Welcome to Supreme Court Brief. My name is Jimmy Hoover. I have been covering the Supreme Court for the National Law Journal since 2023. In this newsletter, I provide the sophisticated high court watcher with the latest news and analysis from my vantage inside the nation's most powerful courtroom. 

The Supreme Court heard arguments in two cases Tuesday to kick off the second week of its October session. Before diving in, though, the justices issued orders from their Oct. 11 conference that, although didn't include any new merits cases for the upcoming term, did summarily throw out a pair of controversial lower court rulings.

In Villarreal v. Alaniz, the court revived a First Amendment lawsuit from a citizen journalist in Laredo, Texas, accusing state officials of an unconstitutional retaliatory arrest. Below, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit had dismissed the case. The justices on Tuesday ordered the lower court to reconsider the case in light of its recent decision in Gonzalez v. Trevino.