Publications

Greetings, Court Fans!   You’ll be happy to know that today’s update is short and sweet — the Court issued no opinions today, just an order list. We do expect the Court to issue some opinions tomorrow and Wednesday, which promises to be an exciting day of argument: The Court will hear Van Orden v. […]

Greetings Court fans!   The Court granted cert in 2 cases today, but before I get to those summaries, a brief clarification/correction from Friday’s update. An alert reader of my summary of Scalia’s recusal opinion noted that my description of the facts might have been a bit misleading. In my description I noted that Scalia […]

Greetings, Court fans!   In our excitement over the new nominee, we neglected to mention that the Court issued two per curiam opinions yesterday (with no recorded dissents).   In Kane v. Espitia (04-1538), the Court reversed the Ninth Circuit’s grant of federal habeas relief based on the petitioner’s allegation that he was denied access […]

Greetings, Court Fans!   After Tuesday’s decision in Gonzalez v. Oregon, where the Court managed to turn a controversial case on physician-assisted suicide into a lengthy treatise on agency deference, it is perhaps not surprising that yesterday the Court managed to issue a unanimous opinion in the parental notification abortion case, Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood […]

Greetings Court fans!   As promised, here is the rest of the news from the Supreme Court this week.   I’ll begin this update with Norton v. Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (03-101), an Administrative Procedure Act (APA) case, and another win for my former colleagues in the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department […]

Greetings Court fans!   On the agenda today: 3 1/2 grants, and a summary reversal in a habeas case. I’ll begin with the summary reversal. In Mitchell v. Esparza (02-1369), the Court summarily reversed the Sixth Circuit’s decision affirming the grant of a habeas petition to a death row inmate. According to the Court, the […]

Greetings Court fans! In a slightly unusual move, the Court issued an order list and an opinion yesterday (nothing issued today). Usually, on Mondays, the Court only issues order lists, saving opinions for Tuesdays and/or Wednesdays. Because the Court, of course, doesn’t explain why it changed its usual practice, we’re all left to speculate. I’m […]

Greetings, Court Fans!   Things are still fairly quiet at the Court – it will be a while before we get the first decision of the Term – but the Court continues to try to fill up its docket. On Friday, the Court granted cert in two more Texas death penalty cases (on top of […]

Greetings, Court Fans! Before heading off for another two-week recess, the Court released an order list today that included cert grants in two new cases. The first is Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic & Institutional Rights [“FAIR”] (04-1152), in which the Court will consider the constitutionality of the “Solomon Amendment,” which denies federal funds to […]

Greetings, Court Fans!   There’s not much to report—the Court is off today for Columbus Day—but on Friday the Court did issue an order list in which it granted cert in two new cases.   In Travelers Casualty & Surety Co. v. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (05-1429), the Court will consider “whether a litigant […]

Greetings, Court fans! The Court released six opinions yesterday, making this a whopper of an Update. We’re still waiting for the really “hot” cases to be released, including the Ten Commandments cases, Grokster (the file-sharing case), and Kelo (the Connecticut Takings case), but yesterday’s decisions will have some real impact (especially for prisoners, truckers, and […]

Good afternoon everyone, With this email, I am inaugurating a new series of email updates on the Supreme Court. When the Court issues an order or opinion, I will send an email summarizing the highlights of the action. I will try to send them out the day of the action, but in any event will […]

Greetings, Court fans! The Court issued two significant, if complicated, decisions on Tuesday. First, in Hall Street Associates v. Mattel, Inc. (06-989), the Court held 6-3 that parties to an arbitration agreement who seek to enforce an award under the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) cannot, by contract, expand the scope of a court’s review of […]

Greetings, Court Fans!   Today was another six-opinion day at the Court, with the biggest ruling by far coming in Kelo v. City of New London (04-108). In the interest of getting that summary out quickly, this Update covers Kelo and two other decisions handed down today. We’ll do the other three cases in a […]

Greetings Court fans! In case you haven’t heard, the Court handed down the University of Michigan affirmative action cases. They also issued opinions in United States v. American Library Association (constitutionality of mandated software filters on library internet machines), American Insurance Assn v. Garamendi (challenge to California’s Holocaust Victim Insurance Relief Act), and Green Tree […]

  Greetings Court fans!   The Court issued two unanimous opinions yesterday and one opinion today.   I’ll begin with National Archives and Records Administration v. Favish (02-954), a FOIA case with an interesting factual backdrop. Remember Vince Foster? He was deputy counsel to the President when he was found dead in a park outside […]

Greetings, Court fans!   Without further ado, we’ll finish up the three remaining decisions from last week.   In Dixon v. United States (05-7053), the Court held 7-2 that, absent statutory language to the contrary, a criminal defendant may be required to prove the defense of duress by a preponderance of the evidence. Keisha Dixon […]

Greetings, Court Fans!   We have another hodgepodge of news to report from the last few weeks, but make no mistake, there is some big news in the mix. On Friday, the Court granted cert in two new cases, including al-Marri v. Pucciarelli (08-368), which asks: “Does the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), […]

Greetings, Court Fans!   The Court has departed for winter recess, but they left us with some parting gifts. First up is the second signed opinion of the Term, which comes in Altria Group, Inc. v. Good (07-562). The Court held 5-4 that neither the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act (“the Labeling Act”) nor […]

Greetings Court fans!   Sorry for the delay in getting this out to you, but three deadlines (including one in Illinois, where the courts remain open even on this National Day of Mourning — have they no respect for the dead!?) conspired against me. The Court issued four opinions this week (but none of the […]

Greetings, Court Fans! The Court is back after a two-week break and issued three opinions today. Brace yourselves for a breakneck pace from here on out: we’re now up to 32 opinions for the session – leaving about 50(!) to be released in the next three months. All three opinions today reversed decisions by the […]

Greetings, Court fans!   The Court returned this from an extended recess and left us with five decisions Wednesday and an order list on Tuesday.   Perhaps the most significant decision of the week came in Riegel v. Medtronic, Inc. (06-179), where Justice Scalia led an 8-1 majority holding that FDA pre-market approval for a […]

Greetings, Court fans!   With just over a month left in the Term, the Court has finally released its 40th opinion (just past the half-way point of its docket, and behind even its sluggish pace of the last few Terms). We have five decisions to report since our last Update; we’ll bring you three now […]

Greetings, Court fans! After a busy week last week, the Court left us with just one decision and a couple of cert grants this week. Justice Scalia wrote for a nearly unanimous Court in Virginia v. Moore (06-1082), where it held that a search incident to an arrest that was unlawful under state law did […]

Greetings, Court fans!   Now this is more like it – after a bevy of unanimity, we finally get a 5-3 decision, with two concurrences, three separate dissents (including the first written by the new Chief), and Justice Scalia being ever-so-slightly snarky. And, oh, as to substance, if an occupant of a dwelling is present […]

Greetings, Court Fans!   Here’s part two of our summary of the latest opinions.   In Arkansas Dep’t of Health & Human Services v. Ahlborn (04-1508), a unanimous Court held that, where a Medicaid patient obtains a tort settlement, a state can impose a Medicaid lien only on that portion of the settlement that covers […]

Greetings, Court Fans! We owe you quite a few summaries, as the Court has been busy (and it will only get busier as the Justices get ready for their summer vacation at the end of the month). Special thanks this time out to Wiggin and Dana associate Tahlia Townsend, who’s helping us catch up with […]

Greetings Court fans! The Court issued two opinions today, but neither one will make big news. The first opinion, South Florida Water Management Dist. v. Miccosukee Tribe of Indians (02-626), was basically a punt. While this could have been an interesting Clean Water Act opinion, the Court vacated and remanded for resolution of a factual […]

Greetings, Court fans!   The Court released only one opinion today, and a short one at that. In Dura Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Broudo, No. 03-932, Justice Breyer, for a unanimous court, reversed the Ninth Circuit’s holding that, in the context of a securities fraud class action, an allegation that purchasers paid an “inflated purchase price” […]

Greetings, Court Fans! Every Term ends with a blitzkrieg. But we are almost there . . . only one more Update after this one. In Kansas v. March (04-1170), the Court upheld Kansas’s death penalty statute, which requires the death penalty if a jury unanimously finds that the State has proven, by clear and convincing […]