Supreme Court

Plans to use the 2020 census to ask about U.S. citizenship status suffered another major blow. A ruling in Maryland joins earlier ones in New York and California blocking the citizenship question.

A divided court ruled against a Missouri man who said that because of a rare medical condition, death by lethal injection would constitute "cruel and unusual punishment."

An Alabama man was denied the right to have his Muslim spiritual adviser in the death chamber. But a Texas prisoner's execution was delayed because he was denied his Buddhist minister.

Patrick Murphy, who escaped from prison and participated in a robbery that led to a murder, was scheduled to be executed Thursday. The court said he had the right to a spiritual adviser of his choice.

Gun rights groups had a sought a hold on the ban, which went into effect on Tuesday. The court denied the second such appeal, allowing the ban to proceed while challenges move through the courts.

A pivotal retirement and a new conservative majority could give the state legislatures a green light for even more partisanship when it comes to drawing political boundaries.

Reporter Joan Biskupic portrays the chief justice as a dedicated conservative who now "has the court he's always wanted" — and she says the law "will likely be what he says it is."

First is unlike any other book written about the justice. Evan Thomas breaks new ground with extraordinary access to O'Connor, her papers, journals — and even 20 years of her husband's diary.