Publications

Greetings Court fans!   The Court issued 5 opinions on Thursday, leaving 7 to be issued this coming week. As you probably know by now, they issued their decision in the Cheney energy task force case, but they also issued a major Sixth Amendment opinion that impacts thousands upon thousands of criminal prosecutions across the […]

Greetings, Court Fans! This Term the race to author the first opinion (and historically it has been a race, with former Justice O’Connor always vying for the win) turned into a short sprint, as the Chief took the crown last week with his five-Justice majority in Winter v. NRDC (07-1239), vacating the Ninth Circuit’s preliminary […]

Greetings, Court fans!   There were two opinions yesterday, and one more today (all unanimous!), but what everyone’s really talking about is yesterday’s oral argument in Marshall v. Marshall, concerning the scope of the “probate exception” to federal jurisdiction. But it’s not that scintillating topic that’s making the news – it’s that Vicki Lynn Marshall […]

Greetings, Court Fans! The big news of the week was the Court’s consideration of District of Columbia v. Heller, in which it appears we may get some sort of ruling blessing an individual right to bear arms under the Second Amendment – though we don’t expect to see that ruling for a few more months. […]

Greetings, Court Fans!   Still no decisions from the Court, though we do have some items to report from Friday’s and Monday’s order lists. The big news this week, however, is that tomorrow the Court will hear arguments in Gonzales v. Carhart (05-380) and Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood (05-1382), in which it will consider the […]

Greetings Court fans!   A smattering of miscellaneous items tonight, all from Court actions on Monday: cert granted in two tax cases, two opinions generated by a cert denial, and the release of revisions to the criminal procedure and bankruptcy rules. Of course, in much more interesting news, the Court is hearing some great arguments […]

Greetings, Court fans!   In today’s order list, the Court granted cert in five cases — we’ll summarize them quickly since we expect opinions to be released Tuesday and Wednesday.   Domino’s Pizza, Inc. v. McDonald, No. 04-593, presents the following question: “In the absence of a contractual relationship with the defendant, are allegations of […]

Greetings, Court fans!   The Court has been busy . . . on top of welcoming Justice Alito to the Court for his first oral arguments, the Court issued nine opinions and an order list in the last two days. For your sanity and ours, we’ll break up this barrage and give you five opinions […]

Greetings Court fans!   Hi everyone! Two opinions today, both rather uncontroversial, and an order list. I’ll begin with the opinions. In Fellers v. United States (02-6320), a unanimous Court (opinion by O’Connor) held that police violated Fellers’ Sixth Amendment rights when they “deliberately elicited” statements from him outside the presence of counsel after he […]

Greetings, Court fans!   The Court issued only one substantive decision this week. In Gonzales v. Duenas-Alvarez (05-1629), a unanimous Court held that the federal statute that provides for deporting an alien convicted of a “theft offense” also applies to aliens convicted of aiding and abetting theft. Applying a longstanding rule of construction from Taylor […]

Greetings, Court fans! We’re back to summarize the Court’s criminal decisions from this week. The defendants did not fare too well – not only did they lose, the Court declined even to address the questions presented. The first was United States v. Resendiz-Ponce (05-998), which concerned a Mexican national’s conviction for illegally attempting to reenter […]

Greetings Court fans! Only two opinions yesterday, but several interesting grants for next Term. I’ll begin with the opinions. First, in Thornton v. United States (03-5165), the Court officially expanded the scope of the car-search-incident-to-arrest exception to the Fourth Amendment warrant requirement. In New York v. Belton (1981), the Court held that when an officer […]

Greetings Court fans!   As you must know by now, the Court issued McConnell v. Federal Election Commission (02-1674), the campaign finance case — all 300 pages of it. No, that is not a typo. 300 pages. In fairness, 19 of those pages are the syllabus, and the caption alone takes up a few pages, […]

Greetings, Court Fans!   The Court came back Monday with three more decisions. We’ll cover two in this Update, then bring you the third after we see what else the Court issues tomorrow.   In Brendlin v. California (06-8120), the Court unanimously held that when police make a traffic stop, all passengers in the car […]

Greetings, Court fans!   Welcome to the last edition of the Supreme Court Update for the October 2006 Term. (We’ll be back with an electronic version of our Term in Review, which provides our take on the highlights of the Term and a handy guide to all the case summaries, in a few weeks.) After […]

