Publications
Greetings, Court fans! Wiggin and Dana just opened a a shiny new office Washington, D.C., but it seems our arrival has been eclipsed by that of another force of nature in the nation’s capital. Perhaps anxious to skip town before it’s buried, the Justices have been especially busy in the last week, churning out three […]
Greetings, Court Fans! We’re back with summaries of the four signed decisions the Court handed down this week, which included a couple of biggies and a couple of quickies. The decision in Montgomery v. Louisiana (14-280) was a biggie, and not just because it retroactively applied the Court’s 2012 holding that mandatory sentences of life […]
Greetings, Court Fans! Who could have imagined a month ago that our summary of Justice Scalia’s dissent in Montgomery v. Alabama (14-280) would be our last opportunity to analyze an opinion from the Justice who, alongside Jackson and Holmes, will forever be remembered as one of the Court’s great writers? (Perhaps more than would have […]
Greetings, Court Fans! So many announcements since our last Update. The President announced D.C. Circuit Chief Judge Merrick Garland as his pick to take the late Justice Scalia’s seat on the Court; Senate Republicans promptly announced that they didn’t care; and, most importantly, Updater Kim Rinehart announced the birth of Baby Boy Rinehart #4. Congrats, […]
Greetings, Court Fans! More fun with an even number of Justices! The Court issued two orders today reflecting in different ways on the difficulties of deciding cases with a vacant seat. This morning, the Court released its much anticipated decision in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Ass’n (14-915), the case in which the Court appeared primed […]
Greetings, Court Fans! Here’s a line-up you don’t see in every (read: any) syllabus: “BREYER, J., announced the judgment of the Court and delivered an opinion, in which ROBERTS, C.J., and GINSBURG and SOTOMAYOR, JJ., joined. THOMAS, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment. KENNEDY, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which ALITO, J., […]
Greetings, Court Fans! The Eight found a whole lot to agree on in their last batch of decisions, unanimously holding state voting districts drawn to equalize the total population in each district (and not the number of eligible voters) do not violate the Constitution, that a sex offender need not notify his previous state of […]
Greetings, Court Fans! With roughly two months left in the term, the Supremes have kicked opinion production into high gear, issuing five decisions this past week. While many of us at Update were doing When Doves Cry, the Eight were busy taking on voter redistricting (Harris v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission), the Full Faith and […]
Greetings Court Fans! After the deluge of cases last week, the Court took a breather and issued only one decision this week. However, eagle-eyed Update aficionados may remember that we still owe you one decision from last week. With that in mind, this week we take on two cases about politics, spanning from Iran and […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court returned to action yesterday with two quick-and-unanimous decisions on statutory construction, Jesinoski v. Countrywide Home Loans (13-684), addressing the time and manner for exercising the Truth in Lending Act’s right to rescind a home loan, and Whitfield v. United States (13-9026), on the scope of the federal bank-robbery statute’s “forced […]
Greetings, Court fans! We’re back with breaking news on the certiorari front, along with a summary of one of Wednesday’s decisions, Jennings v. Stephens (13-7211), on the application of certain longstanding principles of appellate procedure to habeas appeals. Cert first: The Court just this afternoon granted certiorari in all four pending same-sex marriage decisions—Obergefell v. […]
Greetings, Court Fans! What began as a trickle of decisions from the Court’s October sitting has swiftly burgeoned into a flood. Yesterday, the Court announced decisions in three more cases, on top of the three decisions handed down Tuesday, and we still owe you one from last week! While it’s fair to say we’re underwater, […]
Greetings, Court fans! While we in New Haven were more-or-less spared having to dig out from “Winter Storm Juno” (aka “snowbigdeal”), it’s taken us a while to dig out from the Court’s recent pile of opinions. With this Update, though, we should have you up to speed. Read on for summaries of Teva Pharmaceuticals USA […]
Greetings, Court fans! The robed returned to action with this week with decisions in three cases, North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners v. Federal Trade Commission (13-534), on whether state licensing boards enjoy immunity from antitrust laws when they’re comprised of market participants; Kansas v. Nebraska (126, Orig.), on the relative rights of Kansas and […]
Greetings, Court fans! It’s been a great week for admin-law junkies; maybe not so much for the D.C. Circuit, which suffered two unanimous reversals in Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Ass’n (13-1041) and Dep’t of Transportation v. Ass’n of American Railroads (13-1080). Today we bring you summaries of these two decisions and the most recent cert […]
