U.S. Supreme Court

Michigan Radio sports commentator John U. Bacon joins Morning Edition host Doug Tribou to talk about some of the top stories in the world of sports.

For years, states around the country had laws that made a sentence of life without the possibility of parole mandatory for children who committed serious violent offenses. In Michigan, that meant that some 360 juvenile defendants were sent to prison for life. Over the past decade, a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions found that those mandatory sentences were unconstitutional. But on April 22, the Supreme Court released a decision — with conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh penning the majority opinion — that complicates those years of reform.

Today on Stateside, four Michigan congressmen have signed on to a legal brief in support of a Texas lawsuit asking the Supreme Court to nullify Michigan’s election results based on widely debunked claims of voter fraud. A reporter talks us through the significance of the lawmakers’ support of the suit. Also, a Lenawee County winemaker discusses how he’s trying to keep his business afloat. Plus, a Holocaust survivor and peace activist on the lessons history holds for today.

Today on Stateside, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death last week sent shockwaves throughout the nation, both emotionally and politically. We talk to one of her former clerks about Ginsburg's legacy and what the future makeup of the Supreme Court means for Michigan. Plus, a former Michigan football player talks about the abuse scandal surrounding former sports doctor Robert Anderson, and the breadth of access our state institutions provide to abusers.

Today on Stateside, we talk to a Detroit artist whose new mural is a monument to Malice Green and the wider community of Black citizens killed at the hands of police. Plus, two young Dreamers discuss what the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program (DACA) means for them.

The United States Supreme Court has dealt a victory to some Flint Michigan residents seeking damages for the city’s contaminated drinking water.

The court’s action last week clears a barrier residents faced trying to sue government officials.

But some Flint residents fear they’re still a long way from getting compensation.

Today on Stateside, the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down a lower court's ruling that ordered Michigan to redraw its congressional and state legislative district lines before the 2020 election. Plus, we talk to the reporter who helped solve the mysterious disappearance of a young Michigan man and FBI informant.

Aimee Stephens took months to compose a letter to her employer in July 2013. It read: 

“With the support of my loving wife, I have decided to become the person that my mind already is. I cannot begin to describe the shame and suffering that I have lived with. At the end of my vacation on August 26, 2013, I will return to work as my true self, Aimee Australia Stephens, in appropriate business attire.” 

These words propelled Stephens into the heart of a legal case soon to be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court ─ a potentially landmark case for the future of LGBTQ rights in this country.

Today on Stateside, how two new major US Supreme Court decisions will impact Michigan. Plus, with the anniversary of the Stonewall riots this Friday, we look at the history of the gay rights movement in Michigan.

The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging the state of Michigan over its handling of the state's sex offender registry. 

In 2016, the 6th Circuit Court ruled that aspects of Michigan’s Sex Offender Registry Act, SORA, were unconstitutional.

The court’s opinion specifically noted portions of the act which allowed the state to retroactively impose punishments on individuals without due process. 

The state of Michigan appealed the circuit court's ruling, sending Does vs Snyder to the U.S. Supreme Court. In October 2017, the Supreme Court decided not to take up the case, upholding the 6th Circuit Court's unanimous decision. 

It has now been nearly two years since the original ruling and the Legislature has failed to make any reforms to the law.

At the end of June, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against Michigan to force the state to finally make changes to its sex offender registry. 

The U.S. Supreme Court this week upheld President Trump’s ban on travel from seven countries: North Korea, Venezuela, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Libya, and Somalia. Five of these countries are majority-Muslim nations where many Michigan residents have family members.

Now, the Council on American-Islamic Relations - Michigan (CAIR) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) are partnering to look at how the upheld travel ban will impact Muslims living in Michigan. 

The Supreme Court issued a landmark decision Wednesday in the case Janus v. the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 31. AFSCME is the largest public sector union in the country.

In a 5-4 decision, the conservative majority held that public sector workers who are represented by unions cannot be required to pay any union dues.

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court released a decision that could strengthen the fishing rights of Native American tribes across the nation. It could even give tribes in the Great Lakes region a legal framework to shut down Enbridge's Line 5 pipelines.