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U.S.: Wait on health care review

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

SCOTUSblog - By Lyle Denniston - Mar. 15 (Opinion) - The Obama Administration urges the Court to turn down Virginia’s request to take up swiftly, before an appeals court rules on it, the constitutionality of the new health care law.

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McDonald v. City of Chicago : Much ado about not much?

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

SCOTUSblog - By Jon Lowry - Jun. 29 (Opinion) - The Supreme Court’s decision in McDonald v. City of Chicago to incorporate the Second Amendment may be a headline-grabber, but it is hardly surprising. Virtually every commentator predicted that the same five Justices of the Supreme Court who ruled two years ago that the District of Columbia’s handgun ban was unconstitutional would hold that similar bans are not permitted when enacted by Chicago, or any other state or city. Now all Americans can – as National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre put it – “experience” the Second Amendment.

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“Honest services” law pared down

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

SCOTUSblog - By Lyle Denniston - Jun. 24 (News Analysis) - Three separate rulings, threatening (though not quite nullifying) convictions or prosecutions in three different criminal corruption cases, put an exclamation point on the defeat for government prosecutors in their efforts to salvage wide discretion in employing the so-called “honest services fraud” law, enacted in 1988 in an attempt to overturn a 1987 Supreme Court ruling. The lead ruling — producing 105 pages of often deeply conflicting views — came in the case of a former Enron Corp. official convicted in one of the government’s biggest corruption cases ever. That case, Skilling v. U.S. (08-1394), involved former Enron CEO Jeffrey K. Skilling. Based largely on the Skilling decision, the Court also questioned convictions in the case of Black v. U.S. (09-876). It also summarily disposed of a third case, Weyhrauch v. U.S. (09-1196). Each case must now return to a lower court for another look. (It was in Skilling’s case, alone, that the Court raised significantly the barrier to contesting guilty verdicts based on unfavorable publicity surrounding a high-profile criminal trial.)

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Analysis: Partial U.S. victory on terrorism

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700

SCOTUSblog - By Lyle Denniston - Jun. 21 (Opinion) - it does not violate the Constitution for the government to block speech and other forms of advocacy supporting a foreign organization that has been officially labeled as terrorist, even if the aim is to support such a group’s peaceful or humanitarian actions. But the Court added a significant qualifier: such activity may be banned only if it is coordinated with or controlled by the overseas terrorist group. That limitation, however, may be fairly difficult for lower courts to apply case by case; the Court provided little specific guidance.

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Analysis: Tilting Miranda toward the police

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 11:09:20 -0700

SCOTUSblog - By Lyle Denniston - Jun. 01 (News Analysis) - More than four decades after the Supreme Court ordered police to warn suspects about their rights before questioning them, the actual day-to-day practice has not turned out to be a simple ritual under clear ground rules. Encounters in interrogation rooms still and often are a test of wills, with detectives trying to get answers and suspects trying to avoid talking themselves into deeper trouble. As a result, the Court often has had to reinterpret its 1966 decision in Miranda v. Arizona. It did so again on Tuesday, and this time the result decisively tilted the warnings procedure toward the police. By a 5-4 vote, the Court for the first time made two things clear about Miranda rights: first, if a suspect does not want to talk to police — that is, to invoke a right to silence — he must say so, with a clear statement because it is not enough to sit silently or to remain uncooperative, even through a long session; and, second, if the suspect finally answers a suggestive question with a one-word response that amounts to a confession, that, by itself, will be understood as a waiver of the right to silence and the statement can be used as evidence.

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The times, they are a-changin’

Mon, 10 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

SCOTUSblog - By Lyle Denniston - May. 10 (Opinion) - For the time being, Kagan can anticipate that, on many of the heavy controversies that come before the Court, she may not have much opportunity to exert significant influence. The more committed of the Court’s conservative Justices have been having increasing success in drawing swing Justice Anthony M. Kennedy to join them in major cases, and that makes a five-Justice majority that simply may not need Kagan’s vote, even if it were available. Although known for her skills at persuasion, Kagan is but a fifty-year-old with no prior experience in shaping judicial majorities.

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The “Kennedy Court,” only more so

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

SCOTUSblog - By Lyle Denniston - Apr. 10 (News Analysis) - If it has been so that the Supreme Court could properly be called the “Kennedy Court,” because of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s grip on a tie-breaking vote much of the time, that may well be even more so when the Justices open a new Term next October.

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The personhood of corporations

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

SCOTUSblog - By Lyle Denniston - Jan. 22 (News Analysis) - Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens may have had his tongue in his cheek, or perhaps wanted merely to taunt the majority, when he wrote in Thursday’s opinion on the role of corporations in national politics: “Under the majority’s view, I suppose it may be a First Amendment problem that corporations are not permitted to vote, given that voting is, among other things, a form of speech.” It is a tantalizing notion.

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Analysis: Two precedents in jeopardy

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

SCOTUSblog - By Lyle Denniston - Sep. 10 (News Analysis) - If supporters of federal curbs on political campaign spending by corporations were counting on Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., to hesitate to strike down such restrictions, they could take no comfort from the Supreme Court’s 93-minute hearing Wednesday on that historic question. Despite the best efforts of four other Justices to argue for ruling only very narrowly, the strongest impression was that they had not convinced the two members of the Court thought to be still open to that approach. At least the immediate prospect was for a sweeping declaration of independence in politics for companies and advocacy groups formed as corporations.

