SCOTUScast

This SCOTUScast addresses the January 22 Supreme Court argument in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue. The question, in this case, is whether it violates the Free Exercise Clause for a state supreme court to invalidate a school choice program, merely because that program includes religious options, pursuant to that state’s Blaine Amendment. The Institute for Justice represents the Pla...

On April 20, 2020, the Supreme Court, by a vote of 7-2, held that owners of polluted land within designated Superfund sites are “potentially responsible parties” under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). Dozens of Montana landowners sued Atlantic Richfield for trespass and nuisance over its dumping of tons of heavy metals, arsenic, and le...

On May 18, 2020, the Supreme Court held by a vote of 8-0 that Plaintiffs in a suit against a foreign state for personal injury or death caused by acts of terrorism under 28 U. S. C. § 1605A(c) may seek punitive damages for pre-enactment conduct. Following the 1998 al Qaeda bombing of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, victims and their families brought suit against the Republic of Suda...

On May 6, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court heard argument in Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants Inc., a case involving a dispute over whether the government-debt exception to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991’s automated-call restriction violates the First Amendment, and whether the proper remedy for any constitutional violation is to sever the exception from the r...

Three cases before the Supreme Court consider the ability of grand juries and congressional committees to subpoena the personal tax records of the President. In Trump v. Mazars USA and Trump v. Deutsche Bank, three House committees subpoenaed the President’s tax records. In Trump v. Vance, a local grand jury has subpoenaed these tax documents as well. There are several issues at play in dete...

On April 27, 2020, the Supreme Court held by a vote of 8-1, in the case Maine Community Health Options v. United States, that The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s now-expired “Risk Corridors” statute—which set a formula for calculating payments to healthcare insurers for unexpectedly unprofitable plans during the first three years of online insurance marketplace...

On May 11, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court heard argument in the consolidated cases Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru and St. James School v. Biel, which involves a dispute over whether the First Amendment's religion clauses prevent civil courts from adjudicating employment-discrimination claims brought by an employee against her religious employer when the employee carried out importan...

On Feb. 24, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court heard argument in Opati v. Republic of Sudan, a case involving a dispute over whether the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act authorizes punitive damages for terrorist activities that took place before Congress amended the statute to provide an express cause of action contemplating such damages. Following the 1998 al Qaeda bombing of American embassies in Keny...

On April 27, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court released its opinion in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. City of New York, a case involving a dispute over whether New York City rules limiting transportation of licensed firearms to ranges within New York City limits (and certain state-designated hunting areas) violate the Second Amendment, the dormant Commerce Clause, and the constit...

On May 7, 2020, the Supreme Court released the decision in United States v. Sineneng-Smith. By a vote of 9-0, the judgment of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit was vacated and the case remanded. Although every member of the Court joined Justice Ginsburg's opinion, Justice Thomas also issued a concurring opinion indicating his doubt about the validity of the overbreadth doctrine. To d...

On May 5, 2020, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in United States Agency for Int’l Development v. Alliance for Open Society Int’l, Inc., a case which considers whether the First Amendment bars enforcement of a funding-related federal policy requirement not only against domestic organizations but also their foreign affiliates. The United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tubercul...

On May 4, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court heard argument in United States Patent and Trademark Office v. Booking.com B.V., a case presenting the question whether the addition by an online business of a generic top-level domain (“.com”) to an otherwise generic term can create a protectable trademark. In 2011 and 2012, Booking.com sought trademark protection for its web address name, &ldquo...

On Feb. 26, 2020, in a 9-0 decision, the Supreme Court decided Shular v. United States, rejecting the defense argument that Florida’s unique drug laws cannot be used to enhance a federal sentence. At issue was a federal statute known as the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”). ACCA imposes a mandatory 15-year sentence on defendants convicted of federal firearms-related felonies if...

On April 23, 2020, in a 9-0 decision, the Supreme Court decided Romag Fasteners Inc. v. Fossil Inc., holding that a plaintiff in a trademark infringement suit is not required to show that a defendant willfully infringed the plaintiff’s trademark as a precondition to an award of profits. The decision, which vacated and remanded the opinion below from the Federal Circuit, was written by Justic...

On Feb. 25, 2020, in a vote of 9-0 the U.S. Supreme Court decided Monasky v. Taglieri, holding that a child’s habitual residence under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction depends on the totality of the circumstances specific to the case, not on categorical requirements such as an actual agreement between the parents. The Hague Convention, and the federa...

On April 23, 2020, in a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court decided County of Maui, Hawai’i v. Hawai’i Wildlife Fund and vacated and remanded the case. The Court held that the Clean Water Act, which forbids “any addition” of any pollutant from “any point source” to “navigable waters” without the appropriate Environmental Protection Agency permit, require...

On April 23, 2020, in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court decided Barton v. Barr, a case involving a dispute over whether, for the purposes of the “stop-time rule,” a lawfully admitted permanent resident who is not seeking admission to the United States can be “render[ed] ... inadmissible”. The stop-time rule affects the discretion afforded the U.S. Attorney General to cancel...

On April 20, 2020, the Supreme Court released its decision in Thryv, Inc. v. Click-To-Call Technologies, LP holding that the Patent Office decision to hear an inter partes review (“IPR”) challenge is not subject to judicial review on time-bar grounds. The majority found that ruling otherwise would “unwind the agency’s merits decision” and “operate to save bad pa...

On October 7, 2019, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Ramos v. Louisiana. In Ramos, Evangelisto Ramos was convicted of second-degree murder by the vote of 10 of 12 jurors. Challenging his conviction, Ramos argued that Louisiana’s statutory scheme permitting non-unanimous jury verdicts in non-capital felony cases violated his right to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment to...

On March 3, 2020, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for the case of Liu v. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). At issue is "whether the Securities and Exchange Commission may seek and obtain disgorgement from a court as “equitable relief” for a securities law violation even though the Supreme Court has determined that such disgorgement is a penalty." To discuss the case, we...

On March 23, 2020, the Supreme Court held by a vote of 6-3 that the federal Due Process Clause does not require a state to adopt an insanity test that turns on a defendant’s ability to recognize that his or her crime was morally wrong. In an opinion written by Justice Kagan, the Court reaffirmed its 1968 plurality opinion in Powell v. Texas, 392 U. S. 514, declaring that criminal responsibil...

On Nov. 25, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a summary opinion in Thompson v. Hebdon, a case involving campaign-finance law. Specifically at issue was whether Alaska’s political contribution limits are consistent with this Court’s First Amendment precedents. Currently, Alaska’s law imposes (among other things) a $500 annual limit on individual contributions to a political cand...

In its very first case on copyright, the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Marshall was faced with the question of whether its own reports are protected by copyright, and decided in the negative. This term, the Supreme Court is called upon to clarify the scope of that decision, which it has not further clarified since two cases heard in 1888. The question presented in Georgia v. Public. Resou...

On March 23, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court released a decision in Allen v. Cooper, which is the latest development in a decades-long series of Congressional enactments and Supreme Court rulings over whether and how Congress can abrogate the sovereign immunity of States from intellectual property infringement suits. This all-star panel will discuss the Court’s most recent decision in the conte...

On April 6, 2020, the Supreme Court held by a vote of 8-1 that when a law enforcement officer lacks information negating an inference that a vehicle’s driver is the registered owner, an investigative traffic stop made after running the vehicle’s license plate and learning that the registered owner’s driver’s license has been revoked is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment....