In each of the last few years, the Court has released 2-4 cases over the first two days of arguments in the new year. For this term, those days are January 12 and January 13. Look out for cases to come down then and again the week later.

(Nearly) every majority opinion features a short introduction before it jumps into the standard I, II, III, IV, etc structure. Some Justices simply introduce the facts very briefly (Scalia), while others discuss the procedural history (Thomas), and others discuss the underlying issue in the case (Souter.) I took a look at all of the cases [...]

The use footnotes has been a topic of quiet conversation around the judiciary for some time now. One group of Judges and practitioners (and an even larger percentage of students) find them to be burdensome and often unnecessary. Others think they serve as useful guides and make opinions more readable. Footnotes largely come in two [...]

On Monday, in response to a complaint from the United States Department of Justice alleging that Governor Milorad “Rod” Blagojevich had solicited bribes and engaged in a massive conspiracy to commit fraud, the Illinois House voted 113-0 to begin impeachment proceedings. Blagojevich has not yet been indicted. On December 10th, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid [...]

With the release today of Altria Group v. Good, the court has left several high-profile cases yet to be decided. Bear in mind that over the last few terms the average number of days between argument and decision has hovered around 90 and, with only 70 days having passed since the start of the term, [...]

The Court today handed down an Order’s List (here) that, among other things, granted, vacated and remanded a detainee case and struck down another petition questioning Barack Obama’s qualifications to be President. In Rasul v. Myers, a group of individuals who had been held in Gutantanamo filed suit claiming inappropriate use of torture and “religious [...]

The Supreme Court handed down an opinion today in Altria Group v. Good (opinion here) which will likely open the door for state-level suits against false advertising by cigarette companies. Justice Stevens penned the majority opinion and was joined by Justices Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer. Justice Thomas filed a dissenting opinion that was joined [...]

Traditionally, on the Monday after the last day of oral arguments in December, the Court hands down 2-4 opinions to end the calendar year. Well, that day is tomorrow. OT 07 – 3 cases OT 06 – 2 cases OT 05 – 2 cases OT 04 – 4 cases OT 03 – 2 cases OT [...]

In 1957, former-law clerk William Rehnquist wrote an exposé in US News about the role of clerks on the Supreme Court. Adam Liptak mentioned (here) the former-clerk’s article in relation to a recent study from the DePaul Law Review (here). The surge in interest over the case inspired US News to repost the article online [...]

Lawrence Lessig is on his way back to Harvard and even though I don’t normally post about professors moving from one school to another, this one seems like a particularly important move. Lessig gained popularity at Stanford for his work on intellectual property rights and he carries more popularity with non-legal thinkers than almost any [...]