Publications
Greetings Court fans! The Court issued an order list today granting cert in two cases: 1. Pasquantino v. United States (03-725): This case is about the operation of the federal wire fraud statute (18 USC 1343) in the context of an allegedly fraudulent scheme to avoid the payment of taxes owed to a […]
Greetings, Court fans! Lots of action today, in what was probably the last opinion day before 2005. The Court issued five opinions, on top of the four cert grants from last Friday. To avoid producing a totally unmanageable e-mail, we’ll split the rulings into two (only somewhat unmanageable) e-mails. Today, we’ll do two opinions […]
Greetings, Court Fans, and welcome back for another Term of the Supreme Court Update! Although it seems like we just left you for the summer, the first Monday in October is almost upon us. As in past Terms, when the Court issues an order or opinion, we will send an e-mail summarizing the highlights to […]
Greetings, Court Fans! The Court came back yesterday for its final session before the holiday recess, and in the spirit of the season it gave us three opinions and a bunch of cert grants – making this the longest of our Updates so far this Term. If you’re a criminal practitioner, or just a […]
Greetings, Court Fans! In terms of written output, it was a slow week at the Court – just a single order list with two new cert grants. The cases, however, look interesting. The first, District Attorney’s Office v. Osborne (08-6), involves an inmate who, at the time of his trial for kidnapping and sexual assault, […]
Greetings, Court Fans! We’re still working on the remaining decisions from last week and yesterday – here are a few more, including the Court’s major decision yesterday striking down Vermont’s campaign finance laws in Randall v. Sorrell (04-1528 & 04-1697) and Vermont Republican State Committee v. Sorrell (04-1530). Randall yielded a Court arguably […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court issued a significant antitrust decision Monday and also cleared out a bit of the underbrush, issuing four other (relatively short) decisions and dismissing cert as improvidently granted in one case. We’re covering everything in this Update, so be prepared for a long e-mail. Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly […]
Greetings Court fans! Two items of interest from the Court. First, the Court issued its opinion in FCC v. Nextwave Personal Communications, Inc. (01-653). After today, there is only one opinion still outstanding from the October sitting (Miller-El v. Cockrell), and since Kennedy hasn’t issued a majority opinion from October yet, it’s a good bet […]
Greetings Court fans! Not much news to report. The Court granted cert in 2 cases, thus (according to my latest count), filling their calendar for this Term. Any cases granted after today will be heard in October Term 2003. The Court will sit on Monday to hand down an order list, and maybe release opinions, […]
Greetings, Court Fans! Warning: This update will be a big one. Today, in a death penalty case, the Court issued its first 5-4 opinion of the Term (and of the new Chief’s tenure), on top of three opinions from yesterday dealing with heavy-duty trucks, disabled prisoners, and yet another instance of the courts’ […]
Greetings, Court fans! Yesterday, the Court released its first non-per curiam decisions of the Term, and the winners of the race to publish first are (drum roll, please) . . . Justices Stevens and Breyer. Both of the today’s cases came from the Ninth Circuit, which went 1 for 2. So far, four of the […]
Greetings, Court Fans! We’re barely a week into the new Term, and already we have an opinion for you from Tuesday – although it’s just an unsigned per curiam opinion unanimously dispensing of a case without briefing or argument. Moore v. United States (07-10689) is a follow-up to last Term’s decision in Kimbrough v. […]
Greetings, Court Fans! The Court issued its first opinion of the Term today – a unanimous per curiam reversal in Dye v. Hofbauer (04-8384). (If this is any indication of how the new Chief will run the ship, we may be in for a very efficient term!) Dye claimed that the state prosecutor engaged […]
Greetings Court fans! After a long weekend, the Court issued one opinion today, an opinion that falls within the Court’s “9th Circuit error correction” jurisprudence. Before I begin, I note that given the brevity and simplicity of the opinion, Justice Breyer should be ashamed of taking over 2 months to issue this opinion. In United […]
Greetings Court fans! The Court took 3 new cases today. By my count, they still need around 3 or 4 cases to finish out this Term. Of course the big news at the Court is that the Solicitor General filed his briefs in the affirmative action cases yesterday. I haven’t read them yet, but thought […]
