Supreme Court Opinions

In this case, the court considered this issue: Do Florida S.B. 7072’s content-moderation restrictions comply with the First Amendment, and do the law’s individualized-explanation requirements comply with the First Amendment? The case was decided on July 1, 2024. The Supreme Court held that The judgments are vacated, and the cases are remanded, because neither the Eleventh Circuit nor the Fifth Cir...

In this case, the court considered this issue: Does a former president enjoy presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office, and if so, to what extent? The case was decided on July 1, 2024. The Supreme Court held that a former U-S President has absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and...

In this case, the court considered this issue: Does a plaintiff’s claim under the Administrative Procedure Act “first accrue” under 28 U-S-C § 2401(a) when an agency issues a rule, or when the rule first causes harm to the plaintiff? The case was decided on July 1, 2024. The Supreme Court held that an Administrative Procedures Act claim does not accrue for purposes of 28 U-S-C §2401(a) until the p...

In this case, the court considered these issues: 1. Does the Magnuson-Stevens Act authorize the National Marine Fisheries Service to promulgate a rule that would require industry to pay for at-sea monitoring programs? 2. Should the Court overrule Chevron v Natural Resources Defense Council or at least clarify whether statutory silence on controversial powers creates an ambiguity requiring deferenc...

In this case, the court considered this issue: Does a city’s enforcement of public camping against involuntarily homeless people violate the Eighth Amendment’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment? The case was decided on June 28, 2024. The Supreme Court held that The enforcement of generally applicable laws regulating camping on public property does not constitute “cruel and unusual pu...

In this case, the court considered this issue: Does 18 U-S-C § 1512(c), which prohibits obstruction of congressional inquiries and investigations, include acts unrelated to investigations and evidence? The case was decided on June 28, 2024. The Supreme Court held that to prove a violation of 18 U-S-C §1512(c)(2), the Government must establish that the defendant impaired the availability or integri...

In this case, the court considered this issue: Does the Bankruptcy Code authorize a court to approve, as part of a plan of reorganization under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code, a release that extinguishes claims held by non-debtors against non-debtor third parties, without the claimants’ consent? The case was decided on June 27, 2024. The Supreme Court held that the Bankruptcy Code does not auth...

In this case, the court considered this issue: Does the statutory scheme that empowers the Securities and Exchange Commission violate the Seventh Amendment, the nondelegation doctrine, or Article II of the U-S Constitution?    The case was decided on June 27, 2024. The Supreme Court held that when the Securities and Exchange Commission seeks civil penalties against a defendant for securities fraud...

In this case, the court considered this issue: Does the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act preempt an Idaho law that criminalizes most abortions in that state?    The case was decided on June 27, 2024.  The Supreme Court dismissed the writ of certiorari as improvidently granted and vacated its earlier stay of the district court’s preliminary injunction against Idaho’s abortion law....

In this case, the court considered this issue: should the Court stay the EPA’s federal emissions reduction rule, the Good Neighbor Plan, and are the emissions controls imposed by the rule reasonable regardless of the number of states subject to the rule?    The case was decided on June 27, 2024. The Supreme Court held that the EPA’s enforcement of the Federal Implementation Plan against the applic...

In this case, the court considered this issue: does 18 U-S-C § 666(a)(1)(B) criminalize gratuities, i.e., payments in recognition of actions a state or local official has already taken or committed to take, without any quid pro quo agreement to take those actions?    The case was decided on June 26, 2024. The Supreme Court held that Federal law, 18 U-S-C §666, proscribes bribes to state and local...

In this case, the court considered this issue: Did the federal government’s request that private social media companies take steps to prevent the dissemination of purported misinformation transform those companies’ content-moderation decisions into state action and thus violate users’ First Amendment rights?    The case was decided on June 26, 2024. The Supreme Court held that Respondents—two Stat...

In this case, the court considered this issue: Does the Constitution require a jury trial and proof beyond a reasonable doubt to find that a defendant’s prior convictions were “committed on occasions different from one another,” as is necessary to impose an enhanced sentence under the Armed Career Criminal Act?    The case was decided on June 21, 2024. The Supreme Court held that the Fifth and Six...

