At 10AM on September 9th, the Supreme Court will sit for a special rehearing of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (08-205). The case will be the first heard by Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor––and it should be one that she feels very comfortable with. Back in May, the New York Times noted that Sotomayor, who [...]

It now appears as though the much-anticipated case al-Marri v. Spagone (08-368) won’t be heard by the Supreme Court. al-Marri has gotten a taste of some change he can believe in, courtesy of the Obama administration. The United States Circuit Court for the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled en banc last June that [...]

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear its first case of the new term on Monday, October 6. The first case of the day will be Altria Group and Phillip Morris v. Good, a case that centers around whether a suit filed by the state of Maine against Phillip Morris and others for deceptive advertising [...]

The Supreme Court released an orders list today (here) and they accepted three new cases. Carcieri v. Kempthorne – Whether or not the federal government must afford Indian Tribes that are not officially recognized the same protections they offer officially recognized tribes. (Petition for Cert.) Arizona v. Gant – The Court accepted review on this [...]

There is a common consensus among students of the Court that the 2006 Term was one of the most controversial and breathtaking in recent memory. Not since Bush v. Gore have Supreme Court Justices disagreed with each other so sharply. At this point last year (one week before the term begins), the Court had already [...]

After being invited by the Court, the Solicitor General has filed an amicus brief in Quanta Computers v. LG Electronics. The Court requested the opinion of the US in the cert. stage of this case on April 16, 2007 and the Solictor General filed his brief on August 24, 2007. Also of note, Dell, Inc. [...]

The Petitioner’s Briefs have been submitted in Al-Odah v. US and Boumediene v. Bush, the two high-profile detainee cases that the court has accepted for review. Thanks to SCOTUSblog, everyone can access the Al-Odah briefs here (Al-Odah) and here (El-Banna) and the Boumediene brief here. I’ll use Al-Odah for the majority of my analysis but [...]

On October 9, 2007, the Court will hear oral arguments in Watson v. US. Watson revolves around the question of whether or not the presence of a firearm in a drug exchange consitutes ‘use’ as it applies to sentencing provisions. If an individual is convicted of using a firearm within the context of a drug [...]

On October 3, 2007, the Court will hear oral arguments in US v. Santos. From the 1970′s through the 1990′s, Efrain Santos operated an illegal lottery in north-west Indiana. He was convicted of running an illegal gambling ring and laundering that money through his payment of runners and money collectors who were involved in his [...]

On October 2, 2007, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Kimbrough v. US. Kimbrough centers around the 1986 federal law that imposes a “100:1 crack/powder ratio.” Under the law, a defendant caught with one amount of crack (rock) should receive a sentence similar to that of a defendant who was caught with a [...]