from reviewing the Secretary of Homeland Security's determinations on Temporary Protected Status designations. Justice Alito wrote for the majority; Justice Elena Kagan dissented for the liberal bloc.
The decision clears a legal path for the administration to terminate removal protections for hundreds of thousands of Syrian and Haitian nationals previously covered by TPS — a follow-on to the term's broader immigration docket, distinct from last week's Hemani gun ruling.
Sources: SCOTUSblog — Mullin v. Doe · SCOTUSblog — Mullin v. Doe
Immigration · asylum at the border · 6–3 · June 25
The INA permits any alien "who arrives in the United States" to apply for asylum. The question: when has an asylum seeker "arrived" — at the border line, or only after physical entry?
Alito's majority held that asylum seekers do not "arrive" for statutory purposes until they physically cross the U.S. border. Waiting on the Mexican side of a port of entry does not trigger the right to apply.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Kagan and Jackson, argued the majority's reading conflicts with decades of agency practice and humanitarian obligations at official ports of entry.
Source: SCOTUSblog — Al Otro Lado
State law (before)
Plaintiffs could bring state failure-to-warn claims requiring Roundup products to carry cancer-risk labels beyond what federal regulators approved.
After 7–2 ruling
7 U.S.C. § 136v(b) expressly preempts state claims that would force Monsanto to add EPA-unapproved warnings. Kavanaugh wrote for seven; Jackson dissented, joined by Gorsuch.
The decision is among the term's most significant preemption rulings — resolving a circuit split over whether FIFRA's express preemption clause blocks glyphosate warning claims nationwide.
Source: SCOTUSblog — Monsanto v. Durnell
"The proper baseline under the Takings Clause is the price obtained in a tax sale."
When Michigan foreclosed on the Pung family's property over a $22,642 tax debt and sold it for $242,400, the family argued the Fifth Amendment required compensation based on fair market value — not merely the surplus above the tax debt. Thomas's 6-3 majority rejected that theory.
The Court held that when a tax sale is fairly conducted, the constitutional baseline for "just compensation" is the sale price itself. The Eighth Amendment's Excessive Fines Clause offers no greater recovery. Gorsuch concurred in a separate opinion narrowing the fair-auction analysis.
Source: LII — No. 25-95, June 23, 2026
"No matter how clearly Congress speaks, all that matters is the response it elicits: Spending Clause legislation may not make anybody liable without their express consent."
— Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissenting in Landor v. Louisiana
Gorsuch's 6-3 majority held that RLUIPA — enacted under the Spending Clause — cannot authorize damages suits against individual Louisiana prison officials who forcibly shaved Rastafarian inmate Damon Landor's dreadlocks. Only entities that voluntarily accepted federal funds and consented to suit may be held liable. Lower courts had condemned Landor's treatment but dismissed his claims against the officers.
Source: SCOTUSblog — Landor, June 23
Immigration · returning LPRs
Green card holder Muk Choi Lau returned from China facing New Jersey trademark-counterfeiting charges. CBP treated him as "seeking admission" and paroled him in rather than admitting him as a returning resident.
The 6-3 majority held border officers need not meet a "clear and convincing evidence" standard at the port of entry. "Commission" of a disqualifying offense — not conviction — suffices to treat an LPR as an applicant for admission.
Conviction or admission may be established later. Jackson's dissent warned the sequencing allows the government to downgrade LPR status at the border and "backfill" its justification years afterward.
Source: SCOTUSblog — Blanche v. Lau
28 U.S.C. § 1350 · Alien Tort Statute · June 23, 2026
First Congress enacts the ATS, granting federal jurisdiction over torts violating the law of nations.
Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain permits narrow judicial recognition of ATS causes of action for well-established international-law norms.
Barrett's 6-3 majority closes that door: the ATS is purely jurisdictional. Courts may not create new causes of action, and the TVPA has no aiding-and-abetting liability. Falun Gong plaintiffs' claims against Cisco surveillance technology are dismissed.
Sources: SCOTUSblog — No. 24-856 · Mayer Brown — June 23 analysis
$0B+
damages sought from Cuban state entities
After Fidel Castro's 1960 confiscation of Exxon's Cuban oil infrastructure, Exxon waited decades for a federal remedy. Kavanaugh's 6-3 majority held the Helms-Burton Act independently abrogates sovereign immunity for Cuban agencies and instrumentalities — plaintiffs need not also satisfy a 28 U.S.C. § 1605 FSIA exception.
