U.S. Supreme Court

State Arrest Law Clashes With Federal Search Precedent in High Court Case

The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday considered a question that has divided the nation’s courts: If police have probable cause to arrest a suspect, may they search for evidence of a crime, even if the arrest is not permitted under state law? The case is a new twist in the debate…

Jan 15, 2008 6:56 PM CST

Lawyer for ‘Judge Alex’ Faces Tough Time in Supreme Court

The lawyer for a TV judge “seemed stunned and weary” after a tough U.S. Supreme Court argument yesterday, his seventh appearance before the court, Legal Times reports. Eric Brunstad Jr. has developed an impressive Supreme Court practice from his offices at Bingham McCutchen in Hartford, Conn., but the justices “hammered…

Jan 15, 2008 4:40 PM CST

Supreme Court Limits Investor Suits Against Third Parties

Updated: In a major ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court has decided that third parties are not liable for participating in corporate wrongdoing if they did not directly mislead investors, SCOTUSblog reports. The court ruled 5-3 in the case, Stoneridge Investment Partners v. Scientific-Atlanta. Justice Stephen G. Breyer did not participate.…

Jan 15, 2008 3:16 PM CST

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Worked Harder to Beat Jewish Quotas

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told an audience at a Washington, D.C., synagogue last week that being a woman was a greater career obstacle than being Jewish. Ginsburg graduated in a tie for first place from Columbia Law School in 1959, but not a single New York firm offered her a…

Jan 15, 2008 2:11 PM CST

High Court Drops Wal-Mart Disability Case

The U.S. Supreme Court has dropped a case from its docket in which an injured Wal-Mart worker contended she should been given preference for an open position. The case was dismissed apparently because it has settled, SCOTUSblog reports. Oral arguments would have been held this spring, according to Dow Jones…

Jan 14, 2008 5:08 PM CST

Court Won’t Hear Sentencing Confrontation Case

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to decide whether the Sixth Amendment’s confrontation clause applies during sentencing. Defendant Sherman Lamont Fields had contended the right to confrontation should apply in sentencing hearings when capital punishment is an option, SCOTUSblog reports. The U.S. solicitor general had urged the court to decline…

Jan 14, 2008 4:08 PM CST

Court Turns Down Drug Access Case

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a case that asserts terminally ill patients have a constitutional right to experimental drugs, SCOTUSblog reports. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit had found there was no right of access in an en banc August opinion. The plaintiffs had…

Jan 14, 2008 3:41 PM CST

High Court to Decide if Killer Can Bar Victim’s Prior Statements to Cop

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide whether statements previously made by a slain witness can be introduced against the man convicted of killing her. Defendant Dwayne Giles claims the statements introduced at his trial violated his Sixth Amendment right to confrontation under the Supreme Court’s 2004 decision, Crawford…

Jan 14, 2008 3:14 PM CST

The Case of Judge Alex and the Preston-Change-O Arbitration Contract

The case of the TV judge billed as “tall, dark and judgmental” heads to the U.S. Supreme Court today for a ruling on whether his dispute with a former manager should go to a private arbitrator. “Judge Alex” as Alex Ferrer is known, contends California law requires initial issues in…

Jan 14, 2008 1:41 PM CST

Court to Hear ‘Millionaire Amendment’ Campaign Finance Case

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review the so-called millionaire’s amendment, which permits candidates to accept larger campaign contributions when self-financed opponents spend heavily. Candidate Jack Davis, who lost a congressional race in New York last year despite spending $2.2 million of his own money, claims the amendment violates…

Jan 11, 2008 8:24 PM CST

Apartheid Corporate Defendants Seek Cert

Companies accused of aiding South African apartheid have filed a U.S. Supreme Court cert petition seeking to overturn a ruling by a federal appeals court allowing lawsuits against them. The 10 grouped lawsuits against more than 50 U.S. and foreign corporations seek more than $400 billion in damages, SCOTUSblog reports.…

Jan 11, 2008 2:39 PM CST

Voter ID Loss Could Have ‘Sweeping’ Impact on Election Challenges

Opponents of Indiana’s voter ID law may not only lose their case in the U.S. Supreme Court, they may also make it more difficult to challenge any new state election regulations before they take effect. U.S. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement urged the justices in oral arguments yesterday to reject…

Jan 10, 2008 2:10 PM CST

Court Appears Reluctant to Strike Down Voter ID Law

In a post entitled “The Partisan Elephant Unnoticed in the Room,” SCOTUSblog describes how liberal and conservative justices differed today over their approach to Indiana’s voter ID law, the subject of a bitter dispute between Republicans and Democrats. The justices heard oral arguments today over the facial challenge to the…

Jan 9, 2008 7:48 PM CST

Voter ID Law, Retirement Plan Bias Before High Court

The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments today in two cases, one dealing with the constitutionality of Indiana’s voter ID law and the other with the legality of the use of age in retirement plans. Indiana’s law requiring voters to show a photo ID barred Valerie Williams from voting in the…

Jan 9, 2008 1:28 PM CST

Claims Court Should Decide Timeliness Issue Despite Waiver, High Court Rules

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the government’s failure to raise the issue of a blown statute of limitations in a takings case filed in the Court of Federal Claims did not bar a decision on the issue. The court held that timeliness is a jurisdictional limit that cannot…

Jan 8, 2008 4:10 PM CST