Publications
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 […]
Greetings, Court fans! This Update will tackle Gabelli v. SEC (11-1274), holding that the SEC has 5 years (and no more) to bring a claim for civil penalties under the Investment Advisers Act; Evans v. Michigan (11-1327), finding that double jeopardy barred retrial of a criminal defendant even where the trial court had based its […]
Greetings, Court fans! We’re back to bring you two more decisions from last week, both fairly significant: Clapper v. Amnesty International USA (11-1025), a standing decision making it much less likely that government wiretapping under FISA will face scrutiny in an ordinary civilian, federal court; and Marx v. General Revenue Corp. (11-1175), clarifying when defendants […]
Greetings, Court fans! We’re back to round out our coverage of recent decisions and orders, including Amgen, Inc. v. Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds (11-1085), on whether securities fraud plaintiffs must establish the materiality of the allegedly fraudulent statements at the class certification stage; Levin v. United States (11-1351), on the government’s waiver of […]
Greetings, Court fans! We’re back with the first game of a triple-header. In this round, we’ll bring you Florida v. Jardines (11-564), considering whether a police dog’s hunt for the scent of drugs constitutes a search for Fourth Amendment purposes (the Court loves dog sniff cases lately) and Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. […]
Greetings, Court fans! On to part two of this week’s reporting. After handing the plaintiffs’ securities class action bar a victory in Amgen just a few weeks back, the Court gave the class action defense bar a couple reasons to cheer with its decisions in Standard Fire Insurance Co. v. Knowles (11-1450) and Comcast Corp […]
Greetings, Court fans! It’s time to get up to speed on some recent decisions. In this edition, we have US Airways v. McCutchen [11-1285], in which the Court held that equitable doctrines did not trump an ERISA plan’s terms, and Marshall v. Rodgers [12-382], which reversed habeas relief granted by the Ninth Circuit. Justice Kagan […]
Greetings, Court fans! This week, the Court shone the spotlight on the Sixth Amendment with a triple feature of cases involving the ineffective assistance of counsel. The first two have created a splash: In Missouri v. Frye (10-444) and Lafler v. Cooper (10-209), the Court ruled for the first time that defendants have a constitutional […]
Greetings, Court fans! We’re back with Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc. (10-1150), a major patent decision addressing when inventions involving “laws of nature” can be patented; Coleman v. Court of Appeals of Maryland (10-1016), on State employers’ immunity from suit under the “self-care” provision of the Family and Medical Leave Act; Sackett v. […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Justices apparently have no trouble multi-tasking, issuing 5 decisions and an order list this week, all while hearing the longest and most-watched arguments of the Term (and the possibly the decade) regarding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Monday brought technical arguments about whether the Anti-Injunction Act prohibits a […]
Greetings, Court fans! Today, we bring you Federal Aviation Administration v. Cooper (10-1024), in which the Court determined that people harmed by violations of the federal Privacy Act may sue the government only for economic injuries, not mental or emotional distress, and Setser v. United States (10-7387), where the Court considered whether a district court […]
Greetings, Court fans! Today we bring you a double-header with decisions on arrestee searches, Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders of the County of Burlington (10-945), and immunity from § 1983 suits for grand jury witnesses, Rehberg v. Paulk (10-788). If the unlikely event that you’ve been thinking about committing a crime, even a very […]
Greetings, Court fans! We’re back to round out our coverage of the Court’s recent activity, with Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC v. Simmonds (10-1261), considering tolling of the time to bring suits against corporate insiders for “short-swing” profits under Section 16(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, Roberts v. Sea-Land Services, Inc. (10-1399), on […]
Greetings, Court fans! In the spirit of jurisprudential unity, today we bring you two unanimous decisions: Filarsky v. Delia (10-1018), holding that a private individual retained by the government to carry out its work may seek qualified immunity under § 1983, and Kappos v. Hyatt (10-1219), in which the Court determined that unsuccessful patent applicants […]
Greetings, Court fans! The unanimous decisions continued last week with Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories, Ltd. v. Novo Nordisk A/S (10-844), holding that a generic drug manufacturer may bring a counterclaim against a brand-name drug manufacturer for providing an inaccurate description of the brand’s patent, and Mohamad v. Palestinian Authority (11-88), holding that the Torture Victims Protection […]
