Publications
Greetings, Court fans! This Update covers two of the Court’s three decisions from last week, a good week for toner and tax aficionados: Lexmark v. Static Control Components (12-873), on who can maintain an action for false advertising under the Lanham Act; and United States v. Quality Stores, Inc. (12-1408), on whether severance payments made […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court surprised us with an early decision last week in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission (12-536), striking down aggregate limits on campaign contributions. Rather than waiting until the end of the Term, the Court handed down the weighty decision with two months to spare. This Update will cover McCutcheon as well […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court delivered another April blockbuster this week, Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action (12-682), concluding 6-2 (with Justice Kagan recused) that a Michigan ballot initiative prohibiting the state from granting preferential treatment on the basis of race in college admissions and other state decisions does not violate the Fourteenth Amendment. […]
Greetings, Court fans! We know you’ve barely finished digesting Schuette, but we’re back to catch you up on the Court’s remaining decisions from this week: Paroline v. United Sates (12-8561), addressing restitution for victims of child pornography; White v. Woodall (12-794), reversing a grant of habeas corpus for failure to adhere to AEDPA’s deferential standard […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court continued its steady flow of spring decisions today, handing down three more. Two have been making headlines for their potential (though unspoken) impact on “patent trolls” (a derogatory term used to refer to those that hold patents not to manufacture products, but to extract licensing fees or inhibit competition). Octane […]
Greetings, Court fans! We’re back to bring you the third case from Wednesday, as well as this week’s orders. In Environmental Protection Agency v. EME Homer City Generation, L.P. (12-1182), together with American Lung Association v. EME Homer City Generation, L.P (12–1183), the Court addressed an EPA rule on air pollution emitted in one state […]
Greetings, Court fans! It’s catch-up week for the Updaters, as we prepare for the home stretch. Today, we bring you the Court’s decision in Town of Greece v. Galloway (12-696), its first entrée into pure Establishment Clause litigation since the Ten Commandments cases, Van Orden v. Perry and McCreary County v. ALCU, back in 2005. […]
Greetings, Court fans! As promised, we’re back today with Robers v. United States (12-9012), on what counts as a return of property under the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act of 1996; Tolan v. Cotton (13-551), a summary opinion reiterating the summary-judgment standard – and perhaps sending a message to lower courts that cops aren’t always entitled […]
Greetings, Court fans! Our apologies for the delay in summarizing Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (12-1315) for you, but at least we didn’t wait eighteen years! That’s how long it took Paula Petrella, owner of the copyright for the screenplay behind the Martin Scorcese film, Raging Bull, to sue MGM Pictures for infringement after she became sole […]
Greetings, Court fans! We’re back, this time to bring you two decisions from last month, as well as the Court’s cert grants and other significant orders through last week. This Update covers Decker v. Northwest Environmental Defense Center (11-338), which made more waves with Justice Scalia’s separate opinion criticizing the practice of giving deference to […]
Greetings, Court fans! We’re back to bring you Genesis Healthcare Corp. v. Symczyk (11-1059), on whether a FLSA collective action can proceed after the named plaintiff’s claim is rendered moot, Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. (10-1491), in which the Court held that the Alien Tort Statute does not have extraterritorial reach, and Boyer v. […]
Greetings, Court fans! Today, we bring you a trio of recent decisions beginning with the letter “M”: Missouri v. McNeely (11-1425), finding that the natural metabolization of alcohol does not present a per se exigent circumstance permitting officers to obtain blood samples from suspected drunk drivers without a warrant; McBurney v. Young (12-17), holding that […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court issued three more decisions this week, marked by their unanimity of opinion: Bowman v. Monsanto (11–796), holding that the patent exhaustion doctrine does not permit a farmer to “copy” patented soybean seeds by planting and harvesting; Bullock v. BankChampaign, N.A. (11-1351), holding that bankruptcy courts may refuse to discharge a […]
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 […]