Publications
Greetings, Court fans! The Court has been relatively quiet heading into the end of the calendar year. We bring you a per curiam decision with no opinion, a handful of cert grants, a dissent from denial of cert, and two solicitor general invites. We’ll start with the decision, which came in Costco Wholesale Corp. v. […]
Greetings, Court fans! We’re back to bring you three decisions, a flurry of cert grants, and one dissent from the denial of cert. The Court released additional decisions yesterday, which we will bring you shortly. Justice Kagan penned her first opinion for the Court in Ransom v. FIA Card Services, N.A. (09-907), a rather bland, […]
Greetings, Court fans! Today’s Update will cover four cases: the biggie, Thompson v. North American Stainless, LP (09-291), holds that Title VII prohibits an employer from retaliating against an employee who reports discrimination by taking an adverse action against a person closely related to the complaining employee (here, firing the employee’s fiancé); Ortiz v. Jordan […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court added four more cases to its 2009 docket today, including Skilling v. United States (08-1394), where the Court will review the conviction of former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling. That case presents two issues for review: “1. Whether, to convict petitioner of conspiring to commit wire fraud by depriving his […]
Court fans, I left out one important tidbit for the class action practitioners out there. Justice Kennedy, joined by the Chief and Justice Sotomayor, issued an opinion relating to the denial of cert in DTD Enterprises, Inc. v. Wells (08-1407), which raised the propriety of requiring a defendant in a class action lawsuit to […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court granted cert in three new cases this week, including Kiyamba v. Obama (08-1234), where the Court will consider whether the remaining Uighur Guantanamo Bay detainees, whom the government has deemed innocent of any wrongdoing, must be ordered released in the United States if no third-party country will take them (the […]
Greetings, Court fans! After a week-long hiatus, the Court issued another order list Monday, adding three more cases to its 2009 docket. For labor lawyers, New Process Steel, L.P. v NLRB (08-1457), will be the case to watch. The issue: “Does the National Labor Relations Board have authority to decide cases with only […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court issued a per curiam opinion this week, Bobby v. Van Hook (09-144), where it addressed the “ineffective assistance of counsel at the sentencing phase” defense. Van Hook was convicted for murder in Ohio state court, after he lured a homosexual man home from a bar, robbed, killed, and mutilated […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court issued another per curiam decision this week, as well as an order list. The decision came in Wong v. Belmontes (08-1263), a death penalty case, making its second trip to the Court. Belmontes killed McConnell by striking her on the head 15 to 20 times with a steel bar. […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court left us with a handful of interesting tidbits last week: a per curiam decision in Porter v. McCollum (08-10537), where the Court overturned a death sentence based on counsel’s failure to adduce sufficient mitigating evidence at the sentencing phase of Porter’s trial; statements “concurring in” and “respecting” the denial […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Term has begun in earnest, with the first four signed opinions released yesterday. They are an odd bunch, with two of the four failing to answer the questions presented. I’ll begin with those that did. The newcomer, Justice Sotomayor, authored the Court’s nearly unanimous opinion in Mohawk Industries, Inc. […]
Greetings, Court fans! It has been a pretty uneventful pre-holiday week. The Court granted cert in three new cases. In the most noteworthy, Ontario, CA v. Quon (08-1332), a SWAT team employee of the city felt that his privacy was invaded when the city viewed sexually explicit text messages he sent to his girlfriend on […]
Greetings, Court fans! As promised, I’m back to bring you cert grants and other recent orders. We’ll begin with the new cases the Court has accepted for review: Connick v. Thompson (08-571), in which the Court granted cert only as to Question 1: “Does imposing failure-to-train liability on a district attorney’s office for a single […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court issued decisions in three cases yesterday: Jones v. Harris Associates (08-586), in which the Court defined the standard for determining when a mutual fund adviser has violated the Investment Company Act of 1940 by charging excessive fees, Graham County Soil and Water Conservation District v. United States ex rel. Wilson […]
