The Supreme Court is expected to release a few opinions this week. Ordinarily, the Court has released between 3 and 5 opinions in the week following its last oral arguments. The oldest case on the docket is Santos v. US and it was argued in early October. Department of Revenue v. Davis (November) and US [...]

The Supreme Court today issued an orders list and rejected eleven Baze claims. Justice Stevens wrote brief opinions (here and here) relating to two of the cases where he said: While I agree with the Court’s decision to deny certiorari in this case, it is appropriate to emphasize, as I have in the past, see, [...]

The Supreme Court handed down one of the most high-profile decisions of its term, the lethal injection case Baze v. Rees. The Court upheld Kentucky’s use of the execution method, holding that “that petitioners have not shown that the risk of an inadequate dose of the first drug is substantial.” Chief Justice Roberts wrote the [...]

The Supreme Court today handed down an opinion in Begay v. US in which it held that drunk driving is not a violent felony as defined by particular sentencing regulations. Justice Breyer authored a six-Justice majority opinion that concluded that drunk driving does not fall into a category of behavior that “otherwise involves conduct that [...]

On March 31, the Court accepted cert. in Pleasant Grove v. Summum. The case revolves around the right of a Summum group to erect a monument of the Seven Aphorisms in a City Park in Pleasant Grove, Utah that already has a similarly-sized monument to the Ten Commandments. A park in Pleasant Grove, Utah features [...]