Publications
Greetings Court fans! As of today, the Court has handed down all of its opinions for the Term, so I have a lot of work to do. I’ll break up your reading (and my writing!) into a few emails over the next few days, but will in any event, have you up to date […]
Greetings Court fans! As predicted, the Court issued its first opinion of the Term today, a unanimous decision, authored by Scalia, in Barnhart v. Thomas (02-763). This is a bad day for the O’Connor clerks. She likes to issue the first opinion, and I can assure you that she is not happy that she […]
Greetings Court fans! The Court issued four opinions today, including one summary reversal, thus leaving 19 opinions to be issued before the end of the month. If you’re waiting for one of the Term’s blockbusters, it wasn’t issued today. For those curious about what is left to be decided (beyond the affirmative action cases), I […]
Greetings Court fans! I know what you’re thinking: Why am I getting a “Supreme Court update” over the summer? Aren’t the Justices all off on vacation? Yes, but they’re still making news. Remember Blakely v. Washington? In that case, decided at the end of the Term, the Court extended its Apprendi/Sixth Amendment case law to […]
Greetings Court fans! Sorry for the delay in the update, but the computer ate my homework. Honest. (I’m told by reliable sources that my technological woes will be solved sometime in June. I can only hope.) Ok, enough complaining. The Court issued five opinions — four from argued cases, and one per curiam summary reversal. […]
Greetings, Court fans! In today’s order list, the Court surprised us by granting the petition for cert in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (05-184), where the Court will consider the constitutionality of the special military tribunals established by President Bush to try foreign nationals suspected of terrorist acts. Apparently, the fourth time was a charm for […]
Greetings, Court Fans! You’ll be happy to hear that today’s update is a lot shorter than our summary of the Booker/Fanfan decision – we’ve got just a few cert grants and summary dispositions to report. On Friday, the Court announced that it will hear two trucking cases. In American Trucking Associations v. Michigan […]
Greetings Court fans! I write not with news on the Court, but rather to say farewell. In October, I will return to government service as an appellate lawyer for the US Attorney’s Office here in Connecticut, and so tomorrow is my last day at Wiggin and Dana. After my departure, these updates will continue under […]
Greetings, Court fans! Yesterday, the Court twice dealt with issues relating to the extraterritorial application of US criminal law. The result: two split decisions, bitter dissents, and clear indications of unrest in this area of the law. In Small v. United States (03-750), the Court held that an individual convicted of a crime […]
Greetings Court fans! A lot of news today, as will probably be the case for the rest of the Term, so let’s get to it: First, from the order list: 1. The Court granted cert in 3 cases: a. Jones v. R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co. (02-1205): This is a case about the applicability of […]
Greetings, Court fans! It came as no surprise that the Court reserved what might be its most important and controversial decision of the year, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (05-184), for its last day of the Term. Composed of six opinions, the decision nears 200 pages, so forgive (if you can) the length of this Update […]
Greetings, Court fans! The Court returned from recess with a flurry of activity, issuing three decisions Tuesday, an additional two decisions Wednesday, and an extensive order list. (If you watched the President’s address Tuesday, you know that Justice Ginsburg returned as well, looking amazingly well just weeks after surgery.) I’ll break things up, bringing you […]
Greetings, Court Fans! It was a pretty slow Monday for late May – the Court issued only one opinion, meaning that we may have some heavy opinion days as the Term draws to a close. In Brigham City, Utah v. Stuart (05-502), the Court held, unanimously and to no one’s surprise, that police […]
Greetings Court fans! Two unanimous opinions today, both from the February sitting. In both cases, the Court rejected rules that would have required complicated balancing tests or detailed factual inquiries, opting instead for simple rules. In the first opinion, Franchise Tax Board v. Hyatt (02-42), the Court (per O’Connor) held that the Full Faith and […]
Greetings Court fans! Three new opinions today, all relatively straightforward. After today, Scalia is in the lead with 6 published opinions for the Term. The Chief and Thomas are bringing up the rear with 3 published opinions each. In honor of Scalia, I’ll begin with his latest opinion. In Jinks v. Richland County (02-258), Scalia […]
