Publications

Greetings, Court fans!   We have much to report, including two retaliation decisions, a Voting Rights Act case, and two criminal decisions. We’ll get right to it.   It was no mistake that the Court’s retaliation decisions were released on the same day. In CBOCS West, Inc. v. Humphries (06-1431), the Court, led by Justice […]

Greetings, Court Fans!   Today, the Court released its opinion in one of the more controversial cases of the Term, Gonzalez v. Oregon (04-623), the Oregon assisted suicide case. In a 6-3 decision, the Court, led by Justice Kennedy, found that the Attorney General lacks authority under the Controlled Substances Act (“CSA”) to prohibit doctors […]

Greetings Court fans! The Court has less than one month left in its Term, and yet today it issued only one opinion. Very odd. They must have some serious disagreements brewing on their remaining cases. The opinion today is in Yarborough v. Alvarado (02-1684), a habeas case out of the Ninth Circuit. With that limited […]

Greetings Court fans!   Only one grant on Friday’s order list: Benitez v. Wallis (03-7434). In this case, the Court will consider the legality of Benitez’s continued detention by the INS in light of the Court’s recent decision in Zadvydas v. Davis (2001). Benitez is a Mariel boatlift Cuban, and he argues that the presumptive […]

Greetings, Court fans!   Sorry for the delay, but there’s excellent news to report: Ken’s son, Evan Cooper Heath arrived on Monday, November 13th. Ken and his newly expanded family are doing great. (For those of you who think that Court-watching in the fall is just not that exciting, we’re doing our best to keep […]

Greetings, Court Fans!   It’s now crunch time: three weeks left in the Term, and twenty-five cases remain. The Court started whittling away at the outstanding cases by issuing two interesting criminal opinions today.   First, in Hill v. McDonough (05-8794), the Court unanimously held that a death-row inmate seeking to challenge the method of […]

Greetings, Court Fans!   We’ll polish off the four remaining opinions from last week before turning to the deluge expected this week (we have four more already!).   Hudson v. Michigan (04-1360) delivered a serious blow to criminal defendants and brought us perhaps the most divisive decision of the Term (thus far). The 5-4 decision, […]

Greetings, Court Fans!   So, the relatively boring unanimity of this Term finally has given way as the Court releases opinions in “harder” cases. Last week brought us Hudson, and Monday brought us the first official “mess” of the Roberts era in Rapanos v. United States (04-1034) and Carabell v. United States Army Corps of […]

  Greetings, Court fans!   We’ve got a lot of news to report. The Court issued two opinions Monday and one other since our last Update, as well as a summary order and a number of cert grants.   In Carey v. Musladin (05-785), the Court addressed the standard for granting a habeas petition under […]

Greetings, Court Fans!   There shouldn’t be any opinions this week (at least not in argued cases), but the Court did issue a significant order list yesterday. The Court noted probable jurisdiction (the functional equivalent of a cert grant) in four related appeals regarding the constitutionality of Texas’ 2003 congressional redistricting plan, which has been […]

Greetings Court fans!   Three grants off the order list, and unlike some of their recent grants, these cases actually look somewhat interesting:   1. Smith v. Jackson (03-1160): In this case, the Court will resolve a circuit split on whether “disparate impact” claims are cognizable under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.   2. […]

Greetings, Court fans! Before heading off for a month-long recess, the Court hit us with four opinions and an order list. Two of the opinions were per curiam, however, so the Update shouldn’t be too daunting. In Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Banks, 03-892, 543 U.S. __ (2005), a unanimous Court (minus the Chief, who […]

Two opinions so far this week, with possibly more to come tomorrow!   Today, the Court issued its latest ruling in an original jurisdiction case, Kansas v. Colorado, No. 105 orig., which involves a longstanding dispute between the two states over the use of the Arkansas River (AKA “the Nile of America”). Kansas won a […]

Greetings, Court Fans!   We’re back to finish up the Term! Because this is a lengthy Update (three opinions and nine cert grants), we should do a few things at the outset. First, we want to thank all of you for following the Court with us this Term — we very much appreciate your responses, […]

Greetings, Court Fans! The Court hit us with three more opinions today, in what has been a very big week for employment lawyers. Yesterday, the Court authorized retaliation actions for Title IX whistleblowers, and today it held that the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA”) authorizes disparate-impact claims . In Smith v. City of Jackson, […]

  Greetings, Court fans! The Court is working overtime to get those final opinions out – causing us to do the same. Here are the rest of the decisions from Monday in what was a mixed week for criminals. In Samson v. California (04-9728), the Court ruled 6-3 that the Fourth Amendment does not prohibit […]

Greetings, Court fans!   Here’s the second (and final) installment from Monday’s torrent of opinions. We’ll get right to it.   In Deck v. Missouri (04-5293), the Court held (7-2) that the Constitution forbids the use of visible shackles during a capital trial’s penalty phase unless the use is justified by “an essential state interest” […]

Greetings, Court fans, and welcome to another season of Supreme Court Updates! A lot has happened since we last cluttered your inbox, most notably and sadly the untimely passing of Chief Justice Rehnquist and John Roberts’ re-nomination to the Court, this time to succeed Rehnquist as Chief rather than replace Justice O’Connor, who may or […]

Greetings, Court Fans! We’re barely a week into the new Term, and already we have our first ruling in an argued case – though the per curiam ruling in Board of Education of the City School District of New York v. Tom F. (06-637) itself offers very little of note. The one-sentence opinion states that […]

Greetings, Court fans!   The Court hit us with one opinion Monday, two more on Tuesday and another two today, so we’ll break up the update this week to spare your eyes and get right to it.   Northern Insurance Co. v. Chatham County (04-1618) brought a not-very-surprising unanimous decision, authored by Justice Thomas, holding […]

Greetings Court fans!   Lots of news today, so I’ll get right to it. First, the Court granted cert in 3 cases and asked for the views of the SG in a fourth: 1. Dept of Transportation v. Public Citizen (03-358): This is a case for all the environmental lawyers out there: Did a presidential […]

  Greetings, Court Fans! The Court issued five more opinions today, including an important campaign finance reform case that we’ll be summarizing for you shortly. First off, though, we need to report on some of the five remaining decisions from last Thursday. Probably the biggest of those decisions came in Burlington Northern & Santa Fe […]

Greetings, Court Fans!   While it was away on extended recess, the Court wasn’t entirely idle, noting its probable jurisdiction over one appeal and granting cert in three new cases – including one that hits close to home here in New Haven!   The Court noted probable jurisdiction over the appeal in Northwest Austin Municipal […]

Greetings, Court Fans! The Court is back for arguments this week before going on another two-week recess that will carry through Thanksgiving weekend. The highlight of this week’s arguments is Hall Street Assocs. v. Mattel, Inc., which asks whether parties to an arbitration agreement can, by contract, expand the scope of judicial review of any […]

Greetings, Court Fans!   As the Court’s next October Term approaches, we have a parting shot for you from last Term — our Term in Review, which compiles all our summaries from last Term into one ready reference, organized by subject matter. We’ve also included a brief overview of the Term along with some interesting […]

Greetings, Court Fans! We hope that you have been enjoying your summer since the end of the October 2004 Term. While the Court has not been active, it certainly has been the object of much attention in light of Justice O’Connor’s retirement — attention that will only intensify now that the President has nominated D.C. […]

Greetings, Court Fans!   Here are the rest of the cases from Thursday. The longest opinion of the day came down in the consolidated cases of Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Allapatah Services (04-70) and del Rosario Ortega v. Star-Kist Foods, Inc. (04-79), where the Court held 5-4 that where at least one plaintiff in a […]

Greetings, Court Fans!   The Court returned today with decisions in two cases. In Schaffer v. Weast (04-698), the Court held that, under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the burden of persuasion in a challenge to an individualized education plan (IEP) for a disabled student rests with the party seeking relief, which usually […]

Greetings, Court Fans! We’re back with two summaries that we owe you from last week. The first decision, Rockwell International Corp. v. United States (05-1272), involved the “original source” exception to the bar on qui tam claims based on allegations that are already public. The facts are complicated, but here goes: Rockwell developed a method […]

Greetings, Court fans!   We’re back to catch you up on the three outstanding opinions from last week – all criminal, with the biggie coming in Baze v. Rees (07-5439), a splintered decision (yielding seven separate opinions) upholding Kentucky’s use of lethal injection as a means of capital punishment. We’ll begin there.   The issue […]