Voisine v. United States

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Voisine v. United States

Court will review census citizenship dispute this term – Amy Howe

Argument preview: Justices to examine rejection of contracts in bankruptcy – Ronald Mann

Argument preview: Justices to consider ability of government to challenge patents in administrative process – Ronald Mann

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Conference of February 15, 2019

Docket No.	Op. Below	Argument	Opinion	Vote	Author	Term
14-10154	1st Cir.	Feb 29, 2016 Tr.Aud.	Jun 27, 2016	6-2	Kagan	OT 2015

Holding: A reckless domestic assault qualifies as a "misdemeanor crime of domestic violence" that prohibits firearms possession by convicted felons under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9).

Judgment: Affirmed, 6-2, in an opinion by Justice Kagan on June 27, 2016. Justice Thomas filed a dissenting opinion, in which Justice Sotomayor joined as to Parts I and II.

Opinion analysis: Federal “use of force” encompasses reckless domestic violence misdemeanor offenses (Rory Little)
A “view” from the Courtroom: A final bite at the apple (Mark Walsh)
Argument analysis: An unremarkable gun case may be harbinger of things to come (Rory Little)
Argument preview: Another arcane case in which Justice Scalia will be missed (Rory Little)
Court grants review in firearm-possession case (Amy Howe)

Date	Proceedings and Orders (key to color coding)
Jun 4 2015	Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due July 9, 2015)
Jul 1 2015	Order extending time to file response to petition to and including August 10, 2015.
Aug 3 2015	Order further extending time to file response to petition to and including September 9, 2015.
Sep 9 2015	Brief of respondent United States in opposition filed.
Sep 14 2015	Reply of petitioners Stephen L. Voisine and William E. Armstrong, III filed.
Sep 24 2015	DISTRIBUTED for Conference of October 9, 2015.
Oct 13 2015	DISTRIBUTED for Conference of October 16, 2015.
Oct 26 2015	DISTRIBUTED for Conference of October 30, 2015.
Oct 30 2015	Motion to proceed in forma pauperis and petition for a writ of certiorari GRANTED limited to Question 1 presented by the petition.
Nov 18 2015	Motion to appoint counsel filed by petitioners Stephen L. Voisine and William E. Armstrong, III.
Dec 2 2015	Motion DISTRIBUTED for Conference of January 8, 2016.
Dec 11 2015	The time to file the joint appendix and petitioners' brief on the merits is extended to and including December 17, 2015.
Dec 17 2015	Brief of petitioners Stephen L. Voisine and William E. Armstrong, III filed.
Dec 17 2015	Joint appendix filed. (Statement of costs filed.)
Dec 21 2015	Consent to the filing of amicus curiae briefs in support of either party received from counsel for petitioners Voisine and Armstrong.
Dec 23 2015	SET FOR ARGUMENT ON Monday, February 29, 2016
Dec 23 2015	Brief amici curiae of Gun Owners Foundation, et al. filed.
Jan 4 2016	Record requested from the U.S.C.A. 1st Circuit.
Jan 11 2016	Motion to appoint counsel filed by petitioners GRANTED, and Virginia G. Villa, Esq., of St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin, is appointed to serve as counsel for the petitioners in this case.
Jan 12 2016	Record received from the U.S D.C District of Main The record is electronic and located on PACER, with the exception of SEALED records contained in 1 envelope.
Jan 15 2016	CIRCULATED.
Jan 19 2016	Brief of respondent United States filed. (Distributed)
Jan 25 2016	Brief amici curiae of National Indigenous Women's Resource Center, et al. filed. (Distributed)
Jan 25 2016	Brief amici curiae of Major Cities Chiefs and the International Brotherhood of Police Officers filed.
Jan 26 2016	Brief amici curiae of National Domestic Violence Hotline, et al. filed. (Distributed)
Jan 26 2016	Brief amicus curiae of Everytown for Gun Safety filed. (Distributed)
Jan 26 2016	Brief amici curiae of Child Justice, Inc., et al. filed. (Distributed)
Jan 26 2016	Brief amici curiae of Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, et al. filed. (Distributed)
Jan 26 2016	Brief amici curiae of Domestic Violence Legal Empowerment and Appeals Project, et al. filed. (Distributed)
Feb 18 2016	Reply of petitioners Stephen L. Voisine and William E. Armstrong, III filed. (Distributed)
Feb 29 2016	Argued. For petitioners: Virginia G. Villa, St. Croix Falls, Wis. (Appointed by this Court.) For respondent: Ilana H. Eisenstein, Assistant to the Solicitor General, Department of Justice, Washington, D. C.
Jun 27 2016	Adjudged to be AFFIRMED. Kagan, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Roberts, C. J., and Kennedy, Ginsburg, Breyer, and Alito, JJ., joined. Thomas, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Sotomayor, J., joined as to Parts I and II.
Jul 26 2016	Records from U.S.D.C. Dist. of Maine has been returned.
Jul 29 2016	JUDGMENT ISSUED

