Every post published in 2018, most recent first.
This is a case in which the more precise you think the statutory language is, the less obvious the right answer becomes. The question presented in Obduskey v. McCarthy Holthus LLP is whether the definition of “debt collector” under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act includes attorneys who effect nonjudicial foreclosures.
Briefly: At The Economist’s Democracy in America blog, Steven Mazie notes that “[i]t has been a fairly quiet few months at the Supreme Court,” but “that may change as 2019 begins”: “The justices have already accepted three high-profile cases to be heard in the spring,” and their “next private
Chief Justice John Roberts released his annual report on the federal judiciary today, focusing on the judiciary’s response to allegations of sexual misconduct in the workplace.
On Friday the justices met for their January 4 conference; that afternoon, they added six cases to their merits docket: Rucho v. Common Cause, Lamone v. Benisek, Iancu v. Brunetti, Emulex Corp. v. Varjabedian, Taggart v. Lorenzen and United States v. Davis.
Briefly: At Bloomberg Law, Jordan Rubin reports on “the curious case of Bobby James Moore,” which “is knocking at the U.S. Supreme Court’s door again” after a state court found for a second time that Moore is not too intellectually disabled to be executed.
Civility and collegiality continued to be a theme in the Supreme Court justices’ appearances this month. On a December 7 visit to Duquesne University, Justice Sonia Sotomayor recounted a conversation about civility with the other justices.
This week we highlight petitions pending before the Supreme Court that address, among other things, the constitutional adequacy of the “aggravating circumstances” used by a state to sentence a person to death, the scope of a defendant’s Sixth and 14th Amendment right to conflict-free counsel, and whether the use of a name is a “means of identification of another person” under 18 U.S.C. § 1028A.
In an op-ed for The Hill, Kristen Waggoner weighs in on American Legion v. American Humanist Association, an establishment clause challenge to the placement on public land of a World War I memorial shaped like a cross, maintaining that “[t]he sight of a cross-shaped memorial to fallen heroes moves
How better to wrap up the calendar year than by examining the president’s take on his relationship with the Supreme Court – especially because the court was one of President Donald Trump’s favorite topics of discussion this past year?
Briefly: A.O. Scott reviews “On the Basis of Sex,” a new movie about the early career of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing in The New York Times that “[t]his is, almost literally, the story of how Ginsburg found her voice.” At Law and Liberty, Mark Pulliam argues that after last term’s decision