Legal minds on legal matters and whatever else strikes our fancy.
The Court began the week with a flurry granting two cert petitions on Monday in Los Angeles County v. Humphries, No. 09-350 and Harrington v. Richter, No. 09-587. In Humprhies, the Court was asked to rectify a circuit split on whether a plaintiff, in a request for declaratory relief, must demonstrate that the constitutional violation was [...]
On several occasions we have had attorneys question how Shon is so knowledgeable about the Supreme Court, but yet, is not an attorney. An article in today’s New York Times answers that question. The article can be viewed here. Both Cockle and Shon want to say thank you to all the Cockle clients who have [...]
Today, the Petitioner’s Brief and Joint Appendix were filed in City of Ontario, et al. v. Quon, et al., No. 08-1332. The Quon case involves the issue of whether the search of a government-issued text-messaging pager used by a SWAT member to send and receive hundreds of personal messages violates the Fourth Amendment right to unreasonable searches [...]
Today, Cockle filed the Petitioner’s Reply Brief in McDonald v. City of Chicago, No. 08-1521. In that brief, McDonald’s counsel of record, Alan Gura, once again calls on the Court to overrule The Slaughterhouse Cases, 83 U.S. (16 Wall.) 36 (1873), or in the alternative, hold that the Due Process Clause incorporates the Second Amendment [...]
In a flurry of action, the Supreme Court on Monday issued two opinions, granted certiorari in two cases, called for the views of the Solicitor General in two others, and denied a host of cert petitions, including that from former Panama dictator Manuel Noriega. The Court announced decisions in Hemi Group, LLC v. City of [...]
Today, the Supreme Court conducted a special session to hand down the opinion in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, No. 08-205. The Court—led by the conservative majority of Chief Justice Robert and Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, Alito—overturned two significant precedents holding that Congress may restrict corporate spending on political ads and commentary. Justice Kennedy, [...]
The Supreme Court issued two opinions today, and as usual, denied a slew of petitions for writ of certiorari. The Court’s opinions and order list can be viewed here. The opinions issued in Presley v. Georgia (09-5270) and Wellons v. Hall (09-5731), involved criminal law issues which were summarily decided by the Court without the [...]
On January 12, 2010, the Supreme Court announced revisions to its rules, which will take effect in all proceedings on February 16, 2010. The Court’s press release announcing the changes can be viewed here. The order and revisions can be reviewed here. The majority of the revisions are simply clarification of previously existing, but unstated, [...]
The Supreme Court has set the oral argument schedule for January, February and March of this year. Among the standout cases are: Briscoe v. Virginia, No. 07-11191 (argument date January 11th) In Briscoe, the Court will be confronted with the question of what procedure is required by the Confrontation Clause with regard to lab reports [...]
Legal blogs continue to buzz over the Court’s grant last week in City of Ontario v. Quon, (08-1332). While Scotus Wiki added a new page for the case, both Nolo’s Employment Law Blog and Slate’s Double XX Blog discussed the case at length. Last week, Orin Kerr at the Volokh Conspiracy noted that the Ninth [...]