Balls & Strikes

Balls & Strikes offers unique insights and news about the courts, the judges who operate within them, and the legal system they represent. What sets Balls & Strikes apart is its understanding that interpreting laws is a political process that can lead to significant real-world effects. Historically, court rulings in the United States have contributed to severe economic disparities, weakened democratic principles, supported various forms of state-approved discrimination, and created numerous obstacles to achieving racial justice. Despite its grand ideals, the legal system has often prioritized the interests of the wealthy and powerful over the rights of ordinary individuals.

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David Souter Knew His Role

6 days ago | ballsandstrikes.org | Jay Willis

David Souter, whom President George H.W. Bush appointed to the Supreme Court in 1990, and who spent the remainder of his 19-year tenure making conservatives insane with rage, died at his home in New Hampshire on Thursday. He was 85 years old. Today, a Republican president would not even consider someone with Souter’s résumé for a district court judgeship, let alone a seat on the Supreme Court.
Whose “Emergencies” Does the Supreme Court Care About?

1 week ago | ballsandstrikes.org | Jay Willis

When evaluating both requests for preliminary injunctions and requests to stay these injunctions, judges are supposed to consider the extent to which each side—the party requesting an injunction and the party opposing it—will suffer “irreparable” harm if they lose. Irreparable harm just means any harm for which courts cannot order a legal remedy, like money damages, once the case is fully resolved.
Trump Will Never Run Out of Ways to Humiliate the Law Firms That Caved to Him

2 weeks ago | ballsandstrikes.org | Jay Willis

On Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order pledging to “unleash high-impact local police forces” across the country, thereby empowering officers to “aggressively” enforce the law.
I Think Neil Gorsuch Is Lying About a “Religious Freedom” Case Again

2 weeks ago | ballsandstrikes.org | Jay Willis

Among the more distressing moments during oral argument in Mahmoud v. Taylor, a Supreme Court case challenging a Maryland school district’s use of children’s books with LGBTQ characters, came when Justice Neil Gorsuch started asking questions about bondage. Gorsuch wanted to drill down on the particulars of Pride Puppy, a rhyming alphabet book about a family searching for their lost dog at a pride parade.
Let’s Take a Look at the Children’s Books Sam Alito Is So Afraid Of

3 weeks ago | ballsandstrikes.org | Jay Willis

One of the books, for example, is Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, a story approved for kindergartners. In it, a girl named Chloe learns of her beloved Uncle Bobby’s engagement, and feels anxious and sad that he won’t be spending as much time with her anymore.
The Supreme Court Knows Trump Won’t Bring Back Kilmar Abrego Garcia

4 weeks ago | ballsandstrikes.org | Jay Willis

Last week, the Supreme Court issued an unsigned opinion requiring the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Maryland man whom immigration officials deported to a Salvadoran megaprison 32 days ago.
If the Trump Administration Can Disappear Kilmar Abrego Garcia, It Can Disappear Anyone

1 month ago | ballsandstrikes.org | Jay Willis

Sometime in the next week, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide a distressingly open legal question: whether Constitution allows the government to disappear you off the street and ship you to a foreign torture prison, and robs federal judges of the power to do anything about it. The case is about Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran man who has been living in the United States since 2011.
Republicans Are Getting Awfully Close to Stealing a North Carolina Supreme Court Seat

1 month ago | ballsandstrikes.org | Jay Willis

On Friday, two Republican judges on a North Carolina appeals court nullified thousands of votes in the state’s recent supreme court election—a transparent ploy to overturn fellow Republican appeals court judge Jefferson Griffin’s loss to Justice Allison Riggs, a Democrat who has served on the state’s highest court since 2023. Griffin learned in mid-November 2024 that he came up 734 votes short in his contest against Riggs. Two recounts confirmed his loss.
Normal People Do Not Like What the Conservative Legal Movement Is Peddling

1 month ago | ballsandstrikes.org | Jay Willis

On Tuesday, Susan Crawford won the race for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, handily defeating her Republican-backed, Elon Musk-boosted opponent, Brad Schimel. For all the anticipation surrounding a hotly contested election in a state that President Donald Trump won by less than 1 point in 2024, the early returns were sufficiently one-sided that Schimel called Crawford to concede shortly after polls closed for the night.
John Roberts, the Supreme Court’s Fearless Defender of Democracy

1 month ago | ballsandstrikes.org | Jay Willis

Jay is the Editor-in-Chief of Balls & Strikes. Previously, he was a staff writer at GQ and a senior contributor to The Appeal. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Slate, Defector, and Fast Company, among others. More by this Author