From Trump Immunity to Broadway: Top 2024 Supreme Court Moments

Blockbuster rulings that undercut the power of federal regulators and largely shielded Donald Trump from criminal prosecution made 2024 a momentous year for US Supreme Court opinions.

A ruling on the first constitutional test for transgender rights is already teed up for 2025 after the justices heard arguments in December proceedings that made history at the court. A new ethics controversy involving Justice Samuel Alito and a mishap with the posting of opinions online, also generated headlines for an institution that’s been struggling with its public image.

Here’s a look at the Supreme Court’s most memorable moments both on and off the bench this year.

Opinion Oops

During the last week of June, when the justices typically issue their final opinions of the term, the court briefly posted and then removed a decision that maintained access to emergency abortions in Idaho.

Bloomberg Law obtained a copy of the opinion in Moyle v. United States that had been inadvertently posted on the court’s website. It showed the justices were poised to nix a lawsuit that further sought to restrict abortion after the court overturned the constitutional right to the procedure in 2022. A final opinion was posted the next day without substantive changes.

Though relieved by the 6-3 decision, reproductive rights advocates didn’t see it as a victory since the ruling leaves the door open for the dispute to return to the court in the future. It only serves as a delay, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said in a separate opinion.

Flying Flags

Ahead of the typical opinion dump in June, the court grappled with another controversy over alleged ethics violations. Senate Democrats urged Alito in May to recuse himself from cases the court had heard involving Trump and Jan. 6 after flags associated with the rioters who attacked the US Capitol were spotted flying outside his homes.

The New York Times reported that an upside down American flag was seen at Alito’s house in Alexandria, Va., shortly after the 2021 Capitol attack, and an “Appeal to Heaven” flag was seen at his vacation home in New Jersey in summer 2023.

Alito refused to recuse from those cases and in letters to Senate Democrats said the flags were his wife’s doing and that she’s a “private citizen, and she possesses the same First Amendment rights as every other American.”

Book Tours

It was Jackson who was in the media spotlight more than any other justice in 2024.

The court’s first Black female justice went on a cross country tour to promote the release of her memoir “Lovely One” and spoke at sold out shows at venues like the Apollo Theater in New York.

Jackson sat for her first televised press interview, with CBS, since joining the court in 2022, and appeared on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” She also had a one-night, walk-on role in the Broadway musical comedy "& Juliet,” a show that reimagines William Shakespeare’s classic love story “Romeo and Juliet.”

Jackson wasn’t the only one to publish a book in 2024. Justice Neil Gorsuch also released “Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law,” which he co-authored with former law clerk, Janie Nitze, about the impact of excessive laws. He also made appearances to promote it, although his tour was more modest than Jackson’s.

Book deals for Supreme Court justices can be lucrative. Jackson received an $893,750 advance in 2023 for her memoir and Gorsuch reported earning $500,000 for his book, according to the justices’ annual financial disclosures.

Goal Achieved

2024 was memorable for Gorsuch in more ways than one. He achieved his decades-long goal of burying the legal principles that he felt gave federal regulators an unfair advantage.

In a 6-3 decision, the conservative majority overturned a 40-year precedent, known as Chevron, that told courts in regulatory disputes to defer to an agency’s reasonable interpretation when a governing law is ambiguous.

Critics say the ruling will limit the federal government’s ability to put health, safety, and environmental rules in place that protect the public.

Historic First

Oral arguments at the Supreme Court often lead to memorable moments. A fight against Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors made history in December when ACLU attorney Chase Strangio became the first openly transgender person to argue before the court.

Strangio, who co-directs the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Rights Project, represented a doctor, three transgender minors, and their parents in defending the use of hormone treatments and puberty blockers that treat adolescents with gender dysphoria.