Over at Opinio Juris, Harlan Cohen makes the compelling argument that the current “customary international law” paradigm of the Alien Tort Statute is a poor fit for the statute, particularly in light of recent cases. He’s right: trying to divine whether international custom supports aiding and abetting liability or corporate liability is, frankly, silly. It [...]

The Supreme Court denied cert. yesterday in a widely-discussed case revolving around whether a private organization could place memorial crosses at the location of fatal accidents along the highway. The case is Utah Highway Patrol Association v. American Atheists. Justice Thomas filed a heated dissent from denial arguing that the Court should take the case [...]

John Elwood has posted a link to the end-of-term recap that he wrote for the Green Bag. As Elwood points out, the article is available for “a price commensurate with its worth.” I’ve probably said it before but I’ll say it again: I’m a big fan of the Green Bag and I’d recommend it to [...]

By now, you should all know that the Supreme Court handed down their long-awaited decision in Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 v. Holder. In short, the Chief Justice Roberts wrote for a nearly unanimous court holding that Section 5 was bad and faced several constitutional problems, but the Court decided to give Congress [...]

In US v. Navajo Nation, the Court affirmed their decision from six years ago to limit the royalties that the Native American tribe could collect from coal deals made several decades ago. Justice Souter filed a brief concurrence, printed here in its entirety: I am not through regretting that my position in United States v. [...]

The Supreme Court handed down an opinion today in Wyeth v. Levine (here). (29) Wyeth v. Levine Docket Filing | Questions Presented Case Number: 06-1249 On Appeal From: SC-VT Date Argued: November 3, 2008 Date Decided: March 4, 2009 6-3; Affirmed Majority: Stevens(m), Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer(c), Thomas(c) Dissent: Alito(d), Roberts, Scalia Days between argument [...]

The Supreme Court continued its quest to strike at Article III taxpayer standing today in its opinion in Summers v. Earth Island Institute (here). In 1968, the Court ruled 8-1 in Flast v. Cohen (here) that Florence Flast and others could file suit against the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare for violating the First [...]

As expected, the Supreme Court handed down several opinions today. Waddington v. Sarausad

The Supreme Court has long been criticized for poorly patrolling its lower courts for circuit splits. At least recently, the Supreme Court has issued relatively few summary judgements and summary reversals to clarify its recent decisions before they grow out of hand. The Court today did just that when they summarily reversed a decision of [...]

The Supreme Court released a Per Curiam opinion in Spears v. US clarifying its position on the crack/cocaine ratio that it took last year in Kimbrough v. US (2007). The Court ruled that district courts may “categorically disagree” with the advisory 100:1 crack/power cocaine ratio and may choose at will to implement a new standard [...]