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09 Sep Overview of the court’s criminal docket for OT 19 – sizeable and significant
The Supreme Court has already granted review in 50 cases for the term that opens on Monday, October 7. More will be granted when the court returns for its “long conference” (following the summer recess) on October 1. By my broad definition (which includes immigration...
21 Jun Symposium: More light than heat
Michael Stokes Paulsen is Distinguished University Chair and Professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law. Establishment clause cases involving religious symbols tend to generate more rhetorical heat than intellectual light. Passions and prejudices run high; clarity and principle tend to run low....
28 May Opinion analysis: The First Amendment, probable cause and questions left unanswered
On Tuesday, in Nieves v. Bartlett, a majority finally agreed on a standard for how probable cause affects a civil damages action for First Amendment retaliatory arrest under 42 U.S.C. § 1983: A plaintiff must show the absence of probable cause to arrest as an...
20 Mar Empirical SCOTUS: Is the court tracking right or Roberts left?
Although Supreme Court justices’ votes are not purely the product of ideological preferences, some of the most important cases the justices decide come down to 5-4 splits along ideological lines. This was especially apparent during the 2017 Supreme Court term. Even though Chief Justice John...
27 Feb Relist Watch
John Elwood reviews Monday’s relists. With the recent reduction in trusted sources for Supreme Court news, we untrusted news sources must do our best to fill the gap. So even though I have an argument approaching, I will once again try to rise to the...
25 Feb Empirical SCOTUS: Amid record-breaking consensus, the justices’ divisions still run deep
How divided is the current Supreme Court? On the surface the answer appears mixed. Much conversation over the past several years surrounding the court’s decisions has had to do with partisan and ideological divisions among the justices. These divisions and the court’s rightward shift appear...
20 Feb Opinion analysis: A win for one taxpayer, but not many more
West Virginia cannot impose its state income tax on federal retirement benefits paid to a retired U.S. marshal while exempting its own pension payments to former state law enforcement officers, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in a 9-0 decision. That result is a resounding —...
12 Feb Argument preview: Justices to consider ability of government to challenge patents in administrative process
The justices have a light calendar for the first week of the February session, with only two cases set for argument. The first of the pair is Return Mail Inc. v. U.S. Postal Service, the lone Tuesday argument. Return Mail is a simple statutory case...
