Every post published in February 2020, most recent first.
This week we highlight petitions pending before the Supreme Court that address, among other things, whether Congress’ omission of a mens rea for the offense of sexual assault by bodily harm means mere negligence as to the lack of consent suffices; whether the “self-executing” just compensation
Seila Law v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a constitutional challenge to the structure of the CFPB that will be argued next week, is dividing commentators.
John Elwood briefly reviews Monday’s relists. Because of the press of business, it will be another brief writeup today. The Supreme Court cleared out an enormous number of relists at the February 21 conference — its first conference in almost a month.
Oyez has posted the aligned audio and transcripts from this week’s oral arguments at the Supreme Court. The court heard argument this week in: U.S. Forest Service v. Cowpasture River Preservation Association Opati v. Sudan United States v. Sineneng-Smith Lomax v. Ortiz-Marquez
The Supreme Court heard oral argument yesterday in Lomax v. Ortiz-Marquez, this term’s case about the hastily drafted and much-litigated 1996 Prison Litigation Reform Act.
The court released three more opinions yesterday, all of them unanimous. In Holguin-Hernandez v. United States, the court held that a criminal defendant is not required to object formally to his sentence to preserve a challenge to the length of the sentence on appeal.
On March 26 at 1:00 p.m. ET, join the State and Local Legal Center for a webinar on upcoming decisions this term at the Supreme Court affecting state and local government.
Some Supreme Court decisions send shock waves across and beyond the legal universe. The court’s unanimous ruling Tuesday in Rodriguez v. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is not one of them.
The justices have one oral argument on their agenda this morning, in Lomax v. Ortiz-Marquez, about whether dismissal without prejudice for failure to state a claim counts as a “strike” under a federal statute that limits prisoners’ ability to file lawsuits without paying the filing fees.
Yesterday the Supreme Court heard argument in United States v. Sineneng-Smith, a government appeal from a reversal of criminal convictions by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.