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Court will review census citizenship dispute this term – Amy Howe

Argument preview: Justices to examine rejection of contracts in bankruptcy – Ronald Mann

Argument preview: Justices to consider ability of government to challenge patents in administrative process – Ronald Mann
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This Week at the Court
The Supreme Court released orders from the February 15 conference on Tuesday; the justices added County of Maui, Hawaii v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund to next term's merits docket and summarily reversed in Moore v. Texas.
There is a possibility of opinions on Wednesday at 10 a.m.
On Tuesday, the justices heard oral argument in Return Mail Inc. v. United States Postal Service.
On Wednesday, the justices hear oral argument in Mission Product Holdings Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC.
On Friday, the justices will meet for their February 22 conference.
Major Cases
- Lamone v. Benisek
  In case in which the plaintiffs allege that a Maryland congressional district was gerrymandered to retaliate against them for their political views: (1) whether the various legal claims articulated by the three-judge district court are unmanageable; (2) whether the three-judge district court erred when, in granting plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment, it resolved disputes of material fact as to multiple elements of plaintiffs’ claims, failed to view the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, and treated as “undisputed” evidence that is the subject of still-unresolved hearsay and other evidentiary objections; and (3) whether the three-judge district court abused its discretion in entering an injunction despite the plaintiffs’ years-long delay in seeking injunctive relief, rendering the remedy applicable to at most one election before the next decennial census necessitates another redistricting.
- Kisor v. Wilkie
  Whether the Supreme Court should overrule Auer v. Robbins and Bowles v. Seminole Rock & Sand Co., which direct courts to defer to an agency’s reasonable interpretation of its own ambiguous regulation.
- Rucho v. Common Cause
  (1) Whether plaintiffs have standing to press their partisan gerrymandering claims; (2) whether plaintiffs’ partisan gerrymandering claims are justiciable; and (3) whether North Carolina’s 2016 congressional map is, in fact, an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.
- New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. City of New York, New York
  Whether New York City’s ban on transporting a licensed, locked and unloaded handgun to a home or shooting range outside city limits is consistent with the Second Amendment, the commerce clause and the constitutional right to travel.
- The American Legion v. American Humanist Association
  (1) Whether a 93-year-old memorial to the fallen of World War I is unconstitutional merely because it is shaped like a cross; (2) whether the constitutionality of a passive display incorporating religious symbolism should be assessed under the tests articulated in Lemon v. Kurtzman, Van Orden v. Perry, Town of Greece v. Galloway or some other test; and (3) whether, if the test from Lemon v. Kurtzman applies, the expenditure of funds for the routine upkeep and maintenance of a cross-shaped war memorial, without more, amounts to an excessive entanglement with religion in violation of the First Amendment.
- Gamble v. United States
  Whether the Supreme Court should overrule the “separate sovereigns” exception to the double jeopardy clause.
see all this term’s cases »
Recent Decisions
- Moore v. Texas The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals’ redetermination that Bobby James Moore does not have an intellectual disability and is thus eligible for the death penalty is inconsistent with the Supreme Court's 2017 decision in Moore v. Texas.
- Helsinn Healthcare S.A. v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. The sale of an invention to a third party who is obligated to keep the invention confidential may place the invention “on sale” for purposes of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, which bars a person from receiving a patent on an invention that was “in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention,” 35 U. S. C. §102(a)(1).
- New Prime Inc. v. Oliveira A court should determine whether the Federal Arbitration Act’s Section 1 exclusion for disputes involving the “contracts of employment” of certain transportation workers applies before ordering arbitration; here, truck driver Dominic Oliveira’s independent contractor operating agreement with New Prime Inc. falls within that exception.
- Stokeling v. United States The Armed Career Criminal Act’s elements clause encompasses a robbery offense that, like Florida’s law, requires the criminal to overcome the victim’s resistance.
- Culbertson v. Berryhill The Social Security Act’s fee cap of 25 percent of past-due benefits imposed on attorneys who successfully represent Title II benefit claimants in court proceedings applies only to fees for court representation and not to aggregate fees for both court and agency representation.
- Henry Schein Inc. v. Archer and White Sales Inc. The “wholly groundless” exception to the general rule that courts must enforce contracts that delegate threshold arbitrability questions to an arbitrator, not a court, is inconsistent with the Federal Arbitration Act and Supreme Court precedent.
see all this term’s cases »
Current Relists
- Altitude Express Inc. v. Zarda Whether the prohibition in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1), against employment discrimination “because of . . . sex” encompasses discrimination based on an individual’s sexual orientation.
- Baxter v. United States (1) Whether a conviction for robbery under Florida law qualifies as a “violent felony” within the Armed Career Criminal Act’s elements clause simply because it requires overcoming victim resistance, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit has held, or whether such a conviction fails to qualify as an ACCA “violent felony” because Florida caselaw confirms that overcoming victim resistance does not invariably requires the use of “violent force” as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has held; and (2) whether a conviction for any state robbery offense that includes “as an element” the common law requirement of overcoming “victim resistance” is categorically a “violent felony” within the ACCA’s elements clause if the offense has been specifically interpreted by state appellate courts to require only slight force to overcome resistance.
- Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia Whether discrimination against an employee because of sexual orientation constitutes prohibited employment discrimination “because of . . . sex” within the meaning of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2.
More Petitions »
Recent Special Features
Statistical Snapshot

