Category Archives: Supreme Court

Featured Case: The EPA and Greenhouse Gases

Posted March 29th, 2013
Mathew Planalp
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“To be sure, the stakes here are high. The underlying policy questions and the outcome of this case are undoubtedly matters of exceptional importance.” - D.C. Circuit Judges Sentelle, Rogers, and Tatel, Coalition for Responsible Regulation, Inc. v. Environmental Protection Agency, No. 09-1322. Last June, the D.C. Circuit upheld the EPA’s new emissions restrictions for [...]
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What’s New on the U.S. Supreme Court’s Criminal Docket for the Rest of the 2012 Term

Posted January 2nd, 2013
Shon R. Hopwood
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The Supreme Court’s 2012 Term started big and it will finish big. The finish to this Term will include decisions regarding same-sex marriage, affirmative action, and the Voting Rights Act cases. And if that wasn’t enough, there are a number of interesting criminal cases that the Court will decide before the end of June. There [...]
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SCOTUSblog’s Stephen Wermiel Posts About Summer At The Supreme Court

Posted August 27th, 2012
Shon R. Hopwood
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Law Professor Stephen Wermiel has a great post over at SCOTUSblog on what happens at the Supreme Court during the summer. Professor Wermiel notes that: In recent years, the Court has received between 7500 and 8000 cert. petitions per year: from July 2011 to July 2012, for example, 7712 new petitions were filed. There were 7857 [...]
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Chief Justice Roberts Honors Court Clerk William K. Suter

Posted July 3rd, 2012
Shon R. Hopwood
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As SCOTUSblog noted yesterday, Chief Justice Roberts, after reading his most famous opinion, issued a public recognition to Supreme Court Clerk William K. Suter for his 50 years in government service. Fifty years at anything is impressive, but Clerk Suter’s dedication to the law is unsurpassed. Clerk Suter has played a profound role at the Court, including syncing [...]
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Road to Washington

Posted June 19th, 2012
Mathew Planalp
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To quote my Constitutional Law professor, G. Michael Fenner, “it’s about power.” Last month, Cockle Printing filed two petitions for writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court: Wyoming v. USDA, et al., and Colorado Mining Association v. USDA, et al. [The Court has vided these cases at: 11-1378 and 11-1384, respectively]. Petitioners asked whether [...]
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Absolute Immunity: The Supreme Court Punts on Whether Members of the Bush Administration Are Liable for Torture

Posted June 12th, 2012
Shon R. Hopwood
Can our public officials arrest and torture American citizens without fear of accountability? The answer is a resounding yes. Yesterday, the Supreme Court denied the petition filed on behalf of Jose Padilla, an American citizen who was arrested by the FBI in 2002 at Chicago O’Hare airport. The U.S. Government designated Padilla as an enemy combatant [...]
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Unprecedented and Unbounded: The Wily Paul Clement

Posted June 5th, 2012
Shon R. Hopwood
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While reading my first-year Constitutional Law textbook, I noticed a line that made me pause mid-sip from a cup of coffee. I reread the line written by Chief Justice John Roberts, and I stopped, again. No, can’t be. The line comes from a 2007 case called United Haulers Ass’n, Inc. v. Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Management [...]
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The U.S. Supreme Court’s Use of Docket Numbers

Posted May 29th, 2012
Shon R. Hopwood
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There are innumerable details about the U.S. Supreme Court that many, including practitioners, simply do not think about; mostly, because it just doesn’t come up that often. About twice a year, I will receive a call from an attorney who is planning to file for certiorari, but who is waiting on the Court to rule on their motion for [...]
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Does Tasering a Pregnant Woman Over a Speeding Ticket Violate the Fourth Amendment?

Posted May 15th, 2012
Shon R. Hopwood
Adam Liptak at the New York Times has this great piece about a petition for certiorari asking the Court to grant a case involving some Seattle police officers, who tasered a pregnant woman because she refused to sign a speeding ticket. The police officers won on qualified immunity grounds in a divided en banc decision from the [...]
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A Law School Student’s View of the Affordable Care Act Case and the Claims Made By Some in the Legal Academy

Posted April 3rd, 2012
Shon R. Hopwood
If one had listened to the legal academy, outside of Professor Randy Barnett, one would think that the challenge to the Affordable Care Act was not only silly, but frivolous. That is what I repeatedly read over the two years leading up to the Supreme Court’s oral arguments (and even after them). As someone who [...]
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