Mr. Chief Justice, may it please the court.

I'm John Carlo Canoparo.

I'm Zach Smith.

And welcome to SCOTUS 101, where we break down what's happening at the Supreme Court, what the justices are up to, and other things related to our favorite branch of government.

Welcome back, the SCOTUS 101.

Welcome back. It was a big week at the court with oral arguments in the Harvard and

UNC racial preferences cases. But first, Zach, any interesting news or orders?

Well, G.C., there were no new grants this week, but the Chief Justice did grant a temporary stay of a lower court order that would have required Donald Trump to release his tax returns to the House Ways and Means Committee.

Now, the Chief Justice asked for responses by November 10th, so we'll probably hear more about this dispute in the coming weeks.

The court also said that the Fulton County

District Attorney can require Senator Lindsey Graham to appear in front of a grand jury. However,

the court also assumed that his speech and debate clause privilege will protect him from

having to reveal certain information related to his official duties as a U.S. Senator.

Now, tell us about those Harvard and UNC oral arguments, G.C.

All right. Well, we have two cases involving challenges to the use of racial preferences in the

admissions policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina. So a quick reminder about what these cases

are about. The plaintiff, Students for Fair Admissions, is a group that represents Asian American

college applicants and challenges the way that Harvard and UNC give racial preferences to black

and Hispanic students at the expense of white and Asian applicants. The data produced in the Harvard trial,

for example, revealed that to give more of their limited admission spots to black and Hispanic

students, the school penalizes Asians. Not only does it require higher test scores and grades of them,

but it also systematically gives them poor marks on the personal rating. That seems extremely problematic.

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