Ohio and 16 other Republican-dominated states have sued, asserting that a waiver granted to California to set its own rules violates the basic design of the U.S. Constitution, which they assert should treat states as equals.
The court's action was the second time the justices declined to intervene in an admissions program based on geography since their 2023 ruling invalidating affirmative action in higher education.
The focal point of the case is 2009 law enacted by Congress that gives the Food and Drug Administration a mandate to curb the availability of nicotine products for minors.
Ted Olson, the Bush-era solicitor general, has died at age 84. He was a towering figure in the legal profession who argued 65 cases at the Supreme Court as solicitor general and as a private lawyer.
The Supreme Court has refused to let former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows move the election interference case against him in Georgia to federal court, where he would have argued he was immune from prosecution.
It is hard to estimate how many ballots will be affected by the decision or whether it will ultimately impact the outcome of the presidential election.
Depending on who wins the presidential election and the Senate, the conservative supermajority could remain the same, be trimmed or expand to an even larger and more lopsided conservative majority.
The U.S. Supreme Court put on hold a lower court order that stopped Virginia from purging its voter rolls. The order comes less than a week before Election Day.
Both liberal and conservative lawyers have judge-shopped, but in recent years, some conservative-leaning groups have been laser focused on bringing their challenges in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The court left in place a 90-year old landmark decision that declared that presidents cannot fire members of a multi-member independent agency, except in cases of bad behavior.
