In its first decision on the merits in the current term, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court (per Jackson, J.) has held in Bouarfa v. Mayorkas that revocation of an approved visa petition under 8 U.S.C. §1155, based on a...more
This week, we’re examining how recent employer-initiated challenges to the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB’s) structure have arisen due to the agency’s broad interpretation of its enforcement authority, leading to...more
In an action brought by Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, commonly known as SpaceX, a U.S. District Court Judge in the Western District of Texas, Waco Division, has declared that the structure of the National Labor...more
It goes without saying that the actions of federal regulatory agencies greatly affect many essential aspects of our daily lives, among them the delivery of medical services, medicines, and therapeutic devices and the...more
In a recent landmark decision, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the Chevron doctrine in the case of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo.
This ruling has significant implications for employers and other entities in the...more
On what was the next-to-last day of the term, a 6-3 Supreme Court delivered a very lengthy opinion written by the Chief Justice, overruling 40 years of jurisprudence embodied in the Chevron doctrine that had been the bedrock...more
The Supreme Court’s day started with the specter of yet another leak of a reproductive rights decision having occurred....more
6/27/2024
/ Abortion ,
Air Pollution ,
Chapter 11 ,
Clean Air Act ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
EMTALA ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Federal Implementation Plans (FIP) ,
Harrington v Purdue Pharma L P ,
Idaho v United States ,
Moyle v United States ,
Ohio v Environmental Protection Agency ,
Opioid ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Pollution Control ,
Preemption ,
Purdue Pharma ,
Reproductive Healthcare Issues ,
SCOTUS ,
SEC v Jarkesy ,
Standing
The Supreme Court started yesterday with 14 decisions yet to deliver and only reduced the number by two—neither of them the Trump immunity case nor the Loper case concerning the future of the agency deference doctrine of...more
6/27/2024
/ Article III ,
Bribery ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Misleading Statements ,
Murthy v Missouri ,
Public Officials ,
SCOTUS ,
Snyder v United States ,
Social Media ,
Standing
With the current term of the Supreme Court soon to end, the run of decisions in which the Justices have been unanimous or close to it is being displaced by the “tougher” ones, in which there is substantial disagreement....more
6/24/2024
/ Confrontation Clause ,
Consent Decrees ,
Due Process ,
Expert Testimony ,
Expert Witness ,
Firearms ,
Immigrants ,
Non-Citizens ,
Rio Grande Compact ,
SCOTUS ,
Second Amendment ,
Spouses ,
Supreme Court Justices ,
Texas v New Mexico and Colorado ,
United States v Rahimi ,
US Department of State ,
Visas ,
Water Rights
With a significant mass of cases left to decide and only a few weeks to issue the opinions, the U.S. Supreme Court has reduced the backlog by four yesterday. None of them, however, resolves the future of Chevron deference or...more
6/21/2024
/ City Councils ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Drug Trafficking ,
Expert Testimony ,
Federal Rules of Evidence ,
Foreign Corporations ,
Fourth Amendment ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
Malicious Prosecution ,
Misdemeanors ,
Moore v US ,
Probable Cause ,
Retaliation ,
Retaliatory Arrests ,
SCOTUS ,
Shareholders ,
Summary Judgment
Splitting along predictable philosophical lines, the Supreme Court held last week in Garland v. Cargill that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) exceeded its statutory authority by issuing a rule...more
Of the Supreme Court opinions issued today, the one that will draw the greatest public attention is Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, unanimously holding that the pro-life organizational...more
6/14/2024
/ Abortion ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
First Amendment ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
NLRB ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Reproductive Healthcare Issues ,
SCOTUS ,
Starbucks ,
Starbucks Corp. v McKinney ,
Trademarks ,
Unions ,
USPTO ,
Vidal v Elster
Another Three-for Thursday at the Supreme Court, with none of the decisions a landmark but each of utmost relevance to legal specialists and technicians in the fields of bankruptcy, estate taxation, and Indian affairs....more
6/6/2024
/ Asbestos ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Bankruptcy Court ,
Becerra v San Carlos Apache Tribe ,
Business Assets ,
Chapter 11 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Commercial Insurance Policies ,
Connelly v United States ,
Creditors ,
Debtors ,
Estate Tax ,
Healthcare ,
Indian Health Service (IHS) ,
Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDEAA) ,
Medical Reimbursement ,
Native American Issues ,
Reorganizations ,
SCOTUS ,
Truck Insurance Exchange v Kaiser Gypsum Co Inc
Once again, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down three decisions on a Thursday, each of them substantively important to the individuals involved, but all of them essentially involving the Supreme Court’s instructing lower...more
