Docket No. | Op. Below | Argument | Opinion | Vote | Author | Term |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
10-5258 | 4th Cir. | Apr 25, 2011 | Jun 6, 2011 | 9-0 | Thomas | OT 2010 |
Holding: A federal sentencing court must determine whether an offense under state law is a serious drug offense by consulting the maximum term of imprisonment applicable to a defendant's prior state drug offense at the time of the defendant's conviction for that offense, rather than looking to state law at the time of the defendant's federal sentencing.
Plain English Holding: A federal statute imposes higher sentences for federal defendants who have previously been convicted of a serious drug offense. Whether a prior offense counts as a serious drug offense is determined by looking at the longest sentence that the defendant could have received when he was convicted, even if the defendant would have received a lower sentence later.
Judgment: Affirmed. on June 6, 2011.
Merits Briefs
Amicus Briefs
The Supreme Court rules 6-3 against two men on Arizona's death row who say they received ineffective assistance of counsel in state court. SCOTUS says that federal courts reviewing their cases can't hold evidentiary hearings to fully assess their ineffective-counsel claims.
In a dispute over arbitration rights, the Supreme Court unanimously sides with a Taco Bell worker who sued the franchise owner for wage violations. The dispute involved whether the company waited too long to try to move the lawsuit out of court and into arbitration.
The Supreme Court adds no new cases to its docket in this morning's order list. Stephen Breyer writes a brief statement regarding the court's denial of review in a capital case; he reiterates his doubts about the constitutionality of the death penalty. https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/052322zor_p86a.pdf
Today at SCOTUS: The court will issue orders at 9:30 a.m. EDT, followed by opinions starting at 10. You know the drill: We'll be firing up our live blog and breaking it all down. See you there.
Announcement of orders and opinions for Monday, May 23 - SCOTUSblog
On Monday, May 23, we will be live blogging as the court releases orders from the May 19 conference and opinio...
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Just in: The next Supreme Court opinion day will be next Monday. The court expects to release one or more opinions in argued cases from the current term.