Publications
Greetings, Court fans! The Court returned from its extended recess and issued five new decisions this week, including a major diversity jurisdiction ruling and two decisions interpreting a criminal suspect’s Miranda-related rights. As a refresher, federal courts have jurisdiction over cases involving “federal questions” and also cases where there is “diversity” of citizenship between the […]
Greetings, Court fans! With apologies for the delay, I’m back to summarize last week’s decisions, including Reed Elsevier, Inc. v. Muchnick (08-103), finding the requirement that copyright holders register their works before suing for copyright infringement to be a non-jurisdictional claims processing rule (notwithstanding hundreds of lower court rulings to the contrary), Mac’s Shell […]
Greetings, Court Fans! The Court issued its final batch of opinions for the Term yesterday – and what a batch it was. The biggest case of the day – as measured by news coverage and the 185 pages of opinions it generated – was the Court’s decision in Parents Involved in Community Schools [PICS] […]
Greetings, Court fans! After a long, long, wait, the Court finally acted on the petition in Padilla v. Hanft (05-533), denying certiorari. As you probably remember, Padilla is a U.S. citizen who was arrested at Chicago O’Hare airport on a material witness warrant. When his court-appointed counsel moved to vacate the warrant, President Bush […]
Greetings Court fans! Doesn’t it just seem like forever since we last met? The Court has finally emerged from its winter recess with a few cert grants and a per curiam opinion. Of course, the big news is that last Friday, the Court granted cert in another “terrorism” case, Rumsfeld v. Padilla (03-1027). […]
As expected, today the Court denied without comment the request by Terri Schiavo’s parents (04A825) for an order to reinsert her feeding tube. The order simply reads: “The application for stay of enforcement of judgment pending the filing and disposition of a petition for writ of certiorari presented to Justice Kennedy and by him referred […]
Greetings, Court Fans! Yesterday was a big day at the Court, so we’ll get right to it. In Roper v. Simmons (03-633), the Court held that the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishments forbids the imposition of the death penalty on offenders who were under 18 at the time of their crimes. By […]
Greetings, Court fans, and welcome to another season of Supreme Court Updates! The Court is back from summer recess and is already getting down to business. For criminal lawyers, the Court’s first argument session next Monday probably couldn’t come fast enough –hopefully the Court will provide some answers to the post-Blakely disarray. With the Court’s […]
Greetings, Court fans! Much to our surprise, the Court issued only one opinion today, in Whitfield v. United States, No. 03-1293. Justice O’Connor, writing for a unanimous Court, found that conviction for conspiracy to commit money laundering under 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h) does not require proof of an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy. […]
Greetings, Court fans! In a rare display of what passes for judicial humor, the Court released two tax opinions on the dreaded April 15th. The Court released three additional decisions yesterday, which we’ll bring you in a separate Update to break things up. In United States v. Clintwood Elkhorn Mining Co. (07-308), the Court held […]
Greetings, Court Fans! There were no arguments at the Court this week, but we’ve got a hodgepodge of news for you. First up, the Court issued an order list Monday in which it granted cert in one new case, Flores-Figueroa v. United States (07-108). The Court will consider the intent requirement for aggravated identity […]
Greetings, Court Fans! The Court issued three opinions today, none bigger (in significance or page length) than its long-awaited decision on the Federal Sentencing Guidelines in United States v. Booker, No. 04-104, and United States v. Fanfan, No. 04-105. Booker/Fanfan generated two separate 5-4 opinions and numerous dissents, which we can only briefly summarize here. […]
Greetings, Court Fans! The Court’s out for a brief recess again, but it left us with one decision yesterday, holding 5-4 in Ali v. Federal Bureau of Prisons (06-9130) that the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) does not allow for lawsuits based on the wrongful detention of property by federal law enforcement officials, broadly […]
