Publications
Greetings, Court Fans! Two new decisions this morning, including a major win for employers in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis (No. 16-285), which held (5-4) that neither the Federal Arbitration Act nor the National Labor Relations Act prohibits employers from requiring employees to submit to arbitration agreements that waive class-action rights. Not to give it […]
Greetings, Court Fans! We were expecting an avalanche of decisions today, but instead we got a mere flurry. In Collins v. Virginia (No. 16-1027), the Court held (8-1) that the automobile exception to the warrant requirement does not permit the warrantless entry of a home or its curtilage in order to search a vehicle stored […]
Greetings, Court fans! We’re back with summaries of this week’s two decisions—a truly epic employment decision and a maybe-slightly-less-than-epic Indian law decision—both authored by Justice Gorsuch. Employers scored a big win in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis (No. 16-285), where the Court held that the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) does not trump the Federal […]
Greetings, Court Fans! As we continue to await the dropping of the other shoe (filled with 29 pending cases), let’s kick two more out of the way. First up, in Collins v. Virginia (16-1027), The Nine resolved a clash of two well-established Fourth Amendment principles: the so-called automobile exception to the warrant requirement, which allows […]
Greetings, Court Fans! The Nine were back in action this morning, as they will be every Monday from here on out (and probably a number or other days besides). There were four new decisions announced today, including what was expected to be one of the blockbusters of the terms, but ended up being more of […]
Greetings, Court Fans! As we reported earlier in the week, The Nine handed down one of the most hotly anticipated decisions of the term on Monday, and boy did it deliver! Wait. Sorry, strike that. It turns out the 7-2 decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Right Commission (No. 16-111), mostly delivered a lesson […]
Greetings, Court Fans! The Nine kicked off the week with four new decisions, though only three came with signed opinions. In Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute (No. 16-980), the Court held (5-4) that Ohio’s “use it or lose it” practice of cancelling the voter registrations of individuals who fail to vote for two years […]
Greetings, Court Fans! This morning, the Court made some headway (emphasis on “some”) on the roughly two dozen cases left to decide by the end of the month. Specifically, in Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky (No. 16-1435), the Court held 7-2 that Minnesota’s ban on wearing political t-shirts while voting violates the First Amendment. And […]
Greetings, Court Fans! The Nine chipped away at The Nineteen (cases remaining) this morning, but not without lacing up their punting boots. In one of the most hotly anticipated cases of the year (and the longest pending, having been argued on the first day of the term), a unanimous Supreme Court held in Gill v. […]
Greetings, Court Fans! As we await tomorrow’s batch of opinions, let’s take a moderately deep dive into Monday’s partisan-gerrymandering decisions, Gill v. Whitford (No. 16-1161) and Benisek v. Lamone (No. 17-333). As we reported earlier, the Supreme Court punted on the ultimate issue in the cases, namely whether the Democratic challengers to Wisconsin’s redistricting plan […]
Greetings, Court Fans! The Court handed down two of the second-tier blockbusters of the term, this morning: South Dakota v. Wayfair (No. 17-494), reversing Quill Corp. v. North Dakota (1992) and permitting states to force out-of-state sellers to collect and remit sales tax even if the sellers lack a physical presence in the state; and […]
Greetings, Court Fans! We’re getting there. Four more decisions this morning, including one of the A-list blockbusters of the term, Carpenter v. United States (No. 16-402), in which the Court limited the “third-party records” doctrine and held that the Government’s acquisition of cell-site records from wireless carriers is a search under the Fourth Amendment. The […]
Greetings, Court Fans! Today was the last scheduled date of OT18, but The Nine still have more work to do. The Court handed down two big decisions today—Abbot v. Perez (No. 17-586), upholding all but one challenged TX congressional district against a racial-gerrymandering challenge; and Ohio v. American Express (No. 16-1454), holding that Amex’s antisteering […]
Greetings, Court Fans! OT17 came to a close this morning, and—as is generally the case—the Court saved its most controversial decisions for last. Yesterday morning (as you just might have heard by now), the Court upheld the Trump administration’s so-called Travel Ban, holding in Trump v. Hawaii (No. 17-965) that the proclamation is a lawful […]
Greetings, Court Fans! As the President of the United States announced yesterday, in his sixteenth tweet of the day (out of twenty-five), “SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS TRUMP TRAVEL BAN. Wow!” Specifically, in Trump v. Hawaii (No. 17-965), the Court held that Proclamation No. 9645—the third iteration of what is generally known as the “Travel Ban”—is a […]
Greetings, Court Fans! As the rest of the world grapples with their hopes, dreams, or fears of a post-AMK Court, we’re still grappling with the final decisions of the Court he leaves behind. In this Update, we bring you summaries of Abbot v. Perez (No. 17-586), Currier v. Virginia (No. 16-1348), and Florida v. Georgia […]
Greetings, Court Fans! As we promised last week, we’re back with the final bit of mop up from the exciting end of the 2017–18 term. And we’ve saved some of the best (or maybe the worst) for last with three significant, much-awaited 5-4 decisions. First up, in Janus v. American Federation of State, County & […]
A federal bankruptcy court in Connecticut recently ruled in favor of Johnson & Wales University in a tuition claw-back case. Roumeliotis v. Johnson & Wales University (In re DeMauro), 2018 WL 3064231 (Bankr. D. Conn. June 19, 2018). Wiggin and Dana attorneys Aaron Bayer, Benjamin Daniels, and Sharyn Zuch had filed an amicus curiae brief […]
What happened? On August 1, 2018, the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) updated the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) Entity List (EL) to add forty-four more entities in China (eight entities and thirty-six subordinate institutions, as well as numerous aliases for the listed entities), and modify one existing entry for another entity in China, […]
Greetings, Court Fans! And welcome back! October Term 2017 got underway this morning with argument in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis (No. 16-285), a case concerning the enforceability of individual arbitration clauses in employment contracts. That could be a case of great significance to the employment and class-action bars. But for the labor lawyers out […]
Greetings, Court Fans! Although we’ve got no opinions to report for you this week, we do want to briefly catch up on some news out of One First Street. Earlier this week, the Justices dismissed Trump v. Int’l Refugee Assistance Project (16-1436), one of the two “travel ban” cases that the Court granted certiorari to […]
Greetings, Court Fans! We’re back with some more non-opinion news from The Nine to wrap up the week (and the October sitting). Perhaps the biggest SCOTUS news this week occurred outside of Washington, where district judges in both Hawaii and Maryland issued nationwide preliminary injunctions (of slightly different scope) against the latest iteration of President […]
Greetings, Court Fans! Yesterday’s Order List brought no new cert grants (for the second week in a row), but it did include the first two decisions of the term—per curiam GRRs (granting cert, reversing, and remanding) in “state on top” habeas cases. Following a familiar pattern in cases arising under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death […]
Greetings, Court Fans! Well, despite (because of??) our mild ribbing yesterday about the Court’s tendency to start each term with per curiam decisions saying what the law isn’t, The Nine sprung into action this morning with their first signed opinion of the year, holding in Hamer v. Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago (No. 16-658) that […]
Greetings, Court Fans! While the first opinion of the term came a little early this year, we’ve now gone five weeks without a second and it looks like we’ll be waiting several more weeks, since the December sitting has come to a close and the next public session isn’t until January 8. Assuming the Justices […]
Greetings, Court Fans! And Happy New Year! Though we’re still awaiting the second signed opinion of October Term 2017, the Supreme Court kicked off Calendar Year 2018 with a per curiam decision in a case mixing (as so many do) race, capital punishment, . . . and certificates of appealability. In the immediate term, the […]
Greetings, Court Fans! As we continue to wait for the second signed opinion of the OT17, The Nine (or at least four of them, in various potential configurations) have made significant headway in filling out the term’s dance card. On Friday, the Court added twelve new cases to its docket, including a few that may […]
Greetings, Court Fans! It may have taken a government shutdown, but the Supreme Court has at last handed down its second (and third and fourth) argued decisions of the term. Thanks to the Judiciary’s three-week reserve of court fees, The Nine reported to work as usual this morning (figuratively; actually Justice Sotomayor stayed home) and […]
Greetings, Court Fans! With apologies for the delay, we’re back with summaries of the three decisions handed down last week. (What’s another few days when you’ve already waited a historic amount of time for the second opinion of the year?) Let’s start with the first 5-4 decision of a term that will likely feature a […]
Greetings, Court Fans! After a four-week winter recess (you thought schoolchildren had it easy!), The Nine are back at work this week, and they handed down four opinions yesterday morning to prove they haven’t been hibernating all this time. In Digital Realty Trust v. Somers(No. 16-1276), the Court narrowly construed the Dodd-Frank Act, holding that […]