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Analysis: Two precedents in jeopardy

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

SCOTUSblog - By Lyle Denniston - Sep. 09 (News Analysis) - If supporters of federal curbs on political campaign spending by corporations were counting on Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., to hesitate to strike down such restrictions, they could take no comfort from the Supreme Court’s 93-minute hearing Wednesday on that historic question. Despite the best efforts of four other Justices to argue for ruling only very narrowly, the strongest impression was that they had not convinced the two members of the Court thought to be still open to that approach. At least the immediate prospect was for a sweeping declaration of independence in politics for companies and advocacy groups formed as corporations.

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Ginsburg temporarily blocks Chrysler deal

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

SCOTUSblog - By Lyle Denniston - Jun. 09 (News Report) - Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg put a temporary hold Monday on the deal to sell Chrysler to save it from collapse. Her order, however, simply gives her or the full Court more time to ponder whether to postpone the sale further, or allow it to go forward. The order can be found here.

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The Dynamic of the Nomination of Sonia Sotomayor

Tue, 26 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

SCOTUSblog - By Tom Goldstein - May. 26 (Opinion) - A cottage industry – literally an industry, given the sums of money raised and spent – now exists in which the far left and right either brutalize or lionize the President’s nominees. Because the absence of controversy means bankruptcy, it has to be invented by both sides, whatever the cost to the nominee personally and to the integrity of the judiciary nationally.

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Analysis: Guns, “chukas,” and the states

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

SCOTUSblog - By Lyle Denniston - Apr. 23 (News Analysis) - “Second Amendment law,” a federal appeals court remarked earlier this week, “remains in its infancy.” But, only about a year after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on gun rights in District of Columbia v. Heller, the Justices could soon be faced with one of the most significant issues left undecided by Heller.

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A constitutional right to a gun

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

SCOTUSblog - By Lyle Denniston - Jun. 26 (News Analysis) - Answering a 127-year old constitutional question, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to have a gun, at least in one's home. The Court, splitting 5-4, struck down a District of Columbia ban on handgun possession. Although times have changed since 1791, Justice Antonin Scalia said for the majority, "it is not the role of this Court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct."

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Court gives detainees habeas rights

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 07:50:01 -0700

SCOTUSblog - By Lyle Denniston - Jun. 12 (Opinion) - In a stunning blow to the Bush Administration in its war-on-terrorism policies, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that foreign nationals held at Guantanamo Bay have a right to pursue habeas challenges to their detention. The Court, dividing 5-4, ruled that Congress had not validly taken away habeas rights. If Congress wishes to suspend habeas, it must do so only as the Constitution allows -- when the country faces rebellion or invasion.

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Potential new obstacle to Hamdan trial

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

SCOTUSblog - By Lyle Denniston - Dec. 18 (News Report) - Military Commission Judge Keith J. Allred, a Navy captain, ruled that Salim Ahmed Hamdan is entitled to a hearing on whether he is to be classified as a prisoner of war. If, in fact, the judge were to conclude after the hearing that Hamdan is a POW, under the terms of the Third Geneva Convention, it almost certainly would mean that he could not be tried by a U.S. military commission.

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Court switches, will hear detainee cases

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 08:55:05 -0700

SCOTUSblog - By Lyle Denniston - Jun. 29 (Opinion) - In a startling turn of events in the legal combat over the war on terrorism, the Supreme Court on Friday agreed to reconsider the appeals in the Guantanamo Bay detainee cases. It vacated its April 2 order denying review of the two packets of cases. The Court then granted review, consolidated the cases, and said they would be heard in a one-hour argument in the new Term starting Oct. 1. Such a switch by the Court -- from denial to rehearing and new argument and decision -- may not have occurred since 1947, in Hickman v. Taylor, 329 U.S. 495, legal sources said Friday.

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Court decides endangered species, religion, student speech, campaign finance cases; four new grants

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 07:55:03 -0700

SCOTUSblog - By Lyle Denniston - Jun. 25 (Opinion) - Amid several 5-4 rulings on the merits, the Supreme Court on Monday granted four cases for review next Term, including a significant test case on the use of references to the O.J. Simpson not-guilty verdict to help persuade an all-white jury to impose a death sentence on a black defendant. Other granted cases include a test of state power to regulate commercial shipments of tobacco and other products harmful to childrren and a case involving states' authority to allow damage claims against makers of medical devices approved by federal authorities. In the fourth granted case, the Court indicated it will sort out a conflict among lower courts on the deductibility of expenses for trusts and estates.

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Court rules on Sentencing Guidelines

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 12:21:57 -0700

SCOTUSblog - By Lyle Denniston - Jun. 21 (News Report) - The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that a federal criminal sentence within the Guidelines may be presumed to be reasonable when the case is on appeal. However, it said that such a presumption is not binding.. Although the Court was divided in some respects, the vote on the result was 8-1 with only Justice David H. Souter dissenting in Rita v. U.S. (06-5754).

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Court rules on two patent cases, and on high-speed chase

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 10:50:23 -0700

SCOTUSblog - By Lyle Denniston - Apr. 30 (News Report) - The Supreme Court, in a major victory for Microsoft Corp., ruled by a 7-1 vote on Monday that U.S. patent law does not bar foreign making of copies of digital code to be installed in computers made and sold abroad. Current patent law does not reach that far, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the Court. If patent law is to be adjusted to account for "the realities of software distribution," that is up to Congress, the Court said. Justice John Paul Stevens was the lone dissenter; Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., took no part in the ruling. The case was Microsoft Corp. v. AT&T (05-1056).

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Court upholds federal abortion ban

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 08:34:21 -0700

SCOTUSblog - By Lyle Denniston - Apr. 18 (Opinion) - Dividing 5-4, the Supreme Court on Wednesday gave a sweeping -- and only barely qualified -- victory to the federal government and to other opponents of abortion, upholding the 2003 law that banned what are often called "partial-birth abortions."

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