Category Archives: Supreme Court
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Client Alert: Dwight Deloatch v. Robin Deloatch
The District of Columbia Court of Appeals recently highlighted a United States Supreme Court decision that went largely unnoticed in the real estate industry. As the highlighted rule stems from the highest court in the land, real estate practitioners in all jurisdictions should take note. In Dwight Deloatch v. Robin Deloatch, Mr. Deloatch noted an appeal nearly four (4) years after ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Upholds Limit on Habeas Corpus Review of Immigration Claim
An immigrant subject to expedited removal can argue for asylum based on a “credible fear of persecution” if they are returned to their country of origin, under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act. However, the Act states that federal courts may not review a determination that an immigrant seeking asylum lacks such fear, pursuant to a writ of ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Disgorgement Is An Equitable Remedy Available To The SEC
The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 permits the Securities and Exchange Commission to seek civil penalties and “equitable relief” in civil suits against those who violate securities laws. In the prior case of Kokesh v. SEC, 581 U.S. ___ (2017), the Court held that disgorgement was a “penalty” under the applicable statute of limitations for SEC enforcement actions, but declined ... Read More
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SCOTUS Decision: Court Preserves DACA Program… For Now
The case of Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California concerned the Trump administration’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program initiated by the Obama administration. DACA was created in 2012 to allow certain children who enter the United States illegally to apply for a two-year forbearance of removal. Approximately 700,000 people had ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Failure to Elicit Abusive Childhood Constituted Ineffective Assistance of Counsel
In order to prove ineffective assistance of counsel under Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984), a defendant must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that his counsel’s representation fell below an objective standard of reasonableness, and there was a reasonable probability that the result of the proceedings would have been different but for counsel’s deficient performance. In Andrus ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: New Gas Pipeline Under Appalachian Trail Allowed To Proceed
In U.S. Forest Service v. Cowpasture River Preservation Association, the issue was whether the U.S. Forest Service had the authority to grant a right-of-way easement about 600 feet underneath a portion of the Appalachian Trail for the construction of a new natural gas pipeline. The Leasing Act gave the Forest Service authority to grant easements over lands that it administrated, ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Gay and Transgender Employees Are Protected Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act
Bostock v. Clayton County consisted of several cases in which a long-time employee was terminated solely for being gay or transgender. Those employees sued under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which makes it unlawful to fire an employee “because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin,” arguing that employment discrimination on account of ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Strengthens Prison Litigation Reform Act’s “Three-Strikes Rule”
The Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 prevents a prisoner from bringing suit in forma pauperis (“IFP”) after having three or more prior suits dismissed for being frivolous, malicious, or failing to state a claim while he or she was imprisoned—called the “three-strikes rule.” Inmate Arthur Lomax sought IFP status in a fourth suit he brought as an inmate, which ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Declines to Preclude Nonsignatories from Being Able to Enforce Arbitration Provision
At the heart of GE Energy Power Conversion France SAS, Corp. v. Outokumpu Stainless USA, LLC is a construction contract with an arbitration clause. One of the signatories to that contract engaged a subcontractor to do part of that construction. When the subcontractor’s work allegedly failed, the owner sued the subcontractor. The subcontractor moved to dismiss the case and compel ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Upholds Puerto Rico’s Financial Oversight and Management Board Against Appointments Clause Challenge
After Puerto Rico suffered a fiscal crisis starting in 2006, Congress enacted the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act, creating a Financial Oversight and Management Board that would be able to file bankruptcy on behalf of Puerto Rico or its instrumentalities, among other things, to regain financial stability. The members of the Board were to be appointed by ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Motion to Amend Judgment in Habeas Proceeding is Not a Separate Habeas Petition
After Gregory Banister was sentenced to 30 years in prison in Texas state court, and after he had exhausted his appeals in the Texas courts, he filed a petition for habeas relief under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, arguing, among other things, ineffective assistance of counsel. The district court denied the petition. Banister then filed a ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Beneficiaries Receiving Full Benefits Have No Standing To Challenge ERISA Plan Governance
U.S. Bank maintains a retirement plan for its employees. Two of those beneficiaries, who had retired, were entitled to a fixed payment each month, and received every such payment. Regardless, they sued their former employer under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, arguing that the plan had been mismanaged and should be re-payed about $750 million. The Eighth ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Enlarges Scope of Judicial Review of Orders Under the Convention Against Torture
Nidal Khalid Nasrallah received some stolen property, which made him eligible to be removed under federal immigration law. Nasrallah argued to the immigration court that he should not be removed to his home country of Lebanon under the Convention Against Torture because it was likely that, as a member of the Druze religion, he would be tortured upon his return ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Declines to Suspend COVID-19 Restrictions on Church Worship in California
The Governor of California issued an executive order to limit the spread of COVID-19, which in part limited attendance at places of worship to 25% of building capacity or 100 people, whichever is less. Several churches challenged that order, and asked the courts to enter an injunction staying its effect during the course of the litigation due to its First ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Republic of Sudan Exposed to $4.3 Billion In Punitive Damages
Victims of an al Qaeda terrorist attack sued the Republic of Sudan under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which carved a specific exception under 28 U.S.C. sec. 1605(a)(7) for states that sponsored terrorism. When the victims filed suit, Section 1605(a)(7) did not permit recovery of punitive damages. Then In 2008, Congress amended FSIA through the National Defense Authorization Act, which ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Refines Defense Preclusion Doctrine In Trademark Suit
