Supreme Court Opinions

Welcome to Supreme Court Opinions. In this episode, you’ll hear the Court’s opinion in Reed v Goertz. In this case, the court considered this issue: When does the statute of limitations for a 42 U-S-C § 1983 claim seeking DNA testing of crime-scene evidence begin to run? The case was decided on Apr 18, 2023. The Supreme Court held that when a prisoner pursues state post-conviction DNA testing thro...

Welcome to Supreme Court Opinions. In this episode, you’ll hear the Court’s opinion in Turkiye Halk Bankasi A-S v United States In this case, the court considered this issue: May the district courts properly exercise subject-matter jurisdiction over the criminal prosecution against Halkbank in this case based on the commercial activity exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act? The case wa...

Welcome to Supreme Court Opinions. In this episode, you’ll hear the Court’s opinion in M-O-A-C Mall Holdings LLC v Transform Holdco LLC.  In this case, the court considered this issue: Does Bankruptcy Code Section 363(m) limit the jurisdiction of appellate courts over an order approving the sale of a debtor’s assets or instead simply limit the remedies available on appeal from such an order? The c...

Welcome to Supreme Court Opinions. In this episode, you’ll hear the Court’s opinion in Axon Enterprise, Inc. v Federal Trade Commission.  In this case, the court considered this issue: Do federal courts have jurisdiction to hear constitutional challenges to the Federal Trade Commission’s structure, procedure, and existence, or must such challenges be raised first in the administrative proceeding?...

Welcome to Supreme Court Opinions. In this episode, you’ll hear the Court’s opinion in Perez v Sturgis Public Schools.  In this case, the court considered this issue: Do the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (I-D-E-A) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) require a student to exhaust his administrative proceedings against the school district even when such proceedings would be fu...

Welcome to Supreme Court Opinions. In this episode, you’ll hear the Court’s opinion in Wilkins v United States.  In this case, the court considered this issue: Do the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (I-D-E-A) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) require a student to exhaust his administrative proceedings against the school district even when such proceedings would be futile? T...

Welcome to Supreme Court Opinions. In this episode, you’ll hear the Court’s opinion in Bittner v United States. In this case, the court considered this issue: Is a “violation” under the Bank Secrecy Act the failure to file an annual Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (no matter the number of foreign accounts), or is there a separate violation for each individual account that was not pro...

Welcome to Supreme Court Opinions. In this episode, you’ll hear the Court’s opinion in Delaware v Pennsylvania.  The Disputed Instruments, prepaid financial instruments used to transfer funds to a named payee, are sold by banks on behalf of MoneyGram and others. When these instruments are not presented for payment within a certain period of time, they are deemed abandoned. MoneyGram applies the co...

In this case, Cruz, convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death, argued that under the Supreme Court’s “Simmons” decision, he should have been allowed to inform the jury that a life sentence in Arizona would be without parole. The Arizona Supreme Court held that Arizona’s capital sentencing scheme did not trigger Simmons. The Supreme Court subsequently held that it was fundamental error to...

In this case, the court considered this issue: Is a supervisor who makes over $200,000 annually, calculated on a daily basis, entitled to overtime pay, despite a regulation that carves out an exception for highly paid executives? The case was decided on February 22, 2023. The Supreme Court declined to exempt a highly-compensated worker, paid on a daily basis with no guarantee of a weekly amount, f...

In this case, the court considered this issue: Can a bankruptcy debtor be held liable for another person’s fraud, even when they were not aware of the fraud? The case was decided on February 22, 2023. The Supreme Court held that the Bankruptcy Code exemption from discharge for debts involving fraud precludes the partner of the individual who committed the fraud from discharging a debt, regardless...

Adolfo R. Arellano served honorably in the Navy from November 1977 to October 1981. On June 3, 2011—more than 30 years after he was discharged—he applied for disability benefits on the basis of psychiatric disorders that rendered him 100% disabled. He sought retroactive benefits from the day after his discharge, arguing that the one-year filing deadline to submit disability claims should be extend...

