Professor Poulin is a Professor at Villanova University School of Law. She teaches and writes in the areas of criminal procedure and evidence. In addition, Professor Poulin serves as Co-Reporter for the Committee on Model Criminal Jury Instructions for the Third Circuit. She chaired the ABA Death Penalty Moratorium Project for Pennsylvania. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project.
On February 22, the Court will hear oral argument in Blueford v. Arkansas. At issue in the case are two strains of double jeopardy jurisprudence. The first addresses the question of what constitutes an acquittal and will therefore bar further prosecution, while the second governs when a mistrial will bar further prosecution.
The peculiar facts and procedural posture of the case frame the two double jeopardy issues narrowly. The defendant was tried on four offenses, including both greater- and lesser-included offenses. The jury was instructed to proceed to the next lesser offense only after concluding that the defendant was not guilty of the greater. Failing to reach a verdict on the lesser offenses, the jury reported that it agreed the defendant was not guilty on the two most serious offenses. However, that jury vote was never further formalized. Jeopardy attached when the jury was empanelled and sworn, so the issue before the Supreme Court is whether the resolution of the case raises a double jeopardy bar to further prosecution.
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Posted in Blueford v. Arkansas, Featured, Merits Cases
As the Court’s winter recess continues, coverage looks ahead to cases that will soon come before the Court. As Marissa observed yesterday, much of the focus is on the latest developments in the challenge to the Affordable Care Act. Betsy Goldman of Bloomberg Law (video) discusses how Justice Kennedy might vote in the case, while David Lazarus discusses the real-world impact of the case in his column for the Los Angeles Times. James Vicini of Reuters (via the Chicago Tribune) summarizes the briefs filed on Monday by the states and the National Federation of Independent Business on the individual mandate question, while Seth Stern of Bloomberg (via the Houston Chronicle) suggests that the health care litigation will “test the justices’ refusal to allow live broadcasts of their proceedings.” Continue reading »
Posted in Round-up
The petition of the day is:
John Doe AP v. Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis
Docket: 11-840
Issue(s): Whether the First Amendment shields religious
organizations from accountability for negligence and
negligent supervision and retention of their employees
who sexually abuse children.
Certiorari stage documents:
Posted in John Doe AP v. Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis, Cases in the Pipeline
The Ninth Circuit Court will issue a ruling tomorrow — apparently, in a single opinion — to decide the challenge to California’s ban on same-sex marriage, approved by the state’s voters more than three years ago. In a brief announcement Monday, the Circuit Court said it would issue an opinion at 1 p.m. Tuesday Washington time (10 a.m. in San Francisco) dealing both with the constitutionality of the measure (“Proposition 8″) and with the issue of whether the trial judge should have disqualified himself from the case.
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Posted in Cases in the Pipeline, Featured
Congress has a penchant, whenever possible, for giving dramatic names to federal laws to underscore the intended purpose. One such example is the USA PATRIOT (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) Act, passed in the wake of the September 11 attacks. The Stolen Valor Act, passed in 2006, is another example, evoking the idea that real acts of courage by members of the armed services are devalued when someone who was not a war hero falsely claims to have been awarded a military medal.
Sometimes, however, the dramatic titles may mask other problems lurking beneath the surface of federal laws. On February 22, in United States v. Alvarez, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on the question whether this federal effort to punish those who falsely claim to have won military medals and decorations violates the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech.
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Posted in U.S. v. Alvarez, Featured, SCOTUS for law students
With the Court’s winter recess continuing through February 17, the weekend’s coverage focused on the latest developments in the challenge to the Affordable Care Act.
As this blog’s Lyle Denniston reports, the government filed a motion Friday asking the Court to increase the time for oral arguments—from five-and-a-half hours to six—in the challenge to the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. JURIST’s Michael Haggerson also has coverage. At the Huffington Post, Mike Sacks discusses a recent Kaiser Foundation poll reporting that nearly sixty percent of the country believes that the Justices will be guided by ideology – not legal analysis – when they decide the case. On the issue of recusals, UPI’s Michael Kirkland writes that although “[t]he clamor for Justice Clarence Thomas to withdraw from hearing the challenge . . . appears to have died down for the moment . . . the pressure on Justice Elena Kagan has been relentless.” Finally, as the school’s website reports, Georgetown University Law Center hosted a mock moot court of the health care case last week, with Walter Dellinger and Steven Bradbury as the advocates. A webcast of the event can be found here; Monica Haymond at Love the Process also has coverage. Continue reading »
Posted in Round-up
The Court is on winter recess until the Justices reconvene for the Conference of February 17. Our “Petitions to watch” for that Conference is here.
The February sitting begins February 21.
Posted in This Week at the Court
The Obama Administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to expand by a half-hour — to a total of six hours — the time allowed for oral arguments in late March on the constitutionality of the new federal health care law. In a ten-page motion, U.S. Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli, Jr., said the added time would be provided for the opening arguments on Monday, March 26, on whether the challenges to the new individual insurance-purchase mandate are barred by the federal Anti-Injunction Act, a law designed to protect the government’s power to collect tax revenue. The motion also suggested ways to divide up the three days of argument among the parties, but noted that there is some disagreement over that part of the motion.
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Posted in Featured, Health Care, Merits Cases
With the Court still in its mid-term recess, today’s clippings focus on the activities of Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor.
The AP’s Mark Sherman (via the Traverse City (Mich.) Record-Eagle) reports that Justice Ginsburg has returned from her visit to Egypt and Tunisia, a trip that was sponsored by the State Department. Speaking to a crowd at Cairo University, the Justice told students she was inspired by the protests that led to the end of Hosni Mubarak’s regime. The ABA Journal’s Molly McDonough also has coverage.
At the Daily Report, Jonathan Ringel reports that Justice Sotomayor made a guest appearance on Sesame Street Thursday night. In the skit, the Justice heard arguments in the case of Baby Bear v. Goldilocks. Continue reading »
Posted in Round-up
The Supreme Court will conclude its oral arguments for the current Term with the major case on a state’s power to pass laws to control undocumented immigrants living in the state — Arizona v. United States (docket 11-182) — on April 25. The Court on Friday released the April calendar, listing cases to be heard in the final scheduled sitting of October Term 2011. This is a relatively thin calendar, with arguments heard only in the mornings; each session is limited to one hour. The sessions begin at 10 a.m. No other cases will be heard this Term unless something arises as an emergency.
The schedule of cases, including a brief summary of the issues at stake, follows the jump.
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Posted in Featured, Merits Cases