Greetings, Court fans! We are back with United States v. Home Concrete & Supply, LLC (11-139), a potentially significant administrative law decision masquerading as a ho-hum Internal Revenue Code statute of limitations case; Hall v. United States (10-875), where a divided Court wandered into the lush field of farm bankruptcy to hold that income tax […]
Greetings, Court fans! This Update will clear out one backlogged case: Wood v. Milyard (10-9995), an important read for habeas procedure junkies, and two of the Court’s five decisions last week: Astrue v. Capato (11-159), holding that children conceived via in vitro fertilization after the death of their biological father do not qualify for Social […]
Greetings, Court fans! As usual for this time of year, the Court has been busy issuing decisions. This Update will bring you: Blueford v. Arkansas (10-1320), holding that Double Jeopardy does not apply when a jury continues deliberating after announcing that it is unanimous against guilt on certain charges, and the court eventually declares a […]
Greetings, Court fans! In today’s Update, we bring you two of the Court’s recent decisions: Reichle v. Howards (11-262), holding that Secret Service agents were entitled to qualified immunity with respect to an allegation of retaliatory arrest in violation of the First Amendment, and Radlax Gateway Hotel v. Amalgamated Bank (11-166), concluding that Chapter 11 […]
Greetings, Court fans! This Update will bring you two per curiam habeas decisions, Coleman v. Johnson (11-1052) and Parker v. Matthews (11-845), as well as a number of recent cert grants. (Hey, they can’t all be news breakers!) In Coleman v. Johnson (11-1052), the Court reversed the Third Circuit’s decision granting Johnson habeas relief based […]
Greetings, Court fans! While we hold our collective breath for the Court’s decisions on the health care law and other headline grabbers, the Justices continue to churn out decisions on the other remaining cases of the Term. Today we bring you Armour v. Indianapolis (11-161), an interesting application of rational basis review to a not-so-interesting […]
Greetings, Court fans! With the end of June in sight, the Court’s flurry of decisions continues. Today, the Court overturned most of Arizona’s controversial immigration law, reaffirmed the right of corporations to make political contributions (after Montana blatantly refused to follow the Court’s Citizens United decision), and found that juvenile homicide offenders cannot be sentenced […]
Greetings, Court Fans! We’re back with some reading to pass the time while the bookmakers continue to handicap the odds on the Affordable Care Act’s survival. We offer two significant criminal decisions cases for your reading pleasure: Miller v. Alabama (10-9646), holding that juvenile homicide offenders cannot automatically be sentenced to life without the possibility […]
Greetings, Court fans! We’re back . . . quicker than you thought, huh? This Update will cover: Arizona v. United States (11-182), where the Court gutted Arizona’s controversial immigration law; and Southern Union Co. v. United States (11-94), which extended to criminal fines the Apprendi rule that facts relevant to punishment must be found by […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Term ended with a bang last Thursday, but we’ll continue to bring you our take on the Court’s final decisions. This Update is devoted to National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (11-393). Unless you have been resting comfortably on some (sadly fictional) media-free island, you know the outcome: the Patient […]
Greetings, Court fans! This Update addresses United States v. Alvarez (11-210), striking down the Stolen Valor Act as prohibiting too much speech under the First Amendment, and Salazar v. Ramah Navajo Chapter (11-551), finding that the federal government must honor certain contractual obligations to Indian Tribes, even where those obligations are subject to the availability […]
Greetings, Court fans! In this Update, we bring you Williams v. Illinois (10-8505), the latest in a series of skirmishes between the Justices on the admissibility of crime lab reports under the Confrontation Clause, plus a long list of cert grants to whet your appetite for next Term. Williams v. Illinois (10-8505) engendered a particularly […]
Greetings, Court fans! This Update will cover three decisions: Arizona Free Enterprise Club’s Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett (10-238) (consolidated with McComish v. Bennett (10-239)), an important campaign finance case decided on First Amendment grounds; Stern v. Marshall (10-179), regarding the Bankruptcy Court’s authority to adjudicate a debtor’s state common law counterclaim against a creditor; […]
Greetings Court fans! In case you needed a break from hotly controversial cases, this Update will bring you some of the least talked about decisions of the year: Montana v. Wyoming (Orig. 137), a water-rights case; and two personal jurisdiction cases, Goodyear Dunlop Tires Operations, S.A. v. Brown (10-76) and J. McIntyre Machinery, LTD v. […]