Lucky Brand Dungarees, Inc. sells clothing using trademarks involving the word “Lucky.” Marcel Fashions Group, Inc. received a federal trademark for “Get Lucky,” and used that to sell their own clothing line. Inevitably, decades of litigation ensued between the two groups as they each defended their respective “Lucky” turf. In the first round of litigation, the parties signed a settlement ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Curtails Ninth Circuit’s Digression from Issues Presented By the Parties
Evelyn Sineneng-Smith was convicted of violating 8 U.S.C. sec. 1324(a)(1)(A)(iv) for “encouraging or inducing an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such . . . is or will be in violation of the law,” and of sec. 1324(a)(1)(B)(i) for doing so “for the purpose of commercial ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Controversial Bridge Lane Closures by Gov. Christie’s Campaign Not Fraud
When the mayor of Fort Lee, N.J. refused to support Gov. Chris Christie’s 2013 re-election campaign, the campaign decided to punish the mayor by shutting down two of the three lanes on the George Washington Bridge that were reserved for Fort Lee commuters into New York under the guise of a “traffic study.” That resulted in four days of gridlock ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Congress Ordered to Pay Unprofitable Insurers Under the Affordable Care Act
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act contained a program under which, each year, profitable insurance plans “shall” pay an amount into the government, and the government “shall” make payments to unprofitable plans, thus limiting risk for those insurers who participated in the online exchanges. The Act did not appropriate any funds for the yearly payments. Over several years, the ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Annotations of State Law Are Not Entitled to Copyright Protection
The Official Code of Georgia Annotated consists of the text of all of Georgia’s laws plus a set of non-binding annotations with summaries of opinions regarding each statute issued by the courts or the state attorney general. The annotations were drafted by a private company under contract with Georgia’s Code Revision Commission, which controlled the product in exacting detail. The ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court’s Dismissal of Gun Rights Case as Moot Sparks Lengthy Dissent
New York City enacted a law preventing the transport of firearms. Gun owners challenged that law on the basis that it prohibited them from moving firearms to a second home or shooting range outside the city in violation of the Second Amendment. The lower courts denied relief, and the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari. In response, the city amended its ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Refashions Clean Water Act’s Permit Requirement
Under the Clean Water Act, a party must obtain a permit before adding any “pollutant,” broadly defined from “any point source” to “navigable waters.” In County of Maui, Hawaii v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund, Maui’s sewage plant was pumping millions of gallons of partially treated sewer water into the ground each day, which eventually wound up in the Pacific Ocean. Environmental ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Profits Can Be Awarded In Trademark Infringement Case Without Willfulness
Section 1117(a) of the U.S. Code requires proof that a trademark infringer acted willfully in order for a court to award lost profits for trademark dilution under Section 1125(c) of the Lanham Act, but does not mention trademark infringement. In Romag Fasteners, Inc. v. Fossil Group, Inc., Romag sued Fossil for trademark infringement under Section 1125(a). The jury did not ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Upholds EPA’s Superfund Cleanup Plan Against Challenge
For decades, a copper smelter in Montana contaminated approximately 300 square miles of land with arsenic and lead. The Environmental Protection Agency, working with the current owner of the smelter, instituted a cleanup plan under Superfund. Unhappy with the plan and its progress, nearby landowners filed suit in state court, lodging common law claims for damage to their properties, as ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Rejects Judicial Review Of USPTO Inter Partes Determinations
By statute, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office can be asked to conduct an inter partes review to reconsider the validity of an earlier-granted patent claim. However, 35 U.S.C. sec. 315(b) requires that a request for inter partes review must be brought within one year after suit against the requesting party for patent infringement. The Office’s determination of whether to ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Abolishes Non-Unanimous Criminal Convictions
The Supreme Court had previously ruled in Apodaca v. Oregon, 406 U.S. 404 (1972), that the Sixth Amendment did not forbid non-unanimous verdicts in state criminal trials. Today, only Louisiana and Oregon still permit non-unanimous convictions. In Ramos v. Louisiana, a 6-3 majority of the Court, in an opinion by Justice Gorsuch, discarded that precedent and held that the Sixth ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Stays District Court’s Order Affecting Wisconsin’s Election
Despite the ongoing danger of COVID-19, Wisconsin decided to go forward with its election on April 7. Since voters would be discouraged from arriving en masse at the polls, it was expected that absentee voting would surge. Various political groups filed suit to ease the burden of absentee voting. Although Wisconsin law required absentee votes to be received by 8 ... Read More
TAGGED: scotus, SCOTUS opinion, COVID-19
SCOTUS Opinion: Age Discrimination Need Not Be The But-For Cause To Be Actionable
In Babb v. Wilkie, a clinical pharmacist at a Veterans Affairs medical center alleged that he suffered various adverse personnel actions due to age discrimination. Under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, personnel actions affecting individuals 40 and over must be made “free from any discrimination based on age.” The VA offered legitimate reasons for its actions and ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Permits Routine Stops Of Vehicles Whose Owners Have Revoked Licenses
While on routine patrol, a Kansas deputy ran the plate of a vehicle and discovered that its owner, Charles Glover, Jr., had a revoked driver’s license. On that basis alone, the deputy pulled over the vehicle, assuming, correctly, that Glover was driving it. Glover was charged with driving as a habitual violator and Glover appealed, arguing that the deputy lacked ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: “Safe-Berth” Clause In Maritime Contract Creates A Warranty of Safety
In Citgo Asphalt Refining Company v. Frescati Shipping Company, a punctured hull in a tanker caused a huge oil spill, which the owner of the tanker and the United States then paid millions to clean up. Those parties then sued the groups who chartered the tanker to recover those costs under a clause in the maritime contract that required the ... Read More