Publications

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 […]

Greetings, Court fans! We have a few decisions to catch you up on since our last Update, bringing us to a “whopping” 23 opinions for the Term. This sluggish start is consistent with last year’s 22 opinions by this date, but is significantly off the Court’s 2005 pace of 38. So, once again, we’re in […]

Greetings, Court fans!   Solidarity on the Court is always nice to see, and this week brought two unanimous decisions. In the first, EC Term of Years Trust v. United States (05-1541), the Court (Souter, J.) held that a third party claiming that its property was wrongfully seized to pay the taxes of another, cannot […]

Greetings, Court Fans!   It’s another short Update, as the Court will hear no arguments this week and does not seem particularly motivated about issuing opinions. Today’s order list did have one new grant, however, as the Court endeavors to fill up its docket for the Term. The new case, Richlin Security Service Co. v. […]

Greetings, Court fans!   We’re back to bring you Part II. But given the Court’s release of 5 full decisions and a per curiam opinion Monday, as well as an Order List, we will again break things up – so there will be a Part III. After this minor blitzkrieg, the Court will be on […]

Greetings, Court Fans! It was not a very busy day at the Court – the Court issued no opinions, heard no arguments, and issued a one-page order list dealing with only three cases. It was, however, quite an eventful day, as the order list indicates that the Court has added three new cases to its […]

Greetings, Court Fans! The Court had a busy and congenial Monday, as it issued five largely unanimous opinions in a smorgasbord of cases. In the first case, Watson v. Philip Morris Cos. (05-1284), the Court held that private companies cannot claim the benefit of the federal officer removal statute (28 U.S.C. § 1442), which applies […]

Greetings, Court fans! The Court issued five opinions this week – the minimum necessary to maintain the “decision-a-day” pace needed to get through all outstanding cases by the end of June. And, to be honest, a couple of the decisions barely count as such . . . but we’ll save those for later in the […]

Greetings, Court fans!   The Court released all of its remaining opinions today, leaving us with some real blockbusters. We’ll address the Ten Commandment cases and Grokster (the file-sharing case) now and follow-up shortly with the final three cases and the new cert grants. Also, apart from the rulings, the biggest news might have been […]

Greetings, Court fans! Notwithstanding a plethora of decisions in recent years on both the application of the mandatory minimum sentence under the Armed Career Criminals Act (“ACCA”) and the one year limitation period to file habeas petitions under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (“AEDPA”), open questions apparently persist – resulting in two more […]

Greetings, Court fans!   The Term so far has been anything but dull . . . . We have a new Chief Justice, a withdrawn nomination, and today, a new nominee to succeed Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Current Third Circuit Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr. has been on the appellate bench 15 years, and he […]

Greetings Court fans!   The Court issued four opinions and an order list yesterday. That leaves 12 cases to go, including most of the big cases for this Term. Let’s get right to the opinions.   First, in Intel Corp. v. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (02-572), the Court issued its interpretation of 28 USC 1782(a). […]

Greetings, Court Fans!   We still owe you two opinions from last week, but in the meantime the Court issued three more opinions today, including the first opinion by Justice Alito and another opinion in favor of everyone’s favorite widow, Anna Nicole Smith. Here’s the first of a two-part wrap-up of the outstanding opinions.   […]

Greetings, Court fans!   We’re back to finish up the October 2007 Term . . . and as always, the Court saved some of the best, and most controversial, opinions for last. Please bear with us – with five opinions and some orders to summarize, this Update is not short. (Not that an e-mail should […]

Greetings, Court Fans!   Yesterday, the Court made it a little easier for the law to drive us all to drink. Coming off another two-week recess, the Court issued its opinion in Granholm v. Heald (03-1116), striking down Michigan and New York restrictions on out-of-state wine producers as violating the Commerce Clause’s prohibition on state […]

Greetings, Court Fans!   We’re still catching up – here are yesterday’s opinions and orders plus one from last week, along with the news from yesterday’s order list. Once again, we owe many thanks to Tahlia Townsend for helping us out on the summaries.   First up from yesterday, in Florida Department of Revenue v. […]

Greetings, Court fans!   We have some catching up to do – three opinions from last week, where the focus was on money laundering, and another four this week. Here’s the first batch, and we’ll be back in your in-box shortly.   Turning first to money laundering, Cuellar v. United States (06-1456) interpreted 18 U.S.C. […]

Greetings, Court Fans!   The Court issued three opinions today, plus one cert grant.   First, the headline-grabbing case of the day, Arthur Andersen LLP v. United States (04-368), in which the Court unanimously set aside Andersen’s conviction for destroying documents related to the Enron debacle. As set forth in the Chief’s opinion for the […]

Greetings, Court fans!   The Court issued only one opinion yesterday, unanimously reversing a Ninth Circuit decision that held that a trademark defendant asserting the affirmative defense of “fair use” has the burden of proving that its actions are not likely to cause consumer confusion. The case, KP Permanent Make-Up, Inc. v. Lasting Impression I, […]