Tag Archives: scotus
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Permits Judicial Review Of Social Security Benefits Appeal Dismissal
After Ricky Lee Smith’s claim for disability benefits to the Social Security Administration was denied on merit after a hearing before an administrative law judge, he failed to timely appeal to the agency’s Appeals Council. The Council dismissed his appeal, and he sought judicial review of the dismissal in federal court. The district court denied review, stating that it lacked ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Clarifies “Clear Evidence” Standard For Failure-To-Warn Claims
Merck manufactured the drug Fosamax to combat osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. Merck’s scientists theorized that use of Fosamax might cause atypical femoral fractures, but the drug label approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1995 did not include a warning for those fractures. After 1995, evidence of such fractures started to develop. In 2008, Merck applied to the FDA ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Preserves Indian Treaty Hunting Rights
In 1868, the United States and the Crow Tribe entered into a treaty in which the U.S. got most of the Tribe’s land in modern-day Montana and Wyoming, in exchange for hunting rights in unoccupied land. In Herrera v. Wyoming, Tribe member Clayvin Herrera was charged with off-season hunting in the Bighorn National Forest, and Wyoming’s appellate courts affirmed ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Trademark Rights Survive Contract Rejection In Bankruptcy
Under bankruptcy law, a debtor may reject any executory contract, being a contract where performance remains due on both sides. In Mission Product Holdings, Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC, Tempnology entered into an executory contract giving Mission a license to use its trademarks. Tempnology then filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and asked the Bankruptcy Court to allow it to reject ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Permits iPhone Customers To Make Monopoly Claim Against Apple For App Store
Since 2008, Apple Inc. has established its App Store as the only lawful location that iPhone users could purchase apps for their devices. In Apple, Inc. v. Pepper, some of those iPhone customers sued Apple, alleging that it was using illegal monopolistic practices to overcharge them for the apps. At the initial stage of the litigation, Apple moved to ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: States Are Immune From Private Suits Filed In Other States
Gilbert Hyatt made millions from a technology patent he developed while living in California. Prior to receiving the patent, he moved to Nevada, which has no income tax. The Franchise Tax Board of California thought his move was a sham, and began auditing him. Hyatt sued the Board in Nevada, claiming that the Board had committed numerous torts during its ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Expands Limitations Period For Qui Tam Actions
Under the False Claims Act, a qui tam civil action must be brought either within six years of the alleged statutory violation, or three years after the U.S. official charged with responsibility to act knew or should have known the relevant facts, but not more than 10 years after the violation, whichever is later. The issue in Cochise Consultancy, ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Federal Tort Claims Act Does Not Shield The Tennessee Valley Authority From Tort Suits
Congress created the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) as a wholly owned public corporation of the United States to promote the economic development of the Tennessee Valley, and established that it could “sue and be sued in its corporate name.” One day, TVA workers were raising a power line that had fallen into the Tennessee River when Gary Thacker speedily drove ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Ambiguous Arbitration Provision Not Sufficient To Compel Class Arbitration
In a 2010 case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a court could not compel class arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act when the agreement was silent on that issue, since class arbitration was fundamentally different from “traditional individualized arbitration.” In Lamps Plus, Inc. v. Varela, the arbitration provision did not expressly state that the parties agreed to ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Refusal To Produce Vocational Data Not Preclusive Of Effect On Worker’s Social Security Claim
In Biestek v. Berryhill, Michael Biestek applied for Social Security disability benefits, claiming he could no longer work due to physical and mental ailments. His case was heard by an administrative law judge (ALJ), who analyzed whether there was other work Biestek might be able to perform. The Social Security Administration offered the testimony of a vocational expert as ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Rejects As-Applied Challenge To Execution By Pentobarbital
After being convicted of murder in Missouri, Russell Bucklew was set to be executed through the lethal injection of the sedative pentobarbital. He raised an as-applied challenge, arguing that he suffered from a medical condition that would result in extreme pain if he received the pentobarbital. Bucklew suggested that he be executed through nitrogen hypoxia instead, which had never been ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Supreme Court Broadens SEC’s Ability To Punish Disseminators Of False Information
In Lorenzo v. SEC, Lorenzo disseminated false information that his boss provided to him, and which he knew was false, regarding the value of a company pursuant to a debenture offering. The SEC charged him with having violated Rule 10b-5 of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which makes it unlawful to (a) “employ any device, scheme, or artifice to ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Foreign States Must Be Served On Home Soil With Process
To gain personal jurisdiction over a foreign sovereign under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, service of process must be accomplished, among other options, “by any form of mail requiring a signed receipt, to be addressed and dispatched . . . to the head of the ministry of foreign affairs of the foreign state concerned.” 28 U.S.C. sec. 1608(a)(3). In ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: National Park Service Cannot Regulate Navigable Waters
For decades, John Sturgeon drove a hovercraft on the Nation River to get to a moose hunting ground in Alaska. A portion of that river ran through the Yukon-Charley Preserve, which was a designated a conservation unit under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. The Act designated as public lands only and being part of such a unit ... Read More
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Additional Practical Analysis: Obduskey v. McCarthy & Holthus LLP
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously on March 20, 2019 in Obduskey v. McCarthy & Holthus LLP that a law firm hired to pursue a nonjudicial foreclosure under Colorado law was not a debt collector under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). In a nonjudicial foreclosure, notice to the parties and sale of the property occur outside ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Google Class Action Settlement In Danger Of Losing Standing