Greetings Court fans! Two criminal cases came down yesterday, along with one item of interest from the order list. I’ll begin with the cases. The big case yesterday was Crawford v. Washington (02-9410), a case briefed, argued, and won by a former colleague of mine — congratulations Jeff!! In this case, by a vote […]
Greetings, Court Fans! We have three decisions to report this week, as well as a few cert grants. On Tuesday, the Court issued a 5-3 decision (sans Justice Breyer) in Stoneridge Investment Partners, LLC v. Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. (06-43), one of the most important securities law cases to come out of the Court in a decade. […]
Greetings, Court Fans! Barring another unexpected quick per curiam ruling, this will be another quiet week for the Court on the opinions front. There are a number of interesting arguments this week, however, plus some cert grants and a doozy of a summary disposition, so read on for the details. The Court came […]
Greetings Court fans! Two more opinions today — and whopper opinions at that. One opinion (with all dissents) is 38 pages and the other is 83 pages (with an appendix!). Before I get to my “summaries” (I hope to sleep tonight, too!), it’s worth noting that after today, there are only two opinions outstanding from […]
Greetings, Court Fans, and welcome back to another Term of Supreme Court Updates! Once again, it seems like we just left you for the summer, but the First Monday in October is almost upon us. As in past Terms, when the Court issues an order or opinion, we will send an e-mail summarizing the […]
Greetings Court fans! Two opinions today, but first, as promised, more information on two cases that were granted on Monday: Hillside Dairy v. Lyons (01-950) and Ponderosa Dairy v. Lyons (01-1018): These cases, as suggested by the title, relate to milk. The questions presented are (1) Does Section 144 of the 1996 Farm Bill create […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court issued one per curiam opinion this week in Smith v. Texas, No. 04-5323, 543 U.S. __ (2004), a capital murder case in which petitioner challenged the validity of the instructions provided to the jury during the death penalty phase of his case. The Texas trial court instructed the jury to […]
Greetings Court fans! In its first Conference of the New Year, held earlier today, the Court granted cert in 9 cases, thereby making significant progress in filling its calendar for the Term. Ordinarily, the Court does not release its order list until the Monday after Conference, but to expedite briefing schedules, if only by a […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court is off to a quick start this year, issuing its tenth opinion today (as compared to three as of this date last year). In Lincoln Property Co. v. Roche (04-712), Justice Ginsburg, writing for a unanimous Court, resolved the issue of whether an entity not named or joined as […]
Greetings Court fans! Not much to report today: One case “resolution” and an order list. In Borden Ranch Partnership v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (01-1243), the Court issued a one-line per curiam affirming the Ninth Circuit’s decision by an equally divided Court. (Kennedy did not participate in this case; he must be feeling pretty […]
Greetings Court fans! One more cert grant from yesterday. (Oddly, the grant was tucked away on a miscellaneous order instead of placed on the regular orders list.) This case will be argued/decided next Term: Castro v. United States (02-6683): The Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA) imposes severe restrictions on the filing […]
Greetings Court fans! Three decisions today. Well, really, two decisions and one “resolution”: the Court issued decisions in United States v. Bean and Howsam v. Dean Witter Reynolds, Inc., and “digged” (dismissed as improvidently granted) Abdur’Rahman v. Bell. With these decisions, the Court has only four decisions left from its October sitting. In Howsam (01-800), […]
Greetings, Court fans! We have a guest author this week: former Wiggin and Dana attorney and current Fordham Law professor Christian Turner. As the only person at the firm who figured out how to print cases double-sided to save paper, we knew he was the person for the job given the two EPA decisions that […]
Hi everyone! One new decision today, but first, for those of you handicapping the odds for retirements from the Court his year, note that the Chief did not participate in argument yesterday. (I couldn’t find out whether he participated today.) Stevens announced from the bench that the Chief was absent because he was still recuperating […]
Hi everyone, and welcome back from a long weekend! Today, the Supreme Court added a string of new cases to its docket, including three cases that promise to add some excitement to the Court’s Term: the University of Michigan affirmative action cases, and a case reviewing Texas’ anti-sodomy statute. With these grants, the Court has […]