Williams v. Pennsylvania

Editor's Note :

Williams v. Pennsylvania

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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Feb. 2019

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Conference of February 15, 2019

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Holiday

Orders

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

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

Opinions

Conference

Orders

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

UNITED STATES V. HAYMOND (17-1672)

MONT V. UNITED STATES (17-8995)

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

Docket No.	Op. Below	Argument	Opinion	Vote	Author	Term
15-5040	Pa.	Feb 29, 2016 Tr.Aud.	Jun 9, 2016	5-3	Kennedy	OT 2015

Holding: Under the Due Process Clause, there is an impermissible risk of actual bias when a judge earlier had significant, personal involvement as a prosecutor in a critical decision regarding the defendant’s case.

Judgment: Vacated and remanded, 5-3, in an opinion by Justice Kennedy on June 9, 2016. Chief Justice Roberts filed a dissenting opinion, in which Justice Alito joined. Justice Thomas filed a dissenting opinion.

Opinion analysis: Another step toward constitutionalizing recusal obligations (Richard M. Re)
Argument analysis: Seeking a recusal rule that the Justices can live with (Richard M. Re)
Argument preview: When must a prosecutor-turned-judge recuse from a capital case? (Richard M. Re)

Date	Proceedings and Orders (key to color coding)
May 7 2015	Application (14A1161) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from May 19, 2015 to July 18, 2015, submitted to Justice Alito.
May 12 2015	Application (14A1161) granted by Justice Alito extending the time to file until June 18, 2015.
Jun 12 2015	Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due July 31, 2015)
Jul 24 2015	Brief of respondent Pennsylvania in opposition filed.
Aug 7 2015	Reply of petitioner Terrance Williams filed.
Aug 13 2015	DISTRIBUTED for Conference of September 28, 2015.
Oct 1 2015	Motion to proceed in forma pauperis and petition for a writ of certiorari GRANTED.
Nov 6 2015	The time to file the joint appendix and petitioner's brief on the merits is extended to and including November 30, 2015.
Nov 6 2015	The time to file respondent's brief on the merits is extended to and including January 13, 2016.
Nov 10 2015	Consent to the filing of amicus curiae briefs in support of either party or of neither party received from counsel for the petitioner.
Nov 13 2015	Consent to the filing of amicus curiae briefs in support of either party or of neither party received from counsel for the respondent.
Nov 30 2015	Joint appendix filed. (Statement of costs filed.)
Nov 30 2015	Brief of petitioner Terrance Williams filed.
Dec 7 2015	Brief amicus curiae of Constitutional Accountability Center filed.
Dec 7 2015	Brief amici curiae of Former Judges with Prosecutorial Experience filed.
Dec 7 2015	Brief amici curiae of The Ethics Bureau at Yale, et al. filed.
Dec 7 2015	Brief amicus curiae of The American Bar Association filed.
Dec 7 2015	Brief amici curiae of Former Appellate Court Jurists filed.
Dec 7 2015	Brief amici curiae of Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, and Justice at Stake filed.
Dec 7 2015	Brief amici curiae of The American Civil Liberties Union, and The ACLU of Pennsylvania filed.
Dec 7 2015	Brief amicus curiae of The American Academy of Appellate Lawyers filed.
Dec 23 2015	SET FOR ARGUMENT ON Monday, February 29, 2016
Jan 8 2016	Record received from the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania Eastern District. (2 Boxes)
Jan 13 2016	Brief of respondent Pennsylvania filed. (Distributed)
Jan 15 2016	CIRCULATED.
Feb 11 2016	Record received from the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. (2 Boxes)
Feb 12 2016	Reply of petitioner Terrance Williams filed. (Distributed)
Feb 29 2016	Argued. For petitioner: Stuart B. Lev, Assistant Federal Defender, Philadelphia, Pa. For respondent: Ronald Eisenberg, Deputy District Attorney, Philadelphia, Pa.
Jun 9 2016	Judgment VACATED and case REMANDED. Kennedy, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan, JJ., joined. Roberts, C. J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Alito, J., joined. Thomas, J., filed a dissenting opinion.
Jun 9 2016	MANDATE ISSUED.
Jul 12 2016	JUDGMENT ISSUED
Jul 12 2016	MANDATE ISSUED
Aug 16 2016	Records from the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has been returned. (4 Boxes)

Featured Posts

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 will release orders from the February 15 conference on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. There is a possibility of opinions on Wednesday at 10 a.m.
On Tuesday, the justices hear 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
- 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 »
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Cases argued 43

Cases decided 10

Summary reversals 2

Merits cases granted to date 73

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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.
Silver Gavel Award
Awarded the Silver Gavel Award by the American Bar Association for fostering the American public’s understanding of the law and the legal system.
American Gavel Award
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.

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)

Cases argued	43
Cases decided	10
Summary reversals	2
Merits cases granted to date	73