Greetings, Court fans! We’re bringing you up to speed with summaries of the Court’s decisions in NC Board of Dental Examiners v. FTX (13-534), regarding the scope of state action immunity from federal antitrust law; Direct Marketing Ass’n v. Brohl (13-1032), on whether the Tax Injunction Act bars a federal court from enjoining a state […]
Greetings, Court Fans! The Court began its March sitting this week (just in time for April), and issued decisions and two new cert grants. In this Update, we’ll discuss Omnicare, Inc. v. Laborers Industry Pension Fund (13-435), on issuer liability for opinions in securities registration statements, and B&B Hardware v. Hargis Industries (13-352), on the […]
Greetings, Court Fans! We’re back with summaries of the two remaining decisions from last week, Alabama Legislative Black Caucus v. Alabama (13-895), on racial gerrymandering in Alabama, and Young v. United Parcel Service, Inc. (12-1226), articulating the standard for proving an individual discriminatory treatment claim under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. We’ll also cover yesterday’s orders, […]
Greetings, Court fans! First, congratulations to my co-author Tadhg on the birth of his child last week! Second, I want to thank both David Roth and Ivana Greco for their contributions to this Update, which is a lengthy one. We will cover the Court’s recent decisions in: Rodriguez v. United States (13-9972), holding that, absent […]
Greetings, Court fans! We’re back with the two decisions from last week and one issued yesterday: Williams-Yulee v. Florida Bar (13-1499), upholding a prohibition on the personal solicitation of campaign donations by judicial candidates; Mach Mining, LLC v. EEOC (13-1019), concluding that the EEOC’s mandatory pre-suit conciliation efforts are subject to some judicial review; and […]
Greetings, Court fans! As we approach June, the Court is attempting to clear out its docket, issuing six decisions Monday. We’ll cover four short ones—all unanimous—here: Harris v. Viegelahn (14-400), holding that a debtor who converts from Chapter 13 to Chapter 7 is entitled to the return of any undistributed post-petition wages; Tibble v. Edison […]
Greetings, Court Fans! We’re back with the two remaining decisions from Monday, Comptroller v. Wynne (13-485) and San Francisco v. Sheehan (13-1412), two split decisions featuring strange bedfellows. The Justices’ philosophical differences were aired in Comptroller of the Treasury of Maryland v. Wynne (13-485), where a state’s income tax laws bumped up against the so-called […]
Greetings, Court fans! This past week the Court released important decisions in the areas of bankruptcy law (Wellness International Network, Ltd v. Shariff (13-935), patent law (Commil USA, LLC v. Cisco Systems, Inc. (13-896), and the False Claims Act (Kellogg Brown & Root Services, Inc. v. United States ex rel Carter (12-1497). Let’s get right […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court handed down four opinions and a summary reversal to kick off the busiest month of the term. This update will cover Elonis v. United States (13-983), the much anticipated “Facebook threats” case, along with Taylor v. Barkes (14-939), a summary reversal of a lower court misapplication of the qualified immunity […]
Greetings, Court Fans! The Court issued only one decision this week, but it was a biggie: Zivotovsky v. Kerry (13-628), aka the “Jerusalem passport case,” which will surely find its way into the separation-of-powers chapter of Con Law casebooks in short order. In addition to Zivotovsky, this update will cover Mellouli v. Lynch (13-1034), on […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court took care of some additional throat-clearing on Monday, handing down three decisions: Kerry v. Din (13-1402), holding that no additional process was due a U.S. citizen whose husband’s visa application was denied; Mata v. Lynch (14-185), holding that circuit courts have jurisdiction to review decisions of the Board of Immigration […]
Greetings, Court Fans!The trickle has officially become a flood. On Thursday, the Court released six new decisions, on top of the three from Monday. That leaves eleven more as we make our way down the home stretch. In this Update, we’ll cover the pair of First Amendment cases handed down Thursday, Reed v. Town of […]
Greetings, Court Fans! We’re back with Part II of our last-Thursday round-up, just in time for another decision dump from One First Street. This morning, the Court handed down decisions in Los Angeles v. Patel (13-1175), Kimble v. Marvel Enterprises (13-720), Horne v. Dep’t of Agriculture (14-275), and Kingsley v. Hendrickson (14-6368). We’ll get summaries […]
Greetings, Court Fans! The Supreme Court once again came to the rescue of Obamacare—or as Justice Scalia now calls it, in light of the Court’s second intervention, “SCOTUScare”. This Update will bring you analysis of this morning’s decision in King v. Burwell (14-114), holding 6-3 that, notwithstanding language in the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) suggesting […]
Greetings, Court fans! We’re back with yesterday’s orders, along with two of the five decisions handed down: Hall v. Florida (12-10882), rejecting Florida’s strict IQ cutoff for determining whether a person has an intellectual disability and is thus not subject to capital punishment under Atkinson v. Virginia (2002); and Plumhoff v. Rickard (12-1117), addressing whether […]