When filing a United States Supreme Court brief, there are distinctive formatting requirements that must be observed and followed. These requirements are set forth in Supreme Court Rule 33.1, which describes the Court’s required booklet formatting. Below are a few of the Supreme Court’s more obscure rules for filing in booklet format. Every booklet-format Supreme [...]
Amicus Briefs are submitted by non-parties to a case as a way of introducing information and concerns to the Court, demonstrating that a case’s outcome may have wider effects beyond the immediate parties to the suit. They can provide valuable assistance to the Court in its deliberations by presenting an argument or citing authorities not found [...]
When filing a Petition for Writ of Certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, the Questions Presented section is the first item that the Justices and their law clerks view. Because the Court’s certiorari jurisdiction, though sweeping in scope, is exercised sparingly, a well-crafted Questions Presented is of paramount importance in persuading the Court to [...]
During this week in 1922, the Supreme Court made an important ruling which helped shape Major League Baseball as we know it today. The decision was Federal Baseball Club of Baltimore v. National League. Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote in his majority opinion that exhibitions of baseball are purely state affairs, and thus not subject to [...]
When filing a Petition for Writ of Certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, the Questions Presented section is the first item that the Justices and their law clerks view. Because the Court’s certiorari jurisdiction, though sweeping in scope, is exercised sparingly, a well-crafted Questions Presented is of paramount importance in persuading the Court to [...]
Law Professor Stephen Wermiel has a great post over at SCOTUSblog on what happens at the Supreme Court during the summer. Professor Wermiel notes that: In recent years, the Court has received between 7500 and 8000 cert. petitions per year: from July 2011 to July 2012, for example, 7712 new petitions were filed. There were 7857 [...]
As SCOTUSblog noted yesterday, Chief Justice Roberts, after reading his most famous opinion, issued a public recognition to Supreme Court Clerk William K. Suter for his 50 years in government service. Fifty years at anything is impressive, but Clerk Suter's dedication to the law is unsurpassed. Clerk Suter has played a profound role at the Court, including syncing [...]
In the Winter 2012 Independent Review, I review David Bernstein’s Rehabilitating Lochner: Defending Individual Rights Against Progressive Reform. Here’s how it starts: Few Supreme Court cases receive more scorn in U.S. law schools than Lochner v. New York (198 U.S. 45), the 1905 decision that struck down a New York law limiting the number of [...]
Today, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether Government can monitor people through GPS devices without warrants. The case has been covered extensively. Perhaps the most thorough treatment is that from SCOTUS Blog's Lyle Denniston, which can be found here. Orin Kerr over The Volokh Conspiracy also covers both questions: whether the use of a GPS [...]
Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, in this ABA Journal post, makes the case that this Supreme Court term will be a momentous one for the Kennedy Court. He notes that: Once more, as it has been for each of the last six years, it will be, from a practical perspective, the Anthony Kennedy Court. In ideologically divided [...]