Petitions to watch | Conference of May 24
In its conference of May 24, 2018, the court considered petitions involving issues such as whether the rule espoused inSteel Company v. Citizens for a Better Environment, which held that a federal court generally may not rule on the merits of a dispute without first determining that it has subject-matter jurisdiction over the matter, is limited to Article III jurisdictional disputes, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit and other circuits have held, or whether it applies to statutory as well as Article III jurisdictional disputes, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit and other circuits have held; whether Ohios mandatory transfer statute, which requires that certain children be prosecuted as adults and prohibits an individualized determination, violates the due process and equal protection clauses of the U.S. Constitution; and whether, when a criminal defendant has already been convicted of an offense in a state criminal proceeding, the United States may thereafter prosecute the defendant for the same offense without violating the Fifth Amendments prohibition on double jeopardy
Issue:Whether, pursuant toUnited States v. Munsingwear, Inc., the Supreme Court should vacate the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuits judgment and instruct that court to remand the case to the district court with directions to dismiss all claims for prospective relief regarding pregnant unaccompanied minors.
Issue:Whether the separate sovereign concept actually exists when Congresss plenary power over Indian tribes and the general erosion of any real tribal sovereignty is amplified by the Northern Cheyenne Tribes constitution in such a way that the petitioners prosecutions in both tribal and federal court violate the double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution.
Issue:Whether Ohios mandatory transfer statute, which requires that certain children be prosecuted as adults and prohibits an individualized determination, violates the due process and equal protection clauses of the U.S. Constitution.
Issues:(1) Whether the Louisiana Supreme Court erred in upholding the petitioners death sentence when the jury made only one of the two statutory required jury findings beyond a reasonable doubt; (2) whether standards of decency have evolved to render the execution of a defendant prosecuted as a principal to first degree murder unconstitutional when, as the State conceded, jurors could not know who inflicted the blows that caused the victims death; (3) whether testimony establishing communications between a deputy monitoring the trial and an alternate juror in front of other jurors about the trial constitutes sufficient evidence to be presumptively prejudicial; and (4) whether the Louisiana Supreme Courts rule, which requires an indigent defendant to accept his trial counsels decision to concede his guilt of second degree murder over his express objections or represent himself, vitiates the voluntariness of the petitioners waiver of counsel.
Eaton v. United States
17-6680
Issue: [The petitioner is a pro se prisoner and the government waived its right to respond, so we have been unable to obtain a copy of the petition.]
Issue:Whether the death penalty, in and of itself, violates the Eighth Amendment in light of contemporary standards of decency and the geographic arbitrariness of its imposition.
Issue:Whether the Supreme Court should overrule the separate sovereigns exception to the double jeopardy clause.
Issue:Whether, when a criminal defendant has already been convicted of an offense in a state criminal proceeding, the United States may thereafter prosecute the defendant for the same offense without violating the Fifth Amendments prohibition on double jeopardy.
Issues:(1) Whether incarcerating a prisoner awaiting execution for over four decades, even after the state found a life-without-parole sentence to be appropriate, violates the Eighth Amendment because it fails to serve any legitimate penological purpose; and (2) whether incarcerating a prisoner awaiting execution for over four decades, with over half that time attributable to repeated constitutional violations in a succession of sentencing hearings, violates the Eighth Amendment because it fails to serve any legitimate penological purpose.
Issue:Whether Ohios mandatory transfer statute, which requires that certain children be prosecuted as adults and prohibits an individualized determination, violates the due process and equal protection clauses of the U.S. Constitution.
Issues:(1) Whether the double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment prohibits the federal government from charging, convicting and sentencing a person who has already been charged, convicted and sentenced in the court of a state for much of the same conduct; and (2) whether the seriousness of the offense conduct is an appropriate consideration for a district court when fashioning a sentence on revocation of supervised release.
Issue:Whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuits holdinggranting qualified immunity to law-enforcement officers who stopped the petitioner from praying silently in her own home because there was no prior case law involving similar factsconflicts withHope v. Pelzer, which expressly rejected a requirement that previous cases be fundamentally similar or involve materially similar facts.
Issue:Whetherwhen the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit found that the new mitigating evidence discovered on federal habeas review was double-edged and could not outweigh the substantial aggravating evidence, and when it misapplied the standard for evaluating prejudice in aWigginsclaimit denied the petitioner due process.
Issue:Whether the Supreme Court should overrule the separate sovereigns exception to the double jeopardy clause.
Issue:Whether the rule espoused inSteel Company v. Citizens for a Better Environment, which held that a federal court generally may not rule on the merits of a dispute without first determining that it has subject-matter jurisdiction over the matter, is limited to Article III jurisdictional disputes, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit and other circuits have held, or whether it applies to statutory as well as Article III jurisdictional disputes, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit and other circuits have held.
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