Publications
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 […]
Greetings, Court Fans! It’s been ages since we last invaded your inboxes, but this time it’s not because of a lack of activity at the Court. On the contrary, The Nine have handed down five new opinions since our last missive (on top of the four we previewed there), but we’ve been unable to tell […]
Greetings, Court Fans! We’re back with Part I of our catch-up series, including summaries of the Court’s decisions in Digital Realty Trust v. Somers (No. 16-276), Rubin v. Islamic Republic of Iran (No. 16-534), and Murphy v. Smith (No. 16-1067), three cases concerning statutory construction, tied together (in a sense) by three separate opinions from […]
Greetings, Court Fans! We’re back with Part II of our February-sitting catch-up, with summaries of Jennings v. Rodriguez, Patchak v. Zinke, and Class v. United States. Without further ado… The high-profile immigration detention case Jennings v. Rodriguez (No. 15-1204) was originally argued in November 2016, when the Court had only eight members. Presumably to avoid […]
Greetings, Court Fans! We’re back with the last of our catch-up series on the decisions announced during the Court’s February sitting. Lucky for us, if you’re reading this in the Northeast, it won’t take much for you to suspend disbelief and imagine yourself reading our summaries of Merit Management Group v. FTI Consulting, U.S. Bank […]
Greetings, Court Fans! The Court kicked off its March sitting with three new decisions. We’ll have summaries toute de suite, but here are the squibs in the meantime: In Cyan, Inc. v. Beaver County Employees Retirement Fund (No. 15-1439), a unanimous Court held that the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998 (SLUSA)—a statute that […]
Greetings, Court Fans! When the Court indicated yesterday (as opposed to Friday, like usual) that there would be a “possibility of opinions” today (as opposed to Monday, like usual), there was some speculation that something interesting could be afoot. Perhaps, one theory went, The Nine wanted to rush out a decision in Gill v. Whitford […]
Greetings, Court Fans! Even though the Court is in the midst of a historically slow term (as measured by opinion output), we’ve managed to fall behind. We’ll take advantage of this off-week to get you caught up to speed with summaries of three outstanding (as in, overdue, if not necessarily superlative) decisions. First up, in […]
Greetings, Court Fans! Been a bit, but better belated than benever. (Seriously, Henry Benever was a uniquely undistinguished Member of Parliament.) As we tread water nervously in anticipation of a deluge of decisions next week (and each remaining week of the term), it’s high tide time we worked our way through the current logjam. (We’re […]
Greetings, Court Fans! As we forecast last week, the downpour has commenced. The Court released five new decisions yesterday morning, including one of the most anticipated of the term, Murphy v. NCAA (No. 16-476), the New Jersey sports-betting case, in which it held (basically 6-3) that the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which […]
Greetings, Court Fans! Last time we hit your inboxes, Barack Obama was President. To call the ensuing month eventful is something of an understatement. We’ve seen a primetime Supreme Court nomination, a flood of litigation challenging hastily conceived Executive Orders, and most recently the rescinding of a Department of Education policy on transgender rights that’s […]
Greetings, Court Fans! We’re back with the lone decision from this week, Bethune-Hill v. Va. State Board of Elections (No. 15-680), one of two racial gerrymandering cases argued on the same day back in December. (Interestingly, the other case, McCrory v. Harris (15-1262), remains undecided, despite raising similar issues.) Following the 2010 census, the Virginia […]