Month: June 2016

In RJR Nabisco, Inc v The European Community, the U.S. Supreme Court limited the reach of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). By a vote of 4-3 (Justice Sonia Sotomayor having recused herself), the Court held that the federa...

In Brady v Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), the U.S. Supreme Court held that prosecutors must fully disclose to the accused all exculpatory evidence in their possession. The Court’s holding is