The week ahead
Because today is Memorial Day, the Court is not in session. Tomorrow, the Court will issue orders and opinions at 10 a.m. Eastern. We will be live-blogging. The petitioners’ merits brief is due Friday in Connick v. Thompson (09-571).
May 2010 Archive
Showing 1–50 of 159 items published in May 2010, most recent first.
More Solicitor General invitation briefs
The Solicitor General’s office filed three more invited amicus briefs Friday, in Triple-S Management Corporation v. Municipal Revenue Collection Center, Carmichael v. Kellogg, Brown & Root Service, Inc., and Pfizer, Inc. v. Abdullahi. All three straightforwardly recommend denials.
This week on the Wiki
The Court handed down five opinions on Monday, and in response we have updated the five corresponding case pages on our sister site, SCOTUSwiki, to include links to new opinions and commentary.
Today at the Court
No non-capital orders are expected, though we will report promptly on any should they be announced. Due to Memorial Day on Monday, the next day for orders and opinions is Tuesday, June 1.
Academic round-up
I am delighted to be taking over the academic round-up duties from David Stras, who has recently been appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court. I am a Professor at American University Washington College of Law, and my scholarship and teaching focus on the role of the federal courts.
Friday round-up
For all round-up coverage of Elena Kagan since her nomination, see our collection of past links on SCOTUSwiki. Staff picks are marked by asterisks. Justice Souter was back in the news today after his commencement address at Harvard College (read the entire thing, as prepared for delivery, in the Harvard Gazette).
New defeat for detainees
Reacting to a Supreme Court order to take a new look at judges’ power to control the release of detainees from Guantanamo Bay, the D.C. Circuit Court on Friday refused to order a new fact-gathering hearing for five Chinese Muslim (Uighur) prisoners and instead put back into effect a ruling that the courts have no role to play in deciding whether any non-citizen will be allowed to enter the United States.
New Solicitor General invitation brief filed
The Acting Solicitor General recommends a denial in Golden Gate Restaurant Association v. County of San Francisco (08-1515). At issue in the case is whether ERISA section 514(a) preempts a San Francisco ordinance requiring covered local employers to spend a specified amount for health care benefits for their covered employees.
UPDATE: No delay of Blagojevich trial
UPDATE: Justice John Paul Stevens on Friday afternoon refused to delay the June 3 opening of the criminal trial in Chicago of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his brother Robert. The Justice issued no opinion, simply denying a stay of the trial in a brief order.
SpeechNow may be appealed
The Federal Election Commission on Friday dropped a vague hint that it may be close to deciding to ask the Supreme Court to revive a federal law that restricts the amount of money that independent political advocacy groups can raise for their efforts to influence the election of members of Congress and the presidency.
Interview with Bill Barnhart, part I
As part of our series on John Paul Stevens, Steve Sanders, an associate in the appellate and Supreme Court practice group of Mayer Brown and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Michigan Law School, recently interviewed Chicago Tribune editor and writer Bill Barnhart about his new biography of Justice Stevens, John Paul Stevens: An Independent Life.
New state sovereignty plea
One week after the federal government urged the Supreme Court to resolve a split in lower courts over who can sue state officials to get them to obey a federal law protecting mentally ill patients from neglect and abuse, Indiana officials asked the Supreme Court to block a lower court ruling exposing them to a new lawsuit on the same issue.
U.S. challenges state alien worker law
Taking on Arizona in a fight over illegal aliens policy — but not the looming fight over a recently-passed and more controversial Arizona law — the Obama Administration on Friday urged the Supreme Court to examine (and probably strike down) a state law that penalizes employers in the state for hiring workers not legally in the country.
Petitions to Watch | Conference of 5.27.10
This edition of “Petitions to Watch” features cases up for consideration at the Justices’ private conference tomorrow, Thursday, May 27. As always, it lists the petitions on the Court’s paid docket that Tom has deemed to have a reasonable chance of being granted.
Latest Stat Pack available
An update to our April 28 preliminary Stat Pack is here (for comparison, the first edition is here). It covers decisions in all October Term 2009 cases as of today.
