Forty-four years have passed since any criminal in the United States was executed for a crime in which the victim was not killed. The Supreme Court, in Kennedy v. Louisiana (07-343), will consider whether to allow states to resume the practice...
Argument Preview Since the nineteenth century, courts have held that Native American tribes lack full sovereignty, and thus that tribal courts generally lack jurisdiction over claims arising between members and nonmembers. In its watershed decision in Montana v. United States, the Supreme...
Based on the briefs filed in Ressam, the heart of the issue before the Court is the proper interpretation of Section 844(h)(2). The oral argument was brief and did not seem to cover any new ground. Attorney General Michael Mukasey ran into some...
Though this appeal presented two questions to the Court, the first concerning the timeliness of the Governor’s appeal, the justices seemed interested only in the second question: Whether voting-related changes brought about by State court orders are covered by § 5. Arguing for...
Arguing for the United States as petitioner, Assistant to the Solicitor General William M. Jay began by emphasizing that the respondents sought and obtained a refund for the most recent three years of taxes they paid on coal exports. He then...
In a 6-3 opinion, the Supreme Court ruled that the Federal Arbitration Act contains the exclusive grounds for promptly vacating or modifying an arbitral award. Justice Souter’s opinion rejects petitioner’s argument that parties may contractually agree to expanded grounds of review....
Background This case involves three companies’ efforts to obtain a refund of taxes they paid on coal exports after it was determined that the export tax was unconstitutional. The question presented is whether the companies may file their refund claims directly in...
As the war in Iraq entered its sixth year, the Supreme Court had before it for the first time test cases growing out of the U.S. military’s involvement in that conflict. As in several decisions emerging out of the global “war...
Argument Preview 18 U.S.C. § 844(h)(2) prescribes a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years for any person who “carries an explosive during the commission of any felony which may be prosecuted in a court of the United States.†The question before the...
Argument Preview The state of Indiana as petitioner argues for states to have the leeway to deny otherwise competent defendants the opportunity to represent themselves at trial when those defendants cannot communicate coherently with the court or jury. Indiana contends that refusing...