In this case, the court considered this issue: Does the denial of a visa to the non-citizen spouse of a U.S. citizen infringe on a constitutionally protected interest of the citizen and, if so, did the government properly justify that decision in this case?    The case was decided on June 21, 2024. The Supreme Court held that a U.S. citizen does not have a fundamental liberty interest in her nonci...

In this case, the court considered this issue: May a court enter a consent decree among Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado regarding the Rio Grande Compact without the consent of the United States, who intervened in the action?    The case was decided on June 21, 2024. The Supreme Court held that because the proposed consent decree would dispose of the United States’ Compact claims without its consen...

In this case, the court considered this issue: Does the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment permit the prosecution in a criminal trial to present testimony by a substitute expert conveying the testimonial statements of a nontestifying forensic analyst?     The case was decided on June 21, 2024. The Supreme Court held that when an expert conveys an absent lab analyst’s statements in support...

In this case, the court considered this issue: Does 18 U-S-C § 922(g)(8), which prohibits the possession of firearms by persons subject to domestic-violence restraining orders, violate the Second Amendment?    The case was decided on June 21, 2024. The Supreme Court held that when an individual has been found by a court to pose a credible threat to the physical safety of another, that individual m...

In this case, the court considered this issue: May a Fourth Amendment malicious-prosecution claim proceed as to a baseless criminal charge so long as other charges brought alongside the baseless charge are supported by probable cause?     The case was decided on June 20, 2024.  The Supreme Court held that pursuant to the Fourth Amendment and traditional common-law practice, the presence of probabl...

Welcome to Supreme Court Opinions. In this episode, you’ll hear the Court’s opinion in Diaz v United States.      In this case, the court considered this issue: Under Federal Rule of Evidence 704(b), may a governmental expert witness testify that couriers know they are carrying drugs and that drug-trafficking organizations do not entrust large quantities of drugs to unknowing transporters to prove...

Welcome to Supreme Court Opinions. In this episode, you’ll hear the Court’s opinion in Garland v Cargill.      In this case, the court considered this issue: Is a bump stock device a “machinegun” as defined in 26 U-S-C § 5845(b)? The case was decided on June 14, 2024. The Supreme Court held that ATF exceeded its statutory authority by issuing a Rule that classifies a bump stock as a “machinegun” u...

Welcome to Supreme Court Opinions. In this episode, you’ll hear the Court’s opinion in Campos-Chaves v Garland.      In this case, the court considered this issue: Does the government provide adequate notice under 8 U-S-C § 1229(a) when it serves an initial notice document that does not include the “time and place” of proceedings followed by an additional document containing that information? The...

Welcome to Supreme Court Opinions. In this episode, you’ll hear the Court’s opinion in United States Trustee v John Q. Hammons Fall 2006.      In this case, the court considered this issue: Must the U.S. Trustee issue refunds for the extra fees paid by debtors in certain districts to address the lack of uniformity identified in Siegel v Fitzgerald? The case was decided on June 14, 2024. The Suprem...

Welcome to Supreme Court Opinions. In this episode, you’ll hear the Court’s opinion in FDA v Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine.      In this case, the court considered these issues: 1. Do respondents have Article III standing to challenge the Food and Drug Administration’s 2016 and 2021 actions with respect to mifepristone’s approved conditions of use? 2. Were the FDA’s 2016 and 2021 approvals of...

Welcome to Supreme Court Opinions. In this episode, you’ll hear the Court’s opinion in Vidal v Elster.      In this case, the court considered this issue: Does the refusal to register a trademark under 15 U.S.C. § 1052(c) when the mark contains criticism of a government official or public figure violate the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment? The case was decided on June 13, 2024. Steve Els...

Welcome to Supreme Court Opinions. In this episode, you’ll hear the Court’s opinion in Starbucks Corp. v McKinney.      In this case, the court considered this issue: What test must courts use to evaluate requests for injunctions under Section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act? The case was decided on June 13, 2024. The Supreme Court held that when considering the NLRB’s request for a prel...