New Solicitor General invitation briefs, part I
On May 19, the Solicitor General’s office filed three amicus briefs in response to the Court’s call for the views of the United States (a “CVSG”) in those cases. Details follow the jump. We will post later today on four more briefs the Solicitor General filed over the last few days.
New Solicitor General invitation briefs, part II
Late last week and on Monday of this week, the Solicitor General filed four amicus briefs in response to earlier calls by the Court for the views of the United States.
Today at the Court
The Justices meet today for their private conference to consider petitions for certiorari and motions in pending cases. No non-capital orders are expected until Tuesday, June 1, though we will report promptly on any should they be issued in the interim.
Machinegun provision with thirty-year mandatory minimum is element of offense
Below, Alexandra Lampert of Stanford Law School recaps Monday’s opinion in United States v. O’Brien and Burgess. [Howe & Russell and Akin Gump represented respondent O’Brien in the case, but Alexandra was not involved in the proceedings.]
Thursday round-up
Media and blogosphere coverage of the Court continues to focus on the preparations for Elena Kagan’s confirmation hearings next month. USA Today reports on the Tuesday conference call organized by the White House, in which a conservative graduate of Harvard Law School spoke in support of Kagan.
Doubts About Death
The following essay for our series on John Paul Stevens is by Lauren Sudeall Lucas (scroll down on this page to see her bio). Lucas clerked for Justice Stevens during the 2006 Term, and is now a Staff Attorney at the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Court challenges expectations in review of firefighter testing
Below, Akin Gump’s Carl Cecere recaps Monday’s ruling in Lewis v. City of Chicago. [Although Howe & Russell filed an amicus brief in support of the petitioners, neither Carl nor Akin Gump was involved in the case.]
State defends election subsidies
UPDATE: Briefing in the case discussed here is now completed, with the filing of the challengers’ reply brief, arguing that they went to the Supreme Court for new relief without first trying to get the Ninth Circuit Court to put its ruling on hold, because the former tactic was “the very procedural
New Solicitor General invitation brief
In an amicus brief filed today, the Solicitor General recommends that cert. be denied in Amara v. CIGNA/CIGNA v. Amara (09-784/09-804).
Decisions on Tuesday
The Supreme Court expects to release final decisions in argued cases on only one day next week — Tuesday, June 1 (after the Monday Memorial Day holiday), the Court said Thursday afternoon. The Court will issue orders at 10 a.m., followed by opinions.
Election subsidy challenged
Clarification Wednesday p.m. State officials say that the matching funds to candidates will not be issued until June 22, which is nine weeks before the date of the state primary election, under provisions of the Arizona law.
Second Circuit’s “plain error” standard struck down in Marcus
Below, Stanford Law School’s Priyanka Rajagopalan recaps the opinion handed down yesterday in United States v. Marcus. (In February, Jesenka Mrdjenovic of Harvard Law School previewed and recapped the oral arguments in the case for SCOTUSblog.)
Today at the Court
No opinions or orders are expected, though we will promptly report on any should they be issued.
Wednesday round-up
Despite the flurry of opinions and orders at the Court on Monday, attention has quickly returned to Elena Kagan’s nomination. Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times has a story on Kagan’s academic career at Harvard Law School, her selection as the dean of that school, and her aspirations for the Harvard presidency.
Per curiam dismissal in criminal contempt case
In a per curiam order on Monday, the Court dismissed Robertson v. United States ex rel.
The Legacy of a Moderate
The following essay for our series on John Paul Stevens is by George Rutherglen, a law professor at the University of Virginia. Rutherglen clerked for Justice Stevens during the Justice’s first Term on the Court, from 1975-76.
Monday round-up: evening edition
There was a little something for everyone this morning in the Court’s release of seven opinions (four in criminal law cases) and five cert. grants. However, the Court’s decision in American Needle v. NFL – holding that the National Football League is not a single entity exempt from antitrust laws – drew most of the attention.
Today at the Court
No opinions or orders are expected, though we will promptly report on any should they be issued.
John Paul Stevens, leader of the Resistance
The following essay was written by Andrew Siegel, an Associate Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law.