Greetings, Court Fans! The Court issued three opinions on Monday and granted cert in two cases. It was a banner day for people bucking the system – criminal defendants went 2 for 2, while two taxpayers successfully challenged the Tax Court’s practice of keeping secret the findings of its special trial judges. In Wilkinson v. […]

Greetings, Court Fans! As promised, the Court issued two opinions Tuesday, and the winners of the Court’s unofficial (but hotly contested) race to get out the first opinions are . . . Justice Ginsburg and Chief Justice Roberts. As we noted last time, December is pretty late for the Court to be issuing its first […]

Greetings, Court Fans!   The Court returned Tuesday with a splash, releasing an opinion most of you probably have already heard about – Philip Morris USA v. Williams (05-1256), involving an $80 million punitive damages award against the tobacco company. While the case represents a victory (for now) for Philip Morris, the 5-4 opinion isn’t […]

Greetings, Court Fans!   The Court is on recess again (until February 20) but before departing it issued three new decisions. The lead case was another example of the carnage that the Court hath wrought in its recent criminal sentencing jurisprudence. If that doesn’t get your juices flowing, you can skip ahead for cases on […]

Greetings Court fans!   While we were all out eating turkey, the Court was busy, granting cert in 6 cases and issuing 2 opinions. Here’s the rundown: Both opinions are unanimous reversals of the 9th Circuit. The first, United States v. Banks (02-473) is a Fourth Amendment case. The police had a warrant to search […]

Greetings Court fans! We’re in the homestretch of the Term, and so unsurprisingly, the Court issued five opinions on Monday. They still have 32 opinions outstanding, though, so they have some work to do before the end of June. For those of you keeping score, after Monday, the Chief is in the lead with 7 […]

Greetings, Court Fans!   We’re back with a short Update based on the Court’s order list from Monday. There were no new grants from the Court’s “long conference” of all the cases that piled up over the summer. Instead, the Court denied review in some 1800 cases and issued various orders in other pending cases. […]

Greetings Court fans!   Nothing of interest on the order list today, but three separate dissents from denials of cert. The first two dissents are in Torres v. Mullin (03-5781). In July 1993, Oklahoma arrested Torres, a Mexican national, and charged him with murder. In direct violation of Torres’ rights under the Vienna Convention on […]

Greeting Court fans!   As promised, the four remaining opinions from earlier this week. I’ll do my best to be brief. First, let’s fly through Olympic Airways v. Husain (02-1348). In this case, the Court construed Article 17 of the Warsaw Convention to affirm a judgment finding Olympic Airways liable for Dr. Hanson’s death on […]

Greetings Court fans!   Only two opinions this week. I would have sent this email out last night, but I couldn’t stay awake through the ERISA opinion. To avoid falling asleep again tonight, I’ll begin with the ERISA case, Raymond B. Yates, M.D., P.C. Profit Sharing Plan v. Hendon (02-458). The facts of this case […]

Greetings, Court fans! After the long winter recess, the Court has reopened for business, with nine cert grants on Friday and one summary disposition today. Given the numbers, and the likelihood that we’ll see some opinions tomorrow, we’ll keep our synopses short. The most newsworthy of the grants is Arthur Andersen LLP v. United States, […]

Greetings, Court fans!   So, it is indeed true. Justice O’Connor has formally announced her retirement. According to the AP news reports, the following is from her letter to the President: “This is to inform you of my decision to retire from my position as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United […]

Greetings, Court fans!   I’m back to bring you the remaining two decisions and order list.   In its second First Amendment decision of the week, Pleasant Grove City, Utah v. Summum (07-665), the Court considered the distinction between government support/restriction of private speech (subject to scrutiny under the free speech provision of the First […]

Greetings, Court fans, and welcome back from the long recess! The Court returned yesterday, and so far we have three opinions and a few cert grants. Today, the Court issued its decision in Johnson v. California (03-636), in which a 5-3 majority (no Chief) held that the California prison system’s race-based initial cell assignment policy […]

Greetings Court fans!   Just when we were getting bogged down in this mid-March snowstorm, Justice Scalia comes to the rescue with a lively opinion denying Sierra Club’s motion for recusal. This is clearly an issue that has bugged Scalia; I hope he feels better getting this off his chest. As you probably know, Sierra […]