U.S. Supreme Court

In a round of orders, the Justices denied, without comment, a rehearing petition filed by British American Tobacco Co., which had argued that the Supreme Court's decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank undercut a ruling by the DC Circuit. Continue reading →

An international perspective on cameras in the courtroom Continue reading →

The Justices’ speeches and appearances this summer continue to garner news coverage.  At the Blog of LegalTimes, Tony Mauro reports on a discussion of cameras in the courtroom last week at the Tenth Circuit Bench and Bar Conference.  While Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg concluded that the Court should refrain from allowing cameras if any Justice [...]

(2:30 p.m. Expanded and updated.) After pondering the issue for more than three months, the full D.C. Circuit Court unanimously refused on Tuesday to reconsider the most sweeping opinion that Court has yet issued against the legal claims of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.  But, in doing so, seven of the nine active judges on the [...]

At the WSJ Law Blog, Ashby Jones recaps Dahlia Lithwick’s recent article (which Amanda covered in yesterday’s round-up) on the possible effects of having three women on the Court.  Meanwhile, in a second post at Slate, Lithwick discusses Justice Ginsburg’s recent appearance at the Tenth Circuit Judicial Conference in Colorado Springs, during which the Justice [...]

Last week, the Acting Solicitor General filed invitation briefs in two cases, recommending that cert. be denied in both Placer Dome, Inc. v. Provincial Government of Marinduque (09-944) and Hogan v. Kaltag Tribal Council (09-960).  At issue in Placer Dome is the power of federal courts to rule on a case that involves potential foreign [...]

On Friday Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg spoke at the 2010 Tenth Circuit Bench and Bar Conference in Colorado Springs. After delivering a speech written by her late husband, Justice Ginsburg joined Beverley McLachlin, Chief Justice of Canada, in a question-and-answer session moderated by NPR’s Nina Totenberg. Justice Ginsburg declined to weigh in on the question [...]

The Court is in recess for the summer; it is expected to return on October 4 for the first oral argument of October Term 2010. The schedule of merits briefs due this week follows the jump. Tuesday, August 31: Petitioner’s brief in Milner v. Department of the Navy (09-1163) Petitioner’s brief in Pepper v. United [...]

This week, we updated our sister site, SCOTUSwiki, to include a number of new filings in OT10 merits cases.  We have added new petitioners’ briefs to the case pages for Matrixx Initiatives, Inc. v. Siracusano and Virginia Office of Protection and Advocacy v. Stewart, and petitioners’ reply briefs to the case pages for Bruesewitz v. [...]

Just when you think there is nothing more to be said about statutory interpretation, a new article demonstrates that the topic is far from exhausted. In her recent article in the Yale Law Journal, Professor Abbe Gluck challenges some of the conventional wisdom about statutory interpretation based on her close examination of state court practices.  [...]

Lawyers for British American Tobacco Co., seeking a chance to overturn an anti-racketeering ruling against it, on Friday notified the Supreme Court of a new lower court ruling that bars the overseas reach of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act of 1970 — one of the main U.S. laws used to challenge business misconduct.  [...]

This week the Acting Solicitor General filed a brief on behalf of the Tennessee Valley Authority in American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut, urging the Court to vacate a Second Circuit ruling that would permit lawsuits against greenhouse gas emitters for their contributions to climate change.   The New York Times covered the filing (via Gabriel [...]

The “Notable petitions” feature lists petitions that are likely to appear on our “Petitions to watch” list when they are scheduled for consideration by the Justices.  “Notable petitions” are those that Tom has identified as raising one or more questions that has a reasonable chance of being granted in an appropriate case.  We generally do [...]

Wal-Mart’s filing of a cert. petition in a massive gender discrimination case dominates today’s headlines.  In the petition, the company – which is the nation’s largest private employer – asks the Court to review an en banc ruling of the Ninth Circuit allowing over one million women to pursue their claims for damages as a [...]

UPDATE: The Wal-Mart petition has been docketed as 10-277. ——————– Wal-Mart Stores, the nation’s largest private employer, urged the Supreme Court on Wednesday to put new limits on the use of payroll-wide lawsuits in job bias cases, and to block such sweeping claims when workers are asking for back pay and other forms of money [...]

The “Notable petitions” feature lists petitions that are likely to appear on our “Petitions to watch” list when they are scheduled for consideration by the Justices.  “Notable petitions” are those that Tom has identified as raising one or more questions that has a reasonable chance of being granted in an appropriate case.  We generally do [...]

Responding to an order by the Court, a federal district court judge in Georgia found that death-row inmate Troy Anthony Davis “is not innocent” of murdering a police officer twenty-one years ago.  SCOTUSblog’s Lyle Denniston reports that the judge, William T. Moore, Jr., apparently was “acting as a fact-gatherer directly for the Supreme Court, so [...]

In the latest effort to salvage authority for federal judges to control the legal fate of Guantanamo Bay detainees, lawyers for 31 of those prisoners have told the D.C. Circuit Court that they will seek to return to the Supreme Court if lower courts move to scuttle that new effort.  In two filings on Monday, [...]

Carrying out a direct order of the Supreme Court, a federal judge in Georgia made a lengthy new study of a 21-year-old murder case but then ruled Tuesday that a Savannah, Ga., man had not proved that he is innocent of killing a police officer in a fast-food restaurant parking lot.   In a 172-page opinion [...]

The “Notable petitions” feature lists petitions that are likely to appear on our “Petitions to watch” list when they are scheduled for consideration by the Justices.  “Notable petitions” are those that Tom has identified as raising one or more questions that has a reasonable chance of being granted in an appropriate case.  We generally do [...]