Court docket permits Steve Bannon to maneuver ahead on dismissal of prison fees in opposition to him

The Supreme Court docket on Monday morning added one new case, involving challenges to veterans’ profit legal guidelines, to its docket for the 2026-27 time period. The justices additionally despatched the case of Stephen Bannon, a former adviser to President Donald Trump who was convicted of contempt of Congress, again to the decrease court docket, the place the Division of Justice has filed a movement to dismiss his indictment. And the court docket rebuffed, with out remark, a challenge to an Illinois regulation banning weapons on public transportation.

All of those actions got here as a part of a list of orders launched from the justices’ personal convention on April 2. The justices’ subsequent convention is scheduled for Friday, April 17; orders from that convention are anticipated at 9:30 a.m. EDT on Monday, April 20.

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The lone grant of assessment got here in Johnson v. United States Congress, during which the court docket agreed to determine whether or not federal district courts have the authority to listen to challenges to the constitutionality of federal legal guidelines affecting veterans’ advantages. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit dominated that solely the Court docket of Appeals for Veterans Claims and the U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the Federal Circuit have the ability to listen to such challenges; the Supreme Court docket will now assessment that ruling.

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Bannon, after he refused to adjust to a subpoena from the Home Choose Committee to Examine the January sixth Assault on the USA Capitol, was convicted of violating a federal regulation that makes it against the law to “willfully” fail to reply to a congressional subpoena. He was sentenced to, and served, 4 months in jail.

The U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld Bannon’s sentence. It rejected his argument that his failure to adjust to the subpoena was not “willful,” because the statute requires, as a result of he was appearing at his lawyer’s recommendation and never in dangerous religion. Writing for the court docket, Choose Bradley Garcia stated that the D.C. Circuit had “squarely held that ‘willfully’ … means solely that the defendant intentionally and deliberately refused to adjust to a congressional subpoena, and that this precise ‘recommendation of counsel’ protection is not any protection in any respect.”

Bannon came to the Supreme Court docket in October, asking the justices to take up his attraction. In its temporary responding to Bannon’s petition, the Trump administration on Feb. 9 urged the court docket to invalidate the D.C. Circuit’s ruling and ship the case again to the decrease courts, in order that the district court docket might grant a motion to dismiss Bannon’s indictment, which the federal government had filed that very same day. On Monday morning, the Supreme Court docket did simply that.

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Bannon’s case was not the one one to return to the decrease courts in mild of a movement to dismiss filed by the Trump administration. The court docket additionally despatched again a battle over the “state secrets and techniques” privilege, a doctrine that permits the federal government to withhold info in litigation when disclosing it will compromise nationwide safety. Simply over 4 years in the past, in FBI v. Fazaga, the Supreme Court docket dominated {that a} provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, which creates a process for a federal decide to assessment delicate surveillance info behind closed doorways when essential to guard nationwide safety, doesn’t trump the “state secrets and techniques” privilege. The justices despatched the case, which was introduced by Muslim American males from southern California who contend that the FBI had illegally spied on them due to their faith, again to the decrease courts for them to think about the boys’s remaining claims.

When the case returned to the U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the ninth Circuit, that court docket agreed that the federal authorities had correctly invoked the state secrets and techniques privilege and that a minimum of a number of the materials was privileged. But it surely declined to dismiss Yassir Fazaga’s faith claims altogether, as a substitute sending the case again to the trial court docket for it to take one other have a look at “whether or not the privileged info establishes a legitimate protection” for the federal government.

The FBI got here to the Supreme Court docket in October, asking the justices to take up its case. It told the justices that the ruling by the court docket of appeals, “if left undisturbed, dangers vitiating the state-secrets privilege within the Ninth Circuit and contravenes the way in which this Court docket has lengthy understood the privilege” – which, it stated, “exists to stop the privileged info from being utilized in litigation.”

The court docket on Monday despatched the case again to the decrease courts for one more look “in mild of current factual developments pertinent to this case and the federal government’s movement to dismiss.” Amongst different issues, as Josh Gerstein of Politico reported in March, one of many most important sources for the plaintiffs’ allegations – a former undercover FBI operative – now says that “a lot of the data” he supplied was “made up.”

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The justices supplied the identical therapy within the case of Alexander Sittenfeld, a member of Cincinnati’s metropolis council, who was convicted on federal bribery and extortion fees that stemmed from allegations that he had requested for or accepted marketing campaign contributions in alternate for guarantees to help a real-estate venture. Sittenfeld was sentenced to 16 months in jail and required to pay a $40,000 positive.

After the U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the sixth Circuit upheld his conviction, Sittenfeld came to the Supreme Court in July 2025, asking the justices to intervene. He contended that “there was nothing remotely approaching a transparent corrupt settlement, a lot much less an ‘specific’ one” for him to help the venture in alternate for the marketing campaign contribution. And though he had just lately been pardoned, he acknowledged, that pardon doesn’t truly eradicate his conviction or result in a refund of the positive that he paid.

In a brief filed in November, the federal authorities urged the justices to ship Sittenfeld’s case again to the decrease court docket in order that it may well dismiss the indictment. That in flip, U.S. Solicitor Common D. John Sauer wrote, “would make sure that” Sittenfeld “has obtained full reduction from the pardoned convictions.” In a short unsigned order, the court docket on Monday threw out the decrease court docket’s choice and returned the case to the sixth Circuit “for additional consideration in mild of the pending movement to dismiss the indictment.”

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After contemplating the case for the primary time final week, the court docket denied assessment in Schoenthal v. Raoul, a problem by three Illinois residents who’ve licenses to hold weapons to the constitutionality of the state’s ban on firearms on public transportation.

The U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the seventh Circuit upheld the law, prompting the challengers to come back to the Supreme Court docket final yr. They urged the court to take up the case to make clear the scope of “delicate locations” – for instance, the Supreme Court has suggested, “colleges and authorities buildings” – the place weapons could also be prohibited.

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The court docket requested the Trump administration for its views in Aldridge v. Regions Bank, a case involving the treatments out there beneath the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. The plaintiffs within the case, former workers of the restaurant chain Ruby Tuesday, contend that Areas Financial institution violated its obligations beneath ERISA, inflicting them “to lose tens of millions of {dollars} in pension advantages.” There isn’t any deadline for the Trump administration to file its temporary.  

Lastly, the court docket didn’t act on St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy, a problem to Colorado’s exclusion of Catholic preschools from the state’s common preschool program. Amongst different issues, the petition asks the justices to overrule their 1990 choice in Employment Division v. Smith, holding that somebody’s non secular beliefs don’t excuse compliance with impartial legal guidelines that apply to everybody.