Greetings, Court fans!
Sorry for the delay, but there’s excellent news to report: Ken’s son, Evan Cooper Heath arrived on Monday, November 13th. Ken and his newly expanded family are doing great. (For those of you who think that Court-watching in the fall is just not that exciting, we’re doing our best to keep things interesting . . . at least on the personal front!)…
Read More Ayers v. Belmontes (05-493) and order list
Greetings, Court Fans!
It’s now crunch time: three weeks left in the Term, and twenty-five cases remain. The Court started whittling away at the outstanding cases by issuing two interesting criminal opinions today.
First, in Hill v. McDonough (05-8794), the Court unanimously held that a death-row inmate seeking to challenge the method of his execution as cruel and unusual can bring a civil-rights suit under…
Read More Hill v. McDonough (05-8794), House v. Bell (04-8990) and order list
Greetings, Court Fans!
We’ll polish off the four remaining opinions from last week before turning to the deluge expected this week (we have four more already!).
Hudson v. Michigan (04-1360) delivered a serious blow to criminal defendants and brought us perhaps the most divisive decision of the Term (thus far). The 5-4 decision, with Justice Scalia, the Chief, Thomas, Alito and Kennedy forming the majority,…
Read More Hudson v. Michigan (04-1360), Empire Healthchoice Assurance, Inc. v. McVeigh (05-200), Howard Delivery Service, Inc. v. Zurich American Insurance Co. (05-125) and Kircher v. Putnam Funds Trust (05-409)
Greetings, Court Fans!
So, the relatively boring unanimity of this Term finally has given way as the Court releases opinions in “harder” cases. Last week brought us Hudson, and Monday brought us the first official “mess” of the Roberts era in Rapanos v. United States (04-1034) and Carabell v. United States Army Corps of Engineers (04-1384), which vacated two lower court judgments regarding the…
Read More Part I: Rapanos v. United States (04-1034), Carabell v. United States Army Corps of Engineers (04-1384) and Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood (05-1382)
Greetings, Court fans!
We’ve got a lot of news to report. The Court issued two opinions Monday and one other since our last Update, as well as a summary order and a number of cert grants.
In Carey v. Musladin (05-785), the Court addressed the standard for granting a habeas petition under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (“AEDPA”), which requires that a state
Greetings, Court Fans!
There shouldn’t be any opinions this week (at least not in argued cases), but the Court did issue a significant order list yesterday. The Court noted probable jurisdiction (the functional equivalent of a cert grant) in four related appeals regarding the constitutionality of Texas’ 2003 congressional redistricting plan, which has been attacked as a “partisan gerrymander.” The cases are noteworthy not only…
Read More Order List
