The background you need, in plain language.
Campus
The justices left in place a ruling that let a Michigan middle school ban the slogan as vulgar, keeping a key student-speech question unresolved nationally.
Tech
An Arizona appeals court ruled that an AI recreation of a road-rage victim unfairly shaped his killer's sentence, sending the case back for resentencing.
Justice
The first case of the new term could decide the fate of dozens of climate lawsuits filed by states and cities.
Tech
Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel won for optogenetics, a tool now used in labs worldwide to study the brain.
Economy
A 0.4-milligram THC cap would wipe most hemp THC products off shelves unless Congress acts, and the industry says $28 billion in sales is at stake.
Politics
A House-passed bill to stop changing the clocks is stuck in the Senate, and history shows why the idea has failed before.
Politics
The justices will weigh AR-15 bans, proof-of-citizenship voter rules and Trump immigration policies in a term that starts with a climate case.
Justice
A federal judge struck down one federal criminal ban on noncitizen voting in a single case, but every state still requires citizenship to vote and the Justice Department has appealed.
Justice
Federal prosecutors charged an Oxford shop clerk and his son as toxicology results in two students' deaths remain pending.
Economy
The unemployment rate rose to 4.2%, July was revised to a job loss, and average pay is rising slower than prices.
Justice
A New York legal definition that excludes voluntary drinking or drug use helps explain why prosecutors first declined charges in the Cornell fraternity case.
Campus
A new federal rule cuts aid to college programs whose graduates earn too little. No major is banned, and it's expected to start in 2027.