CNN: “The justices and their law clerks greeted Trump with collective apprehension eight years ago. Liberal or conservative, they wondered what to expect next. Today, no mystery exists as to what Trump is all about – or whether the Supreme Court majority is mostly with him.”

“The bench has been remade in his image. Trump appointed three of the current nine justices during his first term (Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett). Two other justices on the right wing, Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, were galvanized by the Trump effect.”

“Whatever guardrails were in place from Congress and Trump’s Cabinet in his first term have been lowered; the question for the Supreme Court is whether any of his moves will be a bridge too far.”

“One the parties here is the owner of Pornhub… Is it like the old Playboy magazine, you have essays there by the modern day equivalent of Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley Jr?”

— Justice Samuel Alito, at the Supreme Court.

“With online access to pornography and other sexually explicit content easier than ever before, the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday will take a fresh look at government efforts to impose new safeguards for children by requiring adult websites to conduct electronic age verification,” ABC News reports.

“The case, brought by an adult entertainment industry trade group and several content creators, challenges a 2023 Texas law that says sites containing more than one-third of ‘sexual material harmful to minors’ must verify that a user is at least 18 years old or face civil penalties up to $10,000 per day.”

“The U.S. Supreme Court turned away a fresh bid to put independent federal agencies under direct presidential control, as the justices steered clear of a fight with implications for the Federal Trade Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission,” Bloomberg reports.

“In Texas, Florida, and more than a dozen other states, users who try to access the world’s largest pornography website are greeted by a surprising sight: a message on a black screen telling them they’re blocked because of the actions of their state legislature,” CNN reports.

“Over the last two and a half years, 19 states – home to more than a third of Americans – have passed laws that require pornography websites to confirm a user’s age by checking a government-issued ID or scanning their face, among other methods.”

“Next week, the Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the constitutionality of the new laws, setting up a battle over free speech, censorship and how to protect kids online.”

“President-elect Donald Trump can be sentenced Friday in his New York hush money case, the Supreme Court said in a 5-4 ruling,” CNN reports.

“The high court on Thursday rejected Trump’s emergency request to delay the proceeding, setting the stage for him to be sentenced just days before he is inaugurated on January 20 for a second term.”

“Four conservative justices – Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh – said they would have granted Trump’s request.”

New York Times: “The court’s show of independence in the New York case — less than two weeks before the inauguration — capped the former and future president’s frenzied campaign to stave off the embarrassing spectacle of a sentencing. After months of delay, the sentencing will now formalize Mr. Trump’s conviction, cementing his status as the first felon to occupy the Oval Office.”

“Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito spoke to President-elect Donald Trump by phone Tuesday to recommend one of his former law clerks for a job in the new administration,” ABC News reports.

“The call occurred just hours before Trump’s lawyers on Wednesday morning filed an emergency request with the justices asking them to block a New York judge from moving forward with sentencing Trump on Friday in his criminal hush money case.”

President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to block his sentencing on Friday on 34 New York felony counts of falsifying business records, The Hill reports.

New York Times: “The filing came after a New York appeals court rejected the same request on Tuesday, casting doubt on the validity of his effort to stave off the sentencing.”

“The effort hinges on Mr. Trump’s argument that he is entitled to full immunity from prosecution, and even sentencing, now that he is the president-elect. His lawyers have based that claim on a polarizing Supreme Court ruling from last year that granted former presidents broad immunity for their official acts.”

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts warned Tuesday of “illegitimate activity” that he said threatened the independence of judges, Axios reports.

“President Joe Biden has vetoed bipartisan legislation that would have added dozens of new federal judge positions in the coming years,” Politico reports.

“The president had threatened to veto the bill because he didn’t want to give the president-elect new appointment opportunities, according to one of the outgoing president’s closest allies.”

“The Supreme Court agreed on Wednesday to hear TikTok’s challenge to a law that could ban its U.S. operations, putting the case on an exceptionally fast track, culminating in oral arguments at a special session on Jan. 10,” the New York Times reports.

Appeals Judge James Wynn Jr. of the Fourth Circuit “is the third Democratic-appointed federal judge to reverse their retirement plans since Trump’s election, and the trend has Senate Republicans hopping mad,” Politico reports.

“As President Joe Biden makes a final push to confirm judicial nominees before his term in office ends, he is on track to have appointed more federal judges of color than any president before him,” NBC News reports.

“Overall, about 60% of Biden’s 233 appointees are people of color.”