Updated Most of you know that the Court hears cases during two-week sessions every month from October to April. During most sessions, the Court will hear 8-12 cases and majority opinion assignments are distributed equally for each session. In other words, if there are nine cases for the October session, each justice will write one [...]

In Scott v. Harris, the Court held 8-1 that when a car chase poses a “substantial and immediate risk” of injury to others, a police officer was acting reasonably when he terminated the chase by bumping the driver off the road. Justice Stevens didn’t agree with the Court and included this juicy bit in his [...]

Adam Liptak provides some new information on Justice Stevens’ retirement decision here. In short: he hasn’t decided yet.

The Associated Press is reporting that Justice Stevens has confirmed that he has hired only one clerk for OT10. Typically, Stevens hires all of his clerks at one time during the summer a year before their term begins. As always, its hard to read too much into this. Is it possible that this was a [...]

Judge Sotomayor’s frequent encounters with major league sports are well-documented. She also grew up near Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and is a life-long fan of the Yankees. Justice Stevens, the Court’s longest-serving member, is a long-time fan of another famous baseball team: the Chicago. He was present at the game at Wrigley Field in [...]

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 [...]

With the release of several opinions this week, the Court has now released 26 opinions for the term. Its time to take a look at some of the numbers: Opinions released: 26 Cases dismissed: 21 Oldest Case: Vanden v. Discover Bank, argued October 6, 2008 (141 day ago) Average number of days between arguments and [...]

(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 [...]

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 [...]