Publications

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 […]

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, […]