In San Remo Hotel, L.P. v. City & County of San Francisco (04-340), the Court unanimously affirmed a Ninth Circuit decision (shocking, but true) dismissing San Remo’s Fifth Amendment takings case because of issue preclusion due to prior California court rulings on state-law takings claims. In a nutshell, the Court found that, while the California […]
Greetings, Court Fans! We’ve gotten the big cases out of the way – Hamdan and Perry – but we still owe you summaries of several other decisions from the end of the Term. Since the last few updates were unbelievably long, we’ve split the remainder into more digestible chunks. Here’s part one of the […]
Greetings Court fans! Yesterday, the Court granted cert in two cases and issued a brief per curiam opinion summarily reversing the 9th Circuit. For those of you keeping score in the contest to issue the first opinion of the Term — and there is a contest — this does not count because it’s not […]
Greetings, Court fans! We have lots of news to report, including five decisions released last week, more cert grants, and the details on Oregon v. Ice (07-901), and Herring v. United States (07-513), which were discussed briefly in our last Update. We’ll break things up to make it more manageable, so consider this Part I. […]
Greetings, Court Fans! We have only one decision to report this holiday week: Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (05-1074). The case, which divided the Court 5-4, addresses when the clock starts running on a Title VII employment discrimination claim based on disparate pay. Title VII requires an employee to file a charge with […]
Greetings Court fans! No opinions today, but an unusually meaty order list. The Court granted cert in 5 cases and asked the Solicitor General to weigh in on 3 others. The Court granted cert in the following cases: 1. Arizona v. Gant (02-1019): This is a Fourth Amendment case about the scope of automobile searches […]
Greetings Court fans! Three new opinions today, and an order list. Since the opinions today were relatively big ones, I’ll start there. First, in State Farm Mutual Auto. Ins. Co. v. Campbell (01-1289), the Court (Kennedy for himself, Rehnquist, Stevens, O’Connor, Souter, and Breyer) held that a $145 million punitive damages award was grossly excessive […]
Greetings, Court Fans! The Court issued its final batch of decisions yesterday, including two cases that split 5-4 along ideological lines: Davis v. Federal Election Commission, in which the Court invalidated yet another campaign-finance provision of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, and District of Columbia v. Heller, in which it struck down DC’s […]
Greetings, Court fans! For those of you interested in statutory construction, this is your lucky day. Yesterday, in Koons Buick Pontiac GMC, Inc. v. Nigh, 03-377, the Court ruled that Congress’ 1995 amendments to the Truth in Lending Act (“TILA”) did not alter the statute’s damage limits for violations relating to certain loans secured […]
Greetings Court fans! Welcome to the last update of October Term 2003! In this last edition, you’ll find summaries of 5 opinions and news from the final order list, so let’s get going! I’ll begin with the two Miranda cases, both of which were decided without majority opinions. In Missouri v. Seibert (02-1371), […]
Greetings, Court Fans! The October 2004 Session is in full swing and the Court granted cert in eight additional cases yesterday. Two of those cases involve challenges to the display of the Ten Commandments on government property. In Van Orden v. Perry, 03-1500, the Court will review a Fifth Circuit decision finding that […]
Greetings Court fans! Only one new opinion today, and not a very interesting one at that. It’s a straightforward Chevron case, so all the government lawyers out there keep reading. The rest of you might want to spend your time reading press coverage (or listening to the audiotapes!) from yesterday’s argument in the Guantanamo […]
Greetings, Court Fans! You’re probably sick of us already, but we’ll be cluttering your inbox a lot this week as we near the end. We’ve seen seven opinions so far this week – three on Monday, and four more this morning (including Kennedy v. Louisiana, in which the Court held that states cannot impose the […]
Despite my earlier representation (“that’s all for today”), in fact, the Court issued two opinions today. Before I get to the opinions, please note that in the race to issue the first majority opinion (and there is a race), O’Connor won. (I’m not biased or anything.) The summary reversals from yesterday don’t count. And even […]
Greetings, Court Fans! The Court hit us with three opinions and a “decree” yesterday, just before leaving for a recess until late February. By then, there may be a new Associate Justice on the Court, so this batch of opinions might well be the last to involve Justice O’Connor. As you’ll see below, there was […]