Publications
Greetings, Court fans! The Court released four decisions this week. To break things up, this Update will tackle three, addressing topics ranging from credit for the payment of foreign taxes in PPL Corp. v. Commissioner (12-43), to attorneys’ fees for late-filed cases under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act in Sebelius v. Cloer (12-236), to […]
Greetings, Court fans! Today we bring you City of Arlington, Texas v. FCC (11-1545 and 11-1547), a vigorous reaffirmation of Chevron deference to agencies’ interpretation of ambiguous statutes, including those provisions regarding the scope of the agency’s power; McQuiggin v. Perkins (12-126), finding an “actual innocence” exception to AEDPA’s one-year statute of limitations; and Trevino […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court issued three decisions on Monday to kick off its annual June rush to the finish line. First up is Maryland v. King (12-207), a major criminal procedure decision upholding a state law mandating DNA swabs for individuals arrested for serious crimes. We’ll follow that with Hillman v. Maretta (11-1221), a […]
Greetings, Court fans! We are well into the month of June, which can mean only one thing: more Supreme Court decisions! Today we have Oxford Health Plans v. Sutter (12-135), addressing an arbitrator’s authority to construe the scope of an arbitration agreement; Peugh v. United States (12-62), finding that retroactive application of the Federal Sentencing […]
Greetings, Court fans! Thursday saw the calm before the storm, as the Court kicked out four more-or-less unanimous decisions ahead of the more contentious decisions we expect in the coming two weeks. First up is the highly anticipated gene-patent decision in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. (12-398), where the Court confirmed that […]
Greetings, Court fans! It looks like the Court is finally kicking into high gear, issuing five decisions yesterday with fourteen more to go by the end of next week. This Update will bring you FTC v. Actavis, Inc. (12-416), holding that reverse payment patent settlements are subject to antitrust scrutiny under the rule of reason, […]
Greetings, Court fans!As promised, we’re back with the other two decisions from Monday: Alleyne v. United States (11-9335), overruling Harris v. United States (2002) and holding that facts that increase the mandatory minimum penalty for a crime must be submitted to a jury; and Salinas v. Texas (12-246), on whether prosecutors may use a defendant’s […]
Greetings, Court fans! With only a week left in the Term, the decisions are coming fast and furious. This Update will cover two of the three decisions released Thursday: American Express Co. v. Italian Colors Restaurant (12-133), reaffirming the enforceability of arbitration clauses containing a class and collective action waiver; and Descamps v. United States […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court kicked off the last week of the Term with 5 signed opinions, a per curiam decision, and a dozen cert grants and SG invites. This Update covers today’s orders as well as last week’s decision in Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society Int’l, Inc. (12-10). The Chief […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court handed down two major employer victories in Title VII cases today: Vance v. Ball State University (11-556), in which the Court narrowly defined “supervisors,” thus limiting employer liability in workplace harassment cases; and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar (12-484), holding that plaintiffs asserting retaliation claims must establish […]
Greetings, Court fans! We continue our coverage of Monday’s decisions with Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin (11-345), the Court’s long-awaited decision on the University’s affirmative action policies; Mutual Pharmaceutical Co. v. Bartlett (12-142), where the Court found that federal preemption required eradication of a $21 million verdict against the manufacturer of a generic […]
Greetings, Court fans! While the media focuses on today’s same-sex marriage decisions (we’ll bring you more on those soon!), we’re back to bring you more detail on Shelby County v. Holder (12-96), yesterday’s Voting Rights Act decision, as well as Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District (11-1447), a land-use Takings decision that may […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court went out with a bang yesterday, overturning a key part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in United States v. Windsor (12-307), and dismissing for lack of standing the appeal in Hollingsworth v. Perry (12-144), thus leaving intact the district court’s decision invaliding California’s Proposition 8 and paving […]
Greetings, Court fans! We can hardly believe that the October 2013 Term has arrived, with the first arguments of the term and a handful of SG invites yesterday. Unofficially, activity began with a number of cert grants last week. Filling in its docket, the Court has decided to hear the following cases this term: Harris […]
Greetings, Court fans! Easy come, easy go. Just a week after hearing oral argument in Madigan v. Levin (12-872), the Court issued a one-line opinion dismissing the writ of cert as improvidently granted – an event foreshadowed during oral argument last week. On the merits, the case addressed a circuit split over the remedies available […]
