Publications
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. […]
Greetings, Court fans! Today’s Update will cover four decisions: Bond v. United States (01227), an intriguing Tenth Amendment case involving the odd combination of an extra-marital affair, a minor chemical attack, and prudential standing doctrines; Janus Capital Group, Inc. v. First Derivative Traders (09-525), setting forth a new rule for determining who “makes” a statement […]
Greetings, Court fans! We’re in the last stretch here. Today we bring you J.D.B. v. North Carolina (09-11121), on the Miranda rights of minors; Tapia v. United States (10-5400), on whether courts may consider rehabilitation in imposing a prison sentence (no); Freeman v. United States (09-10245), on whether courts may reduce plea-bargained sentences when the […]
Greetings, Court fans! Our last Update for the Term will cover Davis v. United States (09-11328), holding that searches conducted in reasonable reliance on binding appellate precedent are not subject to the exclusionary rule even when the precedent is later overturned; Bullcoming v. New Mexico (09-10876), the Court’s latest decision on a criminal defendant’s Sixth […]
Greetings, Court fans! The 2011 Term, which officially begins next Monday, promises to be a blockbuster. With cases ranging from the Government’s right to use GPS tracking devices on cars without a warrant, to the scope of the ministerial exception to anti-discrimination laws, to the content that can be aired on television during times children […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court has been busy separating the wheat from the chaff. As is typical this time of year, the Court issued an order declining to hear several hundred cases. It granted cert in only two additional cases and invited the Acting Solicitor General to weigh-in on whether cert should be granted in […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court continues to add to its docket. Today, the Court granted cert in the following cases: Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum (10-1491) and Mohamad v. Rajoub (11-88), which are to be argued in tandem. Kiobel asks (1) “Whether the issue of corporate civil tort liability under the Alien Tort Statute (‘ATS’), […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court issued its first decision this week, a per curiam opinion in the habeas case Cavazos v. Smith (10-1115). A sad case from any perspective, it features the collision of the Court’s strict standards for habeas review, the Court’s standards for granting certiorari, and the changing science around shaken baby syndrome […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court is in the thick of arguments and has been clearing out what it apparently believes are some of the “easy” cases. The Court issued two per curiam decisions Monday and released the first signed opinion of the Term on Tuesday! The first signed opinion came in a habeas case, Greene […]
Greetings, Court fans! Unless you were assiduously avoiding all forms of media yesterday, you likely heard that the Court has agreed to hear a series of cases challenging the health care law, a.k.a. the Affordable Care Act. The Court structured the cert grants in its own fashion, picking and choosing how it wanted to hear […]
Greetings, Court fans! We hope you enjoyed a restful and bountiful Thanksgiving holiday. Since our last Update, the Court has granted cert in the following cases: Southern Union Company v. United States (11-94), which asks whether the Fifth and Sixth Amendment principles that the Court established in Apprendi v. New Jersey (2000) and its progeny […]
Greetings, Court fans! We’re back to bring you the Court’s decisions in Judulang v. Holder (10–694), on the standard for determining whether an alien is eligible for discretionary relief from deportation, and Harding v. Cross (11-74), a per curiam decision discussing how much effort prosecutorial authorities must make to locate a witness before that witness […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court has been busy since returning from its extended holiday recess, issuing four decisions yesterday, three decisions today, and two order lists. We start with yesterday’s decisions: CompuCredit Corp. v. Greenwood (10-948), where the Court enforced another arbitration agreement (shocking, we know); Minneci v. Pollard (10-1104), finding no Bivens action available […]
Greetings, Court fans! We’re back with the three decisions released on Wednesday: Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC (10-553), holding that the “ministerial exception” bars a suit by a minister against her church claiming termination in violation of employment discrimination laws; Perry v. New Hampshire (10-8974), holding that, absent improper police conduct, the […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court issued two newsworthy decisions last week. First, in Perry v. Perez (11-713), the Texas redistricting case, the Court issued a per curiam opinion throwing out the District Court’s proposed interim redistricting plan. Second, in Maples v. Thomas (10-63), the Court (in a surprising 7-2 decision) gave death row inmate Cory […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court delivered four fresh opinions on Monday, including the headline-grabbing decision in U.S. v. Jones (10-1259) holding that the government cannot install a GPS device to track a suspect 24/7. The Court also decided Reynolds v. U.S. (10-6549), holding that sex offenders convicted before July 27, 2006 do not need to […]
Greetings, Court fans! After a long hiatus, the Court has returned and inundated us with seven decisions released yesterday and today, as well as an order list. Today’s Update will cover Kawashima v. Holder (10-577), addressing whether certain federal tax crimes are deportable offenses under the Immigration and Nationality Act; Marmet Health Care Center, Inc. […]
Greetings, Court fans! We’re back to bring you a few decisions you probably have not been waiting for: Douglas v. Independent Living Center of Southern California, Inc. (09-958), where the Court ducked the question of whether the Supremacy Clause provides a mechanism for health care providers to challenge Medicaid rates set by the States; Howes […]
Greetings, Court fans! We’re back with three more decisions, which gets us caught up with the Court’s recent published activity. The decisions came in Kurns v. Railroad Friction Products Corp. (10-879), where the Court held that the Locomotive Inspection Act preempts state law design-defect and failure-to-warn claims; Martel v. Clair (10-1265), regarding the standard for […]
Greetings, Court fans! We’re back with the remaining decisions: NASA v. Nelson (09-530), finding that routine government back-ground checks on contract employees do not violate any constitutionally-protected privacy interest; Chase Bank USA, N.A. v. McCoy (09-329), interpreting Regulation Z regarding credit card disclosures; and Swarthout v. Cooke consolidated with Cate v. Clay (10-333), concerning federal […]
Greetings, Court fans! Since returning from break, the Court has issued thirteen new decisions (3 this morning), as well as several order lists. We’re a bit backlogged due to Kim’s recent move, but we’re going to catch up quickly! This Update will cover all of the orders and three of the decisions – Bruesewitz v. […]
Greetings, Court fans! We’re back with three more decisions. The most newsworthy came in Snyder v. Phelps (09-751), where a nearly unanimous Court found that a grieving father’s tort claims against protesters at his military son’s funeral were barred by the First Amendment. A far less publicized, but practically important ruling came in Henderson v. […]
Greetings, Court fans! As promised, we continue to work our way through the backlog of decisions. This Update will cover two cases relating to the Freedom of Information Act, FCC v. AT&T Inc. (09-1279) and Milner v. Department of the Navy (09-1163), as well as Pepper v. United States (09-6822), an important criminal decision holding […]
Greetings, Court fans! We’re back with the last installment of cases from the past two weeks: Staub v. Proctor Hospital (09-400), upholding the so-called “cat’s paw” theory of employment discrimination; Wall v. Kholi (09-868), holding that sentence reduction motions under state law toll the time for filing a federal habeas petition; Skinner v. Switzer (09-9000), […]
Greetings, Court fans! We’re back with a number of recent decisions: Matrixx Initiatives, Inc. v. Siracusano (09-1156), finding that the failure to disclose adverse event data relating to a drug can form the basis for securities law liability even if the data does not meet the threshold for statistical significance; Kasten v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics […]