Thursday round-up
Parsing Brown v. EMA and the campaign-finance decision, the nine best dissents of the Term, and the Justices at the Aspen Idea Festival.
June 2011 Archive
Showing 1–50 of 122 items published in June 2011, most recent first.
Hail and farewell
Personnel changes at the blog
Term review: A more activist Court
The Court has just finished a Term in which its tendency to decide cases more broadly than necessary — an activist inclination — appeared to deepen.
Opinion analysis: No jurisdiction over foreign companies
On Monday, the Court issued its decision in Goodyear Dunlop Tires Operations, S.A. v. Brown and J. McIntyre Machinery, Ltd. v. Nicastro.
The last week of the Term: In Plain English
The Term ended on Monday with opinions in the violent video games and campaign finance cases, as well as two others in cases about the procedural concept of personal jurisdiction.
Wednesday round-up
The Court grants two new cases; more discussion of Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association; October Term 2010 retrospectives.
Relist and Hold Watch: June wrap-up
John Elwood reviews the Court’s June 27 and 28 order lists.
Health insurance mandate survives — narrowly
A federal appeals court, the first at its level to rule, upholds the new health insurance purchase mandate, but does so only by a thin margin that leaves the provision open to later challenges if the law actually goes into effect in 2014.
Evening round-up
The Court issues (among others) its long-awaited decision in the violent video games case, as well as a decision on Arizona’s campaign-finance laws.
Tobacco challenge ends; a pile of grants
The Court refuses to hear a major case seeking to impose constitutional limits on class-action lawsuits. In a round of orders issued during its last public session of the Term, it sets 11 new cases for decision at its next Term.
Two more cases granted
In the last batch of orders until summer, the Court grants two more cases for review in the next Term. The Court also ordered a federal appeals court to reconsider a case on federal judges’ pay scales.
Tuesday round-up
Five opinions, eleven grants, and the Justices rise for the summer
Opinion analysis: Surprising allies affirm railroad workers award
The majority holds that a federal law which protects injured railroad workers meant what it said when it eliminated the proximate cause requirement. But the Chief Justices dissent challenges whether thats really whats in the statutes text.
Live Blog of orders and opinions | 6/27/2011
Live coverage of orders and opinions as they are issued.
Hold (and relist) watch: The last June Conference
John Elwood looks forward to disposition of the last holds and relists.
Monday round-up
Discussions of last week’s decisions and a look back at the Term.
Details on today’s order list
The Court granted cert. in eleven cases today.
The Chief Justice on final day
The Court rises for the summer, and the Chief Justice gives closing remarks.
Analysis: Of old values and modernity
Reacting to changing times, the Court forbids government regulation of violent video games — even for young children. And it promises new looks at government’s power to protect children from profanity and nudity in broadcasting, and the government’s power to use electronic monitoring of private activity.
Details on today’s opinions
The Court issued the final opinions remaining from OT10
Opinion analysis: Campaign subsidies in peril?
The Court invalidates a scheme of public subsidy of political campaigns, igniting an internal debate over whether the result will scuttle any effective method of public financing.
Final October Term 2010 Stat Pack available
Our Stat Pack analyzing October Term 2010 is now available, along with a spreadsheet featuring much of the data we used to compile the Stat Pack.
This week at the Court
Significant dates in the coming week.
Opinion analysis: The fading “exclusionary rule”
The Court, continuing a strong trend, narrows even further the rule that evidence obtained illegally by police may not be used in criminal trials. It does so with an expanding majority.
Hamdan’s second challenge fails
A military appeals court, in its first ruling on a military war crimes conviction at Guantanamo Bay, upheld the guilty verdict of a Yemeni national — Salim Ahmed Hamdan.
Upcoming “Term in review” events
A compilation of events reviewing OT2010.
Evening round-up
The Court decided six cases today, involving – among other things – the labeling of generic drugs, the First Amendment and commercial speech, federal sentencing laws, and the Confrontation Clause.
Friday round-up
More coverage of, and commentary on, yesterday’s six decisions; still more on Wal-Mart and Turner v. Rogers.
Commentary: Court charts new course in preemption analysis
On Thursday, the Court handed down its decision in PLIVA, Inc. v. Mensing.
Plain English
The Supreme Court strikes down a federal law on the power of bankruptcy judges and a state law on the government’s power to regulate marketing using prescription records, and holds that generic drug companies cannot be sued for incorrect drug labels.
Live Blog of opinions | 6/23/2011
Live coverage of opinions issued on June 23.
Opinion analysis: Bankruptcy courts’ powers pared down
Anna Nicole Smith’s estate loses a plea for some $89 million from her now-deceased tycoon husband’s riches, and the specialized federal bankruptcy courts lose some of their authority in a 5-4 decision by the Court.
Opinion analysis: New curb on crime lab reports
Once more divided 5-4 on how to define the right of a criminal suspect to confront accusers, the Court rules that, if a crime lab report is offered by prosecutors, the person who did the test and prepared the report must testify, and a supervisor cannot do so in the absence of that technician.
Details on today’s opinions
The Court issued six opinions today, with most of them decided by a five-to-four vote.
Opinion analysis: Like ships passing in the night…
The Court strikes down a Vermont law that barred the commercial use of information about what kinds of medicines doctors prescribe. The vote was 6-3. The ruling appeared to produce no new First Amendment law.
Wednesday round-up
Extensive commentary on Wal-Mart v. Dukes and Monday’s other opinions; Justice Sotomayor opens up about life with diabetes.
Monday’s decisions in Plain English
The Court issues a decision in the Wal-Mart case, as well as decisions involving global warming, the right to counsel, and the First Amendment.
Academic round-up
Is the Solicitor General responsible for the Court’s shrinking docket?
Tuesday round-up
Four opinions, including in Wal-Mart and AEP, and four grants.
Opinion analysis: No right to lawyer for deadbeat dad
A five-Justice majority holds that a father who went to jail for failing to pay child support did not have a right to an appointed counsel, but that the state court failed to provide other protections.
Re-list (and hold) watch
John Elwood reviews Monday’s relisted and held cases.
Wal-Mart sequel pushed
Lawyers for four tobacco companies, reacting quickly to the Court’s new Wal-Mart ruling, renew their plea for the Justices to hear a Louisiana case to answer constitutional questions left undecided.
Live Blog of orders and opinons | 6/20/11
Live coverage of orders and opinions and issued on June 20.
Monday round-up
Commentary on recent decisions and a look at pending cases and petitions.
Opinion analysis: Wal-Mart’s two messages
The Court shuts down a nationwide lawsuit by women claiming rampant sex bias at Wal-Mart discount stores, and makes it harder for groups of workers to ban together to claim workplace discrimination at large companies.
Details on today’s opinions
The Court issued four opinions this morning, including Wal-Mart v. Dukes
Opinion analysis: Warming an EPA worry, at first
The Court rules that it is for the Environmental Protection Agency in the first instance, and not the courts, to deal with global warming that could be traced to the release of “greenhouse gases” into the atmosphere. Courts have only a secondary role, the decision stressed.
Opinion analysis: Limits on “Petition Clause”
The Court allows public employees with workplace grievances to file a lawsuit against their government employer under the First Amendment’s Petition Clause, but only if the lawsuit involves a “matter of public concern” — the same limitation that the Court has previously placed upon public workers’ lawsuit under the Amendment’s Free Speech Clause.
Major ruling for doctors due
The Court returns to an issue, under patent law, of doctors’ right to observe how their patients react to varying dosages of medicine, when such observations might infringe on a diagnostic method that is patented.
This week at the Court
Significant dates in the coming week