Greetings, Court fans! The big news last weekend was Justice Stevens’ admission that he would definitely retire from the Court during President Obama’s first term in office. While he didn’t say when, he did tell the New York Times that “[t]he president and the Senate need plenty of time to fill a vacancy” – indicating […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court ruled Tuesday, in United States Aid Funds, Inc. v. Espinosa (08-1134), that a bankruptcy court’s error in confirming a Chapter 13 plan discharging student loan debts without a finding of undue hardship did not render the confirmation order void. This Update will cover that decision, as well as two other […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court was busy last week, issuing four opinions, and an extensive order list including several cert grants, all while celebrating Justice Stevens’ 90th birthday. Stevens, as you’ve surely heard, has formally announced his retirement at the end of this Term. He will be missed. The most newsworthy decision came in United […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court released an Order List yesterday and two decisions today: Merck & Co. v. Reynolds (08-905), in which the Court construed the limitations period for filing a private securities fraud action; and Stolt-Nielsen S.A. v. Animalfeeds International Corp. (08-1198), where the Court held that imposing class arbitration on parties who did […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court released a major First Amendment decision on Wednesday in Salazar v. Buono (08-472). One Latin cross, approximately eight feet tall, on a rock in the middle of the Mojave Desert generated eight years of litigation, four congressional actions, and now, six opinions from the Court. In Salazar, the Court was […]
Greetings, Court fans! President Obama has just announced his pick to replace retiring Justice Stevens – Elena Kagan. As the current Solicitor General, Kagan is the top appellate lawyer for the government. If confirmed, Kagan will be the only sitting Justice who has not served as a judge on a lower court. She would be […]
Greetings, Court fans! A home-buying adventure delayed my report on last week’s decisions, but there were some biggies: Graham v. Florida (08-7412), in which the Court held that the Constitution categorically forbids life sentences without the possibility of parole for minors who have committed non-homicide offenses; United States v. Comstock (08-1224), where the Court concluded […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court issued six opinions on Monday, and DIG’d one case. I’ll break things up into bite size pieces, with this Update covering three of the decisions: American Needle Inc. v. National Football League (08-661), addressing the implications of antitrust law to the NFL; Lewis v. City of Chicago (08-974), addressing the […]
Greetings, Court fans! As promised, this Update covers the Court’s three other opinions from Monday: Hardt v. Reliance Standard Life Insurance Co. (09-448), which addresses attorney’s fees under a specific ERISA provision, but has relevance for all fee-shifting statutes that aren’t explicitly limited to a “prevailing party”; United States v. Marcus (08-1341), on the “plain […]
Greetings, Court fans! President Obama’s announcement of Second Circuit Judge Sonia Sotomayor as his pick to replace Justice Souter overshadowed other news at the Court this week. (For those who want the nitty-gritty on what this appointment might mean for the Court, SCOTUSblog has done a pretty extensive analysis of Judge Sotomayor’s decisions, which […]
Greetings, Court fans! On Monday, Justice Ginsburg put the Chrysler-Fiat sale briefly on hold so that the Court could consider a request by certain opponents of the sale for a stay while they challenged the bankruptcy court’s order approving the sale. Just a day later, the Court issued a two page per curiam opinion […]
Greetings, Court fans! I’m back to bring you the remaining decisions from last week. The Court’s decision in Boyle v. United States (07-1309), which adopted an expansive definition of a RICO association-in-fact enterprise, will have significance for many practitioners (i.e., you might actually cite it). On the other hand, unless you are a military […]
Greetings, Court fans! The end of the Term is approaching, and the decisions are coming fast and furious. To break things up, this Update will cover: Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 v. Holder (No. 08-322), one of the most watched cases of the Term, involving a constitutional challenge to the Voting Rights […]
As a service to clients and friends of the firm, Ken Heath and Kim Rinehart of the Appellate Practice Group offer the Supreme Court Update, an e-mail service providing short summaries of the Supreme Court’s latest rulings and orders of note. At the suggestion of several readers, Ken and Kim have compiled all the case […]
As a service to clients and friends of the firm, Ken Heath and Kim Rinehart of the Appellate Practice Group offer the Supreme Court Update, an e-mail service providing short summaries of the Supreme Court’s latest rulings and orders of note. At the suggestion of several readers, Ken and Kim have compiled all the case […]
As a service to clients and friends of the firm, Ken Heath and Kim Rinehart of the Appellate Practice Group offer the Supreme Court Update, an e-mail service providing short summaries of the Supreme Court’s latest rulings and orders of note. At the suggestion of several readers, Ken and Kim have compiled all the case […]