When a person enters search terms on Google, and then selects a web page that comes up in the search results, Google sends the host of the web page the search terms the person used to locate the page. Certain plaintiffs filed suit as a class, arguing that Google’s practice violated the Stored Communications Act. The parties settled, with ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Entity Conducting Non-judicial Foreclosure Not A Debt Collector Under Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
After Dennis Obduskey went into default on his mortgage that was secured against his home, the lender hired the law firm of McCarthy & Holthus, LLP to conduct a non-judicial foreclosure of the property. The firm sent Obduskey a notice of its intent to so act, and Obduskey requested that the firm provide him with verification of the debt as ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Manufacturers Have Duty To Warn Sailors Of Products That Require Asbestos Parts
In Air & Liquid System Corp. v. DeVries, a company manufactured equipment for three Navy ships that, as shipped, contained no asbestos, but required asbestos insulation or parts to work as intended. The Navy added the asbestos parts later when the equipment was installed on the ships. The equipment was put into use, releasing asbestos into the ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Fractured Court Upholds 1855 Indian Treaty Against State Gasoline Tax
A company owned by the Yakama Nation Indian tribe transported gasoline from Oregon to the tribe’s land in the State of Washington, using the public highways. Washington sought to tax those imports. The Yakama Nation objected, citing to an 1855 treaty with the federal government granting the Nation the right to use the public highways. The Washington state courts held ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Rejects Narrow Reading Of Immigration Detention Statute
Federal immigration law provides that certain criminal aliens may be detained by the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and not released until a determination on deportation is made. The statute in question, 8 U.S.C. § 1226(c)(1), directs the Secretary to arrest the alien “when the alien is released” from jail, and Section 1226(c)(2) mandates that the Secretary keep ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: No Copyright Infringement Suit Until A Copyright Is Registered
In Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, LLC, Fourth Estate licensed works to a news website. The parties cancelled the licensing agreement, but the website did not remove the works. Fourth Estate sued for copyright infringement under the Copyright Act, but its lawsuit was dismissed because Fourth Estate had only applied to register the works—the Register of ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Lost Wages Awarded Under Railroad Retirement Tax Act Are Compensation Subject To IRS Taxation
Michael Loos was injured while working for BNSF Railway Company. He sued his employer, and after trial was awarded $85,000 in pain and suffering, $11,212.78 in medical expenses, and $30,000 in lost wages as a result of him not being able to work from the injury. BNSF then argued that the lost wages award was “compensation . . . for ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Copyright Act’s Award Of Costs Limited To Those Available Under Typical Bill Of Costs
Oracle accused Rimini Street, Inc. of violating various copyrights, and won at trial. Under the Copyright Act, the district court awarded Oracle $12.8 million in litigation expenses under the Act. The district court acknowledged that it was awarding Oracle costs that were not within the six designated categories set forth under 28 U.S.C. secs. 1821 and 1920, ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Limits Immunity Afforded Under The International Organizations Immunity Act Of 1945
Originally, the International Organizations Immunity Act of 1945 (IOIA) granted foreign corporations virtually absolute immunity from suit. In 1952, the State Department adopted a more restrictive view, carving out commercial acts from that immunity. Congress then passed the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) in 1976, which specifically excepted commercial activity with a sufficient nexus in the United States ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Eighth Amendment Bars Execution Of Defendant Without “Rational Understanding” Of The Reason For Execution
After he was sentenced to death for killing a police officer, Vernon Madison suffered a series of strokes and was diagnosed with dementia. In a prior series of appeals by Madison, the U.S. Supreme Court held that his mere inability to remember his crime did not establish that Madison was incompetent to be executed. When his execution was rescheduled on ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Failure To File Appeal Is Constitutionally Deficient Even After Defendant Signs Appeal Waiver
In Garza v. Idaho, Garza signed two plea agreements for state crimes, each of which included a waiver of his appeal rights. After he was sentenced, Garza told his counsel that he wanted to appeal. His counsel did not file any appeal, telling Garza that his waivers made any such appeal “problematic.” After the deadline to appeal passed, Garza ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Deadline To Appeal Class Decertification Not Subject To Equitable Tolling
Under Rule 23(f) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, a party has 14 days to file with the federal circuit appeals court a petition for permission to appeal an order certifying or decertifying a class action. In Nutraceutical Corp. v. Lambert, when the district court decertified his class action, Troy Lambert chose to file a motion for ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Judges Cannot Vote On Cases After Death
In Yovino v. Rizo, the Ninth Circuit heard the case en banc (with 11 then-sitting judges) to restate that circuit’s interpretation of the Equal Pay Act. Judge Stephen Reinhardt authored the majority opinion that was joined by six of the judges, including Reinhardt himself. The other five judges filed concurrences that reached a similar result but under different ... Read More
TAGGED: scotus, Yovino v. Rizo, Equal Pay Act, appointed for life
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Eighth Amendment Applies To State Civil Forfeitures
Tyson Timbs pleaded guilty to dealing in heroin in Indiana, for which the maximum fine was $10,000. The State sought to use civil forfeiture to seize his SUV, which Timbs bought for $42,000, which was allegedly used to move the heroin. The state trial court denied the State’s request as violative of the Eighth Amendment’s protection against excessive fines, but ... Read More
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Court Again Finds Man Ineligible For Death Penalty Due To Intellectual Disability
In 2017, the Supreme Court held in Moore v. Texas, 581 U.S. ___ (2017), that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals used a flawed analysis to determine that Bobby James Moore was not intellectually disabled, and thus eligible to receive the death penalty. In part, the flaw was that the Texas court focused on Moore’s adaptive strengths instead of ... Read More