Tuesday round-up
Note: Please see yesterday’s evening round-up for more coverage of Monday’s opinions and orders at the Court. In the wake of yesterday’s decision in American Needle, Inc. v. NFL, Jarrett Bell of USA Today and W.D. Cornwell at the Huffington Post discuss the decision’s ramifications for future collective bargaining negotiations in the sport.
“Some success” enough to recover attorney fees in Hardt
Below, Connor Williams of Stanford Law School recaps yesterday’s opinion in Hardt v. Reliance Standard Life Insurance Co. (09-448). (Kyle Maurer’s recap of the oral arguments in the case is available here.) Check the Hardt page on SCOTUSwiki for additional information.
The week ahead
Both orders and opinions are expected today at 10 a.m. Eastern; we will be “live” blogging them this morning. Additional opinions or non-capital orders are unlikely for the rest of the week. The Justices meet for their private conference on Thursday.
Live Blog: Orders and opinions | 5.24.10
This morning starting at 10 a.m. Eastern, the Court is expected to issue one or more opinions, as well as orders from the Justices’ conference last week. We will relay them in the Live Blog below, with the assistance of our reporter at the Court, Lyle Denniston.
Monday round-up
With Elena Kagan’s confirmation hearings nearly a month away, the analysis of her academic writings continues.
NFL may face legal penalty
Rejecting the National Football League’s claim that it has across-the-board immunity to antitrust law when its teams join in a commercial activity, the Supreme Court unanimously cleared the way Monday for trial of a lawsuit against the joint marketing of the right to use the teams’ logos and trademarks on consumer goods.
Today’s orders and opinions
The Court issued six opinions this morning, listed below. It also granted cert. in five cases and requested the views of the Solicitor General in two more (these follow the jump). [UPDATE, 3 p.m.: All opinions are now listed with their holdings.]
Full texts of today’s opinions
Courtesy of Scribd.com, the full texts of the six opinions issued today follow the jump. The decisions and holdings are summarized in this post.
Justice Stevens and the Korematsu era
The following essay was written by Craig Green, an Associate Professor of Law at Temple University Beasley School of Law. His areas of expertise include wartime detention, equal protection, the federal sentencing guidelines, customary international law, and Erie, and he has also worked in the Solicitor General’s Office as a Bristow Fellow.
Analysis: No antitrust “Trojan horse”
Analysis As the Supreme Court moved in to referee a major dispute over pro sports leagues and their plea for antitrust immunity, the labor unions that represent the players in those leagues warned the Justices not to allow team owners to send a “Trojan horse” into that arena.
U.S. backs “soft money” ban
The Obama Administration, providing new support for Congress’ flat ban on political parties’ raising money outside the limits of federal law, urged the Supreme Court to once again uphold those limits by leaving them as is without further review.
This week on the Wiki
Following up on Monday’s opinions, we have updated our sister site, SCOTUSwiki, to include new content on the pages of two recently decided cases. To the case page for United States v. Comstock, decided on Monday morning, we have added an opinion recap by Stanford Law School’s Eric Hansford, while the case page for Abbott v. Abbott, also decided Monday, now includes an opinion recap by Josh Friedman of Akin Gump.
Interview with C-SPAN’s Mark Farkas
Last week I interviewed Mark Farkas, the executive editor of the new C-SPAN book The Supreme Court, which features transcripts of interviews with all nine of the sitting Justices, retired Justices Souter and O’Connor, and journalists and practitioners who cover the Court.
Today at the Court
No non-capital orders are expected, though we will promptly report on any should they be released. We expect orders and opinions on Monday, May 24.
Kagan media coverage on SCOTUSwiki
We have created a new resource on SCOTUSwiki: an index of all of the news and commentary about Elena Kagan to which we have linked in our daily round-ups since the President announced her nomination earlier this month. The Wiki page is here.
Friday round-up
Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan continues her meetings with senators, visiting yesterday with Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine. According to the Associated Press (via the Washington Post), Senator Snowe said that Kagan “appears for now to have the qualifications and balanced approach to be a justice,” but Snowe has not decided how she will vote on the nomination.