SCOTUSblog’s live blogs cover major Supreme Court oral arguments and opinion hand down days in real time. Moderators led by Amy report from the court while readers submit questions and comments. Most questions concern when a particular opinion will be released or whether courtroom audio is available; SCOTUSblog says opinions are not announced until an opinion day is scheduled, and there is no live audio from the courtroom.
The site revisited some of the most memorable comments from the 2025-26 term, while first highlighting a favorite from the 2024-25 term. That earlier exchange included an earnest question about whether law clerks are entombed with their justices. The clerks are not. When Justice Antonin Scalia died in 2016, his four law clerks were reassigned, giving other justices a fifth clerk through the end of the term.
The 2025-26 term
SCOTUSblog hosted 29 live blogs during the recently concluded term, beginning with the Nov. 5 oral argument in Learning Resources v. Trump, the tariffs case, and ending with the final opinion announcements on June 30. Two recurring subjects were the number of boxes brought to the press room and “#WaitingForAmy.” The Public Information Office uses boxes to bring copies of the day’s opinions to the press room at 9:55 a.m., five minutes before announcement. Each box typically contains one to three opinions, so the count can offer an imprecise indication of how many opinions may be released.
Amy reports from the press room during opinion announcements and sometimes identifies the released opinion and its result before the information appears on the court’s website. During the Learning Resources argument, Justice Brett Kavanaugh asked Benjamin Gutman, Oregon’s solicitor general, about a “donut hole” in the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Gutman responded: “I think it absolutely does because it’s a fundamentally different power. It’s – it’s not a donut hole; it’s – it’s a different kind of pastry.” The major questions doctrine later played a significant role in the tariffs decision, with Chief Justice John Roberts agreeing with the challengers partly on that basis, joined by Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett.
When the court began releasing opinions on Jan. 9, it issued Bowe v. United States, a federal habeas case, rather than the tariffs decision many readers expected. The following week brought Barrett v. United States, Case v. Montana and Bost v. Illinois State Board of Elections. The court eventually released its opinion in Learning Resources on Feb. 20, about six minutes after another live-blog exchange and 107 days after the case had been argued.
The box count remained a subject through the rest of the term, including on Feb. 25, when the court issued decisions in Villarreal v. Texas and The GEO Group, Inc. v. Menocal. Other live-blog discussions accompanied arguments in United States v. Hemani on firearm possession and controlled-substance use, and the birthright citizenship case on April 1. SCOTUSblog also identified additional memorable comments from opinion days between May 21 and June 30, before closing the term with its usual thanks to readers.