The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in a case over whether the federal government can collect fines from a New Jersey farm over conditions for its migrant workers.
Sun Valley Orchards, which grows vegetables and fruit, was approved in 2015 to bring in 96 foreign workers under the H-2A program. The Labor Department later found it broke several program rules, among them misleading promises about living quarters, substandard transport, and improper wage deductions.
The justices are now weighing the government's effort to collect those penalties.
The Supreme Court heard a North Dakota case that could affect property owners nationwide.
A pipeline company acting for the government offered landowners too little, sparking years of litigation. The landowners won but still faced $380,000 in legal fees. North Dakota law says the company must cover them, but the federal government disagrees.
Bob McNamara argued that companies must respect state laws protecting property owners, even when using eminent domain. The justices seemed skeptical, and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson suggested federal law should govern unless Congress says otherwise.
The Supreme Court on Monday let border barrier and road work resume in Texas's Big Bend Sector by putting a lower court's block on hold while the government seeks further review.
The suit, from a river guide, an environmental group and a church preservation group, challenges waivers Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin issued for the work. The justices said the claim is about federal law, not the Constitution.
The court cited border security and the nearly $500,000 a day the halt was costing. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson would have rejected the request.
Maryland landowners have asked the Supreme Court to step into their legal fight with PSEG Renewable Transmission. The dispute is over whether a lower federal court properly applied state law when it let the developer onto their land to survey it.
The developer is studying a 67-mile transmission line that could be built in the region, where a data center boom is underway. Energy projects tied to data centers have become a hot-button issue in Maryland and neighboring Virginia.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer vows Democrats will stop President Trump from seating a conservative-leaning Supreme Court justice once they gain control.
He spoke two days after Democrats won a clear Senate majority in the midterms.
Justice Samuel Alito, 76, is in no hurry to step down, even though Democrats taking control of the Senate could make it a lot tougher for Trump to pick a successor.
He intends to stay on the bench through the end of the current term.
Democrats winning control of Congress could bring much closer examination of Trump's White House ballroom, though construction would not stop right away.
Starting in January, Democrats will be able to run hearings, request records and issue subpoenas over the project's financing. They have already asked Amazon, Apple, Meta and Nvidia, among others, about their contributions.
A lawsuit over the project is still pending, but the Supreme Court let building continue while the case goes forward, and no injunction currently halts it.
US Politics Daily@uspoliticsdaily