5/31/2024
/ Bank of America ,
Cantero v Bank of America NA ,
Criminal Convictions ,
Death Penalty ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Evidence ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Firearms ,
First Amendment ,
Liability Insurance ,
Murder ,
National Bank Act ,
NRA ,
Preemption ,
SCOTUS ,
Supreme Court Justices
The U.S. Supreme Court decided three cases on Thursday, one of them on the main sequence of the practices of most of the readers of this blog and the others worth knowing about, both as lawyers and as citizens....more
5/24/2024
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Armed Career Criminal Act of 1984 ,
Contract Terms ,
Criminal Convictions ,
Dispute Resolution ,
Illegal Drugs ,
Minorities ,
Racial Gerrymandering ,
SCOTUS ,
Voting Rights
On May 16—for the second time in two weeks—the U.S. Supreme Court, this time unanimously, has taken a lenient, plaintiff-friendly view of whether a filing deadline is jurisdictional in the sense that it is governed by the...more
5/20/2024
/ Administrative Agencies ,
CFPB v Community Financial Services Association of America ,
Commercial Litigation ,
Copyright Litigation ,
Department of Defense (DOD) ,
Discovery ,
Federal Funding ,
Filing Deadlines ,
Furloughs ,
Harrow v Department of Defense ,
Jurisdiction ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
Music Industry ,
SCOTUS ,
Statute of Limitations ,
The Copyright Act ,
Warner Chappell Music v Nealy
The U.S. Supreme Court decided two cases yesterday, in each of which timing played a decisive role in the outcome. These cases did not produce the unanimity that has characterized most of the Court’s decisions so far this...more
5/10/2024
/ Asset Seizure ,
Class Action ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Drug Possession ,
Drug Trafficking ,
Due Process ,
Forfeiture ,
Intellectual Property Litigation ,
Music Industry ,
Personal Property ,
SCOTUS ,
Supreme Court Justices ,
The Copyright Act ,
Warner Chappell Music v Nealy
A unanimous Supreme Court has eased the route for a plaintiff to prove a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in Muldrow v. City of St. Louis.
...more
The Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday morning in the case of Joseph Fischer, one of more than 300 people convicted of corruptly obstructing an official proceeding: the congressional certification on January 6, 2021, of...more
4/17/2024
/ DeVillier v Texas ,
Donald Trump ,
Entitlements ,
Fifth Amendment ,
Fischer v United States ,
Fourteenth Amendment ,
Insurrection ,
Judicial Proceedings ,
Law Enforcement ,
Obstruction of Justice ,
Oral Argument ,
Political Campaigns ,
Presidential Elections ,
Rudisill v McDonough ,
SCOTUS ,
Takings Clause ,
Veterans Administration ,
Veterans' Benefits
Some commentators claim there are bitter divisions among the Justices, roiling the Court and its processes. Many of the same commentators were critical of the Court’s decision holding that former President Trump was not...more
4/12/2024
/ Building Permits ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Construction Project ,
George Sheetz v County of El Dorado ,
Impact Fees ,
Property Owners ,
Real Estate Development ,
SCOTUS ,
Supreme Court Justices ,
Takings Clause ,
Traffic Impact Assessments
Yonas Fikre, a U.S. citizen who had emigrated from Sudan, found himself placed on the No Fly List by the FBI and unable to return to the United States from an international trip. This action followed Fikre’s having been...more
3/19/2024
/ Article III ,
Declaratory Relief ,
Deportation ,
FBI ,
Federal Bureau of Investigation v Fikre ,
Federal Jurisdiction ,
Immigrants ,
Injunctive Relief ,
International Travel ,
Migrants ,
Mootness ,
Removal Orders ,
SCOTUS ,
Standing ,
Tourists ,
Travel Restrictions ,
Visas ,
Wilkinson v Garland
On Friday, March 15, a unanimous Supreme Court decided two companion cases (Lindke v. Freed and O’Connor-Ratcliff v. Garnier) that resolved a split in the Circuits concerning whether public officials can be held liable under...more
3/18/2024
/ 42 U.S.C. §1983 ,
Censorship ,
Commercial Litigation ,
Facebook ,
First Amendment ,
Government Officials ,
Lindke v Freed ,
O’Connor-Ratcliff v Garnier ,
Online Commentary ,
Personal Use ,
Right to Delete ,
SCOTUS ,
Social Media
To the surprise of no one connected with the case, or who just listened to the oral argument, the Supreme Court, in a per curiam opinion (i.e., unanimously), decided the case of Trump v. Anderson, holding that states have no...more
3/5/2024
/ Donald Trump ,
Fourteenth Amendment ,
General Elections ,
Insurrection ,
Lack of Authority ,
Political Campaigns ,
Presidential Elections ,
Primary Elections ,
SCOTUS ,
Sovereign Immunity ,
Trump v Anderson
Most readers of this blog rarely, if ever, become involved in homicide cases.
Nevertheless, the Supreme Court’s essentially unanimous decision in McElrath v. Georgia should be of interest because it deals with the issue of...more
2/21/2024
/ Article III ,
Assault ,
Choice-of-Law ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Double Jeopardy ,
Felony Murder ,
Insanity Defense ,
Jury Trial ,
Jury Verdicts ,
McElrath v Georgia ,
Murder ,
Standing
In its frequent attempts to enforce the separation of powers that the Constitution’s framers devised as a system of checks and balances among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the federal government, it is...more