[UPDATE]: On February 25, 2009, I filed a brief as amicus curiae in this case. You can find it here. Last week, the court granted review in Ricci v. DeStefano. In 2003, the city of New Haven attempted to promote a number of firefighters to the ranks of captain and lieutenant based on a number [...]

Earlier this morning, the Supreme Court held in Herring v. United States that non-systematic negligence by police officers fall within the scope of the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule. I wrote about the case after oral arguments here. The decision of the conservative majority to significantly expand the scope of the good-faith exception to [...]

The Supreme Court released opinions in Herring v. US (opinion) and Oregon v. Ice (opinion). In Herring, the Court ruled, 5-4, that isolated incidents of negligence are enough to trigger the exclusionary rule and, perhaps more importantly, ‘unreasonableness’ does not necessary trigger the exclusion of evidence. Chief Justice Roberts authored the majority opinion and was [...]

The Court ruled this morning in Chambers v. US. (opinion) that failure to report for weekend confinement falls outside the scope of ‘violent felony’ as defined by the Armed Career Criminals Act (ACCA) [18 U.S.C §924(e)]. The ACCA requires a minimum 15-year sentence for individuals convicted of “three previous convictions . . . for a [...]

The Supreme Court granted review today in Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One v. Michael Mukasey, a case revolving around whether or not there is still sufficient justification to force municipalities to have their districts pre-approved by Congress. §5 of the Voting Rights Act, now 42 U.S.C 1973(c), forces certain ‘covered jurisdictions’ to have [...]

The Court today accepted four new cases including a potentially landmark voting rights case. The cases will almost certainly be heard in April and you can see the orders list here. The court put each of the cases on a expedited brief schedule in order to fit the cases on to the April session from [...]

Howard Friedman reports on his blog, Religion Clause, that a cert. petition has been filed in Oliver v. Quarterman, a case revolving around whether or not a juror’s use of the bible constitutes grounds for a mistrial. Khristian Oliver claims that a juror member’s reading of the bible during a case represents an ‘external influence,’ [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

The Supreme Court this week handed down a decision in Winters v. National Resources Defense Council, a case revolving around the Navy’s use of sonar and its impact on the environment. The Court ruled 7-2 that the Navy was justified in the use of a particular form of sonar and that the impact on the [...]