Cases argued 44

Cases decided 11

Summary reversals 3

Merits cases granted to date 74

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Chief Justice Roberts at Belmont University

On February 6, Chief Justice John Roberts spoke at Belmont University College of Law with Alberto Gonzales, dean of the law school and former U.S. attorney general.

Peabody Award
Awarded the Peabody Award for excellence in electronic media.
Sigma Delta Chi
Awarded the Sigma Delta Chi deadline reporting award for online coverage of the Affordable Care Act decision.
National Press Club Award
Awarded the National Press Club's Breaking News Award for coverage of the Affordable Care Act decision.
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Awarded the Silver Gavel Award by the American Bar Association for fostering the American public’s understanding of the law and the legal system.
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Awarded the American Gavel Award for Distinguished Reporting About the Judiciary to recognize the highest standards of reporting about courts and the justice system.
Webby Award
Awarded the Webby Award for excellence on the internet.

Cases argued	44
Cases decided	11
Summary reversals	3
Merits cases granted to date	74

15
Conference

19
Orders
RETURN MAIL INC. V. U.S. POSTAL SERVICE (17-1594)

20
MISSION PRODUCT HOLDINGS INC. V. TEMPNOLOGY INC. (17-1657)
Opinions

22
Conference

25
Orders
MANHATTAN COMMUNITY ACCESS CORP. V. HALLECK (17-1702)

26
UNITED STATES V. HAYMOND (17-1672)
MONT V. UNITED STATES (17-8995)

27
THE AMERICAN LEGION V. AMERICAN HUMANIST ASSOCIATION (17-1717)