Greetings, Court fans! We have just a quick update this week with two new cert grants and one invitation to the SG. Yesterday, the Court agreed to hear Hall v. Florida (12-10882), an appeal from the Florida Supreme Court which asks “[w]hether the Florida scheme for identifying mentally retarded defendants in capital cases violates Atkins […]
Greetings, Court fans! Today we bring you our last Update of the October 2011 Term. As always, the end is bittersweet, but we look forward to a 2012 Term likely to be filled with hot-button social issues, such as affirmative action and same-sex marriage. This last hurrah covers: Knox v. Service Employees Int’l Union, Local […]
Greetings, Court fans! It seems like only yesterday that we were parsing the Court’s Affordable Care Act decision together. We hope you’ve had a restful summer and are ready for another exciting Term. The Term officially kicked off this past week, but the Justices resumed adding to their docket a few weeks ago. First, let’s […]
Greetings, Court fans! It is that time of the year again – time for fall leaves, hot apple cider, pumpkins, and lots of cert grants. Today’s Update has two biggies for the patent lawyers out there and something for virtually everyone else. Bowman v. Monsanto Co. (11-796), deals with the patent exhaustion doctrine, asking “[w]hether […]
Greetings, Court fans! We hope those of you on the East Coast made it through Hurricane Sandy without too much damage or inconvenience. We now have a belated Halloween treat for you: more cases on the docket concerning election law, bankruptcy, tax, and habeas proceedings, and an SG invite on a Fair Housing Act question. […]
Greetings, Court fans! And so it begins. The Court issued its first opinion of the 2012 Term yesterday – a four-page per curiam decision in Lefemine v. Wideman (12-168) addressing the availability of attorney’s fees under 42 U.S.C. § 1988 where a party has failed to secure any damages and has won only a prospective […]
Greetings, Court fans! Today we bring you the first signed decision of the Term, and several interesting cert grants. The decision came in United States v. Bormes (11-192), finding that the Little Tucker Act, 28 U.S.C. §1346(a)(2) does not operate to waive the sovereign immunity of the United States with respect to alleged violations of […]
Greetings, Court fans! The spirit of agreement marches on: the Court is now three unanimous decisions for three. The most recent, a per curiam decision in Nitro-Lift Technologies v. Howard (11-1377), addressed an ever-popular topic among the Justices – the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”). Nitro-Lift and two of its employees entered into confidentiality and noncompetition […]
Greetings, Court fans! We’ve been slightly remiss in our Updates due to the crush of other December deadlines, but we’re back with two decisions, a bevy of other interesting items, and a New Year’s resolution to do better. The decisions came in Arkansas Game and Fish Commission v. United States (11-597), on whether government-induced temporary […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court is back from its holiday recess with three cert grants, and requests for the SG’s view on three other cert petitions. The Court added these cases to its docket: United States v. Davila (12-167), which asks: “Whether the court of appeals erred in holding that any degree of judicial participation […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court is off to a quick start in the new year, with four decisions in two days. This Update will cover Los Angeles County Flood Control District v. Natural Resources Defense Council (11-460), on what constitutes a “discharge of pollutants” under the Clean Water Act; and the consolidated cases of Ryan […]
Greetings, Court fans! We’re back, with something for everyone: federal jurisdiction junkies, conspiracy aficionados, and, yes, even the pun-loving admiralty practitioners among you. In Already, LLC v. Nike, Inc. (11-982), the Justices ushered what otherwise might have been a hotly contested trademark claim out of the federal courts entirely. It all began when Nike sued […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court has been quiet the past few weeks, so it’s the perfect time for us to catch up on cert grants, starting with a pair of preemption questions: The Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 contains an express preemption clause at 49 U.S.C. § 14501(c)(1), providing that “a State [or] […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court is on a tear this week, issuing four decisions Tuesday and another five today! This Update will tackle three of yesterday’s decisions, which addressed topics ranging from state-action immunity from antitrust laws, to the interplay of mootness doctrine with an international convention addressing child abductions, to when man’s best friend […]
Greetings, Court fans! We’re back to clear out more of last week’s deluge of decisions. This Update will wade through three criminal decisions – Bailey v. United States (11-770), considering how close is close enough to the scene of the search to allow police to seize an individual incident to the execution of a search […]