In 2018, the Trump administration announced the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPPs), under which policy certain noncitizens arriving at the southwest border of the United States were returned to Mexico during their immigration proceedings. Known as the “remain in Mexico” policy, the MPPs faced legal challenges shortly after their enactment, but the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to...

The Trump administration repealed the 2015 Clean Power Plan, which established guidelines for states to limit carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, and issued in its place the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) Rule, which eliminated or deferred the guidelines. However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacated the ACE Rule as arbitrary and capricious. One of the challengers, North A...

Leroy Torres enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve in 1989. In 1998, he was employed by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) as a trooper, where he served until his deployment to Iraq in 2007. In 2008, he was honorably discharged and sought reemployment by DPS. However, due to a lung condition he acquired in Iraq, Torres requested employment with DPS in a position different from the one he held...

Victor Manuel Castro-Huerta, a non-Native, was convicted in Oklahoma state court of child neglect, and he was sentenced to 35 years. The victim, his stepdaughter, is Native American, and the crime was committed within the Cherokee Reservation. Castro-Huerta challenged his conviction, arguing that under the Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma, which held that states cannot prosecute...

In 2008, Carlos Concepcion pleaded guilty to crack cocaine charges, and in 2009 he was sentenced to 228 months in prison. While he was serving his sentence, Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act, which reduced the statutory penalties for most federal crimes involving crack cocaine. In 2018, Congress made these changes retroactive, and Concepcion moved for resentencing. The district court denied...

A federal jury in Alabama convicted Xiulu Ruan and several other pain management physicians of running a medical practice constituting a racketeering enterprise in violation of several federal statutes, including provisions of the Controlled Substances Act. Ruan allegedly prescribed medicines, including Schedule II drugs (many of which are opioids), outside the standard of care for his practice. A...

Joseph Kennedy, a high school football coach, engaged in prayer with a number of students during and after school games. His employer, the Bremerton School District, asked that he discontinue the practice in order to protect the school from a lawsuit based on violation of the Engagement Clause. Kennedy refused and instead rallied local and national television, print media, and social media to supp...

In  2005, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services promulgated a  rule eliminating the word “covered” from 42 C.F.R. § 412.106(b)(2)(i),  effectively amending HHS’s interpretation of the phrase “entitled to  [Medicare]” in a subsection of the Medicare Act. This amendment affects  the way HHS calculates its reimbursement to certain hospitals that serve  low-inc...

In 2018, Mississippi passed a law called the “Gestational Age Act,”  which prohibits all abortions, with few exceptions, after 15 weeks’  gestational age. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the only licensed  abortion facility in Mississippi, and one of its doctors filed a lawsuit  in federal district court challenging the law and requesting an  emergency temporary restr...

In  1993, Michael Wade Nance robbed a bank, and, in the process of fleeing,  killed a person. In 1997, a jury convicted Nance of murder, and he was  sentenced to death. The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed his death  sentence and rejected a petition for collateral relief. Nance then filed  a federal habeas petition; the district court denied the petition, and  the U.S....

The  North Carolina chapter of the NAACP challenged a North Carolina voter-ID  law, arguing that it violates the Constitution and the federal Voting  Rights Act. Although the state attorney general, a Democrat, is already  is representing the State's interest in the validity of that law,  defending its constitutionality in both state and federal court,  Republicans Ph...

The state of New York requires a person to show a special need for self-protection to receive an unrestricted license to carry a concealed firearm outside the home. Robert Nash and Brandon Koch challenged the law after New York rejected their concealed-carry applications based on failure to show “proper cause.” A district court dismissed their claims, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second C...

DaVita is the leading provider of dialysis treatment in the United States. Marietta Memorial Hospital Employee Health Benefit Plan is a self-funded plan governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”). Patient A is an anonymous individual with end-stage renal disease who is a member of the plan and has been receiving treatment by DaVita since April 15, 2017. The Plan defi...