Kagan dissented, arguing Congress must "unmistakably" abrogate immunity and the Helms-Burton text does not meet that bar. The case returns to the D.C. Circuit for litigation over trafficking in expropriated assets.
Criminal procedure · per curiam
On Monday's order day, the Court summarily reversed the Second Circuit's grant of federal habeas relief to Pedro Hernandez, a New York prisoner challenging the voluntariness of post-Miranda confessions. The per curiam opinion held that Missouri v. Seibert — which addresses judicial suppression of tainted confessions — does not clearly establish a right to jury instructions on attenuation.
Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson would have denied certiorari. The decision continues the Court's recent pattern of reversing lower courts that exceed AEDPA's deferential standard — including January's Klein v. Martin per curiam.
Source: LII — No. 25-748, June 22, 2026
Since last edition · bipartisan moment
0
Senate · Jun 22
0
House · Jun 23
Follow-up: After last week's 87-8 motion to proceed, the Senate passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act 85-5 on June 22 and the House concurred 358-32 on June 23 — the largest bipartisan housing package in decades. President Trump delayed a planned Capitol signing ceremony, conditioning it on passage of the SAVE America Act's proof-of-citizenship voting requirements. If unsigned but not vetoed while Congress remains in session, the bill could still become law after ten days under the presentment clause.
Sources: PBS NewsHour — June 24 · Congress.gov — H.R.6644 actions
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress the $1.8 billion fund is "not going forward, period" — but when Judge Leonie M. Brinkema offered to dismiss the Virginia challenge if DOJ filed sworn declarations under penalty of perjury, the department refused, citing separation-of-powers concerns.
On June 25, Brinkema ordered DOJ to answer the complaint by July 17 and proceed to standard civil discovery. A pretrial conference is set for July 8; discovery must finish by November 13.
Sources: CNBC — June 25 order · E.D. Va. Doc. 96, June 24
Jul 17answer due
$0.0M
alleged illicit trading profit
On June 24, the SEC charged Casey Muggleston — a former Constellation Energy engineering manager — with trading on confidential information about "Project Tetris," the company's plan to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear plant. The complaint alleges Muggleston profited roughly $1.4 million ahead of Constellation's September 2024 announcement of a 20-year Microsoft power-purchase agreement. Parallel criminal charges were filed in the District of Delaware under 15 U.S.C. § 78j(b) and Rule 10b-5.
Since last edition: The House returned June 23 after recess but has not revived 50 U.S.C. § 1881a, which lapsed at midnight June 12 — the first statutory expiration since the 2008 FISA Amendments Act. Existing Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court certifications may sustain some collection through March 2027, but lawmakers remain deadlocked over warrant requirements, acting DNI Bill Pulte's appointment, and President Trump's demand to pair any extension with SAVE America Act voting provisions.
Sources: Politico — June 11 lapse · Nextgov/FCW — certification analysis
State highlights
A federal district court in Rhode Island vacated several USCIS policies imposing holds and heightened scrutiny on immigration-benefit applicants from 39 countries — a ruling with national implications for how DHS may implement country-specific review protocols pending federal rulemaking.
The Fifth Circuit's ongoing docket on border-enforcement challenges continues to interact with this week's Al Otro Lado holding, as Texas state officials press parallel suits over asylum processing at official ports of entry.
Federal legal calendar · June 29 – July 5, 2026
The Court scheduled a 10 a.m. EDT session — potentially the term's final opinion release. Remaining cases may include birthright citizenship, agency-removal limits, Fed Governor Cook's removal, and transgender-athlete disputes.
SCOTUSblog analysis suggests the Court typically finishes by July 1. Expect at least one more session if blockbusters remain after Monday.
Judge Brinkema convenes parties in In re Anti-Weaponization Fund Litigation to set a discovery plan and consider settlement.
Federal Circuit en banc briefing opens in the fired-immigration-judge challenge — petitioners' opening brief due in the CSRA removal dispute granted en banc June 17.
Justice Department must file its responsive pleading in the Virginia anti-weaponization fund challenge or face default proceedings.
Paperwork Reduction Act comment period closes on EO 14398 federal-contractor reporting requirements — 91 Fed. Reg. 24544.