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Today we bring you our last Update of the October 2011 Term. As always, the end is bittersweet, but we look forward to a 2012 Term likely to be filled with hot-button social issues, such as affirmative action and same-sex marriage. This last hurrah covers: Knox v. Service Employees Int’l Union, Local 1000 (10-1121), finding that public employee unions cannot impose special assessments for…
Read More Knox v. Service Employees Int’l Union, Local 1000 (10-1121), FCC v. Fox Television Stations, Inc. (10-1293), and American Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. Bullock (11-1179)

In this Update, we bring you Williams v. Illinois (10-8505), the latest in a series of skirmishes between the Justices on the admissibility of crime lab reports under the Confrontation Clause, plus a long list of cert grants to whet your appetite for next Term.

Williams v. Illinois (10-8505) engendered a particularly rancorous 4-1-4 split among the Justices. Just a few years ago, in…
Read More Williams v. Illinois (10-8505) and Order List

This Update addresses United States v. Alvarez (11-210), striking down the Stolen Valor Act as prohibiting too much speech under the First Amendment, and Salazar v. Ramah Navajo Chapter (11-551), finding that the federal government must honor certain contractual obligations to Indian Tribes, even where those obligations are subject to the availability of appropriations.

United States v. Alvarez (11-210) limited Congress’s ability to…
Read More United States v. Alvarez (11-210) and Salazar v. Ramah Navajo Chapter (11-551)

The Term ended with a bang last Thursday, but we’ll continue to bring you our take on the Court’s final decisions. This Update is devoted to National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (11-393). Unless you have been resting comfortably on some (sadly fictional) media-free island, you know the outcome: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ACA”), including its Individual Mandate, survived mostly…

Read More National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (11-393)

We’re back . . . quicker than you thought, huh? This Update will cover: Arizona v. United States (11-182), where the Court gutted Arizona’s controversial immigration law; and Southern Union Co. v. United States (11-94), which extended to criminal fines the Apprendi rule that facts relevant to punishment must be found by a jury.

We’ll tackle Arizona v. United States (11-182) first, since…
Read More Arizona v. United States (11-182) and Southern Union Co. v. United States (11-94)

We’re back with some reading to pass the time while the bookmakers continue to handicap the odds on the Affordable Care Act’s survival. We offer two significant criminal decisions cases for your reading pleasure: Miller v. Alabama (10-9646), holding that juvenile homicide offenders cannot automatically be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole; and Dorsey v. United States (11-5682), concluding that the…
Read More Miller v. Alabama (10-9646) and Dorsey v. United States (11-5682)