Nina Totenberg

The court's 7-2 decision gave the EPA the right to regulate greenhouse gases. But in a separate 5-4 vote, the justices curbed the agency's attempt to rework one section of the Clean Air Act.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that public employees cannot be fired in retaliation for testifying truthfully on matters of public corruption or public concern.

The justices unanimously ruled that a public employee who testified about corruption should not have been punished for doing so. Going forward, though, some tricky questions are still undecided.

In a major victory for gun control groups, the justices upheld by a 5-4 vote a federal ban on one person buying a gun for another.

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that federal law may prohibit someone from buying a gun for another person — whether or not the other person is legally allowed to purchase a gun.

The Supreme Court has ruled that individual retirement accounts (IRAs) that Americans inherit are not protected in bankruptcy proceedings.

When Heidi Heffron-Clark declared bankruptcy in October 2010, she and her husband claimed the IRA she inherited from her mother — then worth $300,000 — qualified as "retirement funds," meaning the ...

By a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled that POM Wonderful's lawsuit against the Coca-Cola Co. may go on. The repercussions of the case for the food and beverage industry are unclear.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that a federal law seeking to improve accountability for environmental spills and pollution can be circumvented by certain kinds of state laws.

The federal Superfund law supersedes state statutes of limitations. Instead the federal law dictates that lawsuits alleging environmental injury need only be ...

In an unusual majority, the Supreme Court's liberal and conservative justices have decided that immigrant children who turn 21 while their parents' immigration application is pending must start over.

The justices ruled that federal authorities erred by invoking the chemical weapons treaty in prosecuting a woman who attacked a romantic rival with chemicals.

In two decisions handed down Tuesday, the Supreme Court made it more difficult for citizens to sue law enforcement officers for their conduct. Both decisions were unanimous.

The central issue in both was the doctrine of "qualified immunity," which shields public officials from being sued for actions that fall short ...

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court struck down a Florida rule requiring a defendant's IQ to be 70 or below before that defendant could avoid the death penalty for reasons of mental retardation.

A federal judge in Pennsylvania has struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional. The ruling is the latest in a growing cascade of federal and state court decisions declaring a right to marry for gay couples.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court last year struck down a federal ...

The Supreme Court delivered a blow on behalf of writers, giving a screenwriter's daughter a chance to prove in court that the critically acclaimed movie Raging Bull infringed her father's copyright.

All of us who write for a living know what it's like to completely forget something you wrote 13 years ago.

But when a Supreme Court justice pointedly cites the facts in a decision he wrote, and gets them exactly wrong, it is more than embarrassing. It makes for ...

In a case that reaches into almost every American's pocket or purse, justices struggled over whether police can search cellphones without obtaining a warrant at the time of an arrest.

Police have long been able to search people without a warrant at the time of their arrest. Two cases before the Supreme Court ask whether cellphones should be off-limits until police get permission.

Nowhere is the legacy of Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington — among the greatest composer/bandleaders in history — more profound than at the Washington, D.C., arts high school that bears his name.

In 2006, the Supreme Court said public employees have no First Amendment protection for speech "pursuant to their job duties." But Monday, in a case about criminal testimony, justices seemed dubious.

Monday the Supreme Court hears about a man who was fired after testifying against a state lawmaker. The case on public employees' right to speak out could impact future corruption investigations.