Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, 10-277, June 20, 2011 A group of female employees sued Wal-Mart for gender discrimination, and sought to represent a group of about 1.5 million current and former women employees in a class action. The trial court acknowledged the unprecedented size of the class, but found that the [...]
Bond v. United States, 09-1227, June 16, 2011 The 10th Amendment reserves to the states that authority not specifically granted to the Federal Government, and prior Supreme Court cases have suggested that only states may challenge federal action on 10th Amendment grounds. The Petitioner assaulted her romantic rival with caustic chemicals, and [...]
Janus Capital Group, Inc. v. First Derivative Traders, 09-525, June 13, 2011 The Petitioner created an investment fund–a separate legal entity–and served as advisor and administrator to the fund. Securities law forbids “any person” to “make any untrue statement” related to the sale of securities. The Respondent alleged that the Petitioner drafted [...]
Microsoft Corp. v. i4i Ltd. Partnership, 10-290, June 9, 2011 The Respondent sued Microsoft for infringing its computer document editing patent, and Microsoft countered that the patent was invalid. Microsoft appealed the district court’s holding that an invalidity defense must be proven by clear and convincing evidence. A unanimous Court (J. Sotomayor [...]
Opinions Erica P. John Fund, Inc. v. Halliburton Co., 09-1403, June 6, 2011 In this securities fraud case, the district court denied the Petitioner’s application for class action certification, finding that it must be able to prove that the misrepresentation caused the claimed economic loss in order to be certified. The Fifth [...]
Ann E. Tenbrunsel and Max H. Bazerman in Freakonomics, Wednesday, June 01, 2011, Launching Into Unethical Behavior: Lessons from the Challenger Disaster Tenbrunsel and Bazerman evaluate the decision processes that led to the 1986 Challenger explosion “through a modern day ‘behavioral ethics’ lens.” The piece ties the ethical fallacies apparent in the [...]
...because NPR said so.
Ashcroft v. al-Kidd, 10-98, May 31, 2011 In 2003, FBI agents arrested the Respondent under a material witness warrant. The Respondent sued then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, claiming that in the aftermath of September 11th, the government undertook a program to detain terrorism suspects through pretextual material witness claims. The Court held (J. Scalia wrote the [...]
Opinions Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America v. Whiting, 09-115, May 26, 2011 The federal Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) applies three general provisions that are relevant here: 1) it forbids the intentional hiring of undocumented workers, 2) it expressly preempts all state laws that impose sanctions on [...]
Opinions Brown v. Plata, 09-1233, May 23, 2011 Since 1990, the State of California has consistently failed to meet court-ordered benchmarks to bring its prison healthcare system within standards that do not amount to cruel and unusual punishment. Considering the trial court’s determination that California had exhausted its opportunities to remedy conditions, [...]