Greetings, Court Fans! As promised, here is the summary of the new cases from yesterday’s order list. They range from several interesting election-law cases to a, well, quirky case on the probate exception to federal jurisdiction. The list is lengthy (eleven cases, some consolidated), so we’ll dispense with the commentary and get right to […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court issued three decisions and an Order List this week. The ruling garnering all the press came in Wyeth v. Levine (06-1249), which is being hailed as a victory for patients, consumers, and . . . trial lawyers. The plaintiff, Levine, was a musician who went to the hospital seeking relief […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court issued four more decisions last week before going on recess. The decision with the most practical significance for most of us civil litigators came in Vaden v. Discover Bank (07-773), where the Court tackled a circuit split over how federal courts should determine whether they have federal question jurisdiction over […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court returned from recess without much fanfare, issuing two criminal decisions and an Order list this week. (For those of you who keep track, the Court is well ahead of its pace from last Term, having released 35 decisions, as compared to 27 as of this date last year. Perhaps […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court has been busy, issuing six decisions last week, two more this week and a number of orders. To break up the reading, this Update will cover last week’s decisions and the remaining decisions and orders will be summarized separately. After this barrage, the Court will be on recess until the […]
Greetings, Court fans! This is going to be a lengthy update, with numerous (non-earth shattering, but nonetheless interesting) decisions to report as well as several cert grants. Perhaps because many of these cases where not in traditionally controversial areas, they sparked some interesting splits among the Justices. The only unified decision came in United States […]
Greetings, Court fans! Justice Souter’s retirement announcement overshadowed other news at the Court last week. Though he is a spring chicken compared to fellow Justices Ginsburg and Stevens (who may be the next Justices to step down), Souter has long wanted to return to his native New Hampshire – which he will soon get to […]
Greetings, Court fans! I’m back to bring you the decisions and cert grants from this week. After this batch, we shouldn’t see additional decisions until the week of May 18th. In Arthur Andersen LLP v. Carlisle (08-140), the Court held 6-3 that, when a district court denies a request to stay litigation in favor of […]
Greetings, Court fans! It isn’t often that the Court hands down a decision of equal interest to the popular press and civil procedure professors, but we got one this week in Ashcroft v. Iqbal (07-1015) – which dealt both with the standard for establishing “supervisory liability” for a Bivens claim against federal officials (here, […]
Greetings, Court Fans! Not much to report at the moment, as the Court will not hear any arguments this week or next – so barring another unexpected quick ruling we will probably will not darken your inbox much for the next two weeks. The Court, however, did issue an order list today that granted […]
Greetings Court fans! The Court handed down five opinions today (four from argued cases and one summary reversal) and an order list. With so much ground to cover, I’ll divide this update into two emails. Before we begin, though, did you see the small piece in the paper over the weekend about Justice Souter? […]
Greetings, Court Fans! We’re back with more summaries. Today’s group includes three cases from Monday involving the First Amendment that all came out essentially 5-4, with the conservatives taking the majorities – though, as you’ll see, the cases were all quite different and the majorities were hardly unified. First up is Hein v. […]
Greetings, Court Fans! We have no decisions today, but the Court issued an order list Friday granting cert in four new cases. The biggest grant from Friday – given the parties and the issue – is undoubtedly Microsoft Corp. v. AT&T Corp. (05-1056). In essence, AT&T claims that whenever Windows is installed on […]
Greetings Court fans! Sorry for the delay in my updates this week — minor technical difficulties, hopefully now all resolved! Thankfully, there’s not much to report. The Court granted cert in one case on Monday, and issued one opinion today. I’ll begin with the cert grant. Under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, before […]
Greetings, Court Fans, and Happy New Year! After being away for almost a month, the Court was busy this week, issuing four new opinions and granting cert in seven new cases. We’ll cover the civil cases and the cert grants in this Update, and cover the other decisions separately. The biggest decision this […]
Greetings, Court Fans! We’re back with more outstanding opinions from the end of the Term, leading off with yesterday’s ruling in Panetti v. Quarterman (06-6407), where a 5-4 majority led by Justice Kennedy blocked, for the time being, the execution of a mentally ill Texas man. Panetti was sentenced to death after killing his […]
Greetings, Court fans! Before officially recessing for two weeks, the Court surprised us with two more opinions. We’ll try to be brief . . . . In Rousey v. Jacoway, No. 03-1407, a unanimous Court (Thomas, J.) held that IRA assets may be exempted from a bankruptcy estate under 11 U.S.C. § 522(d)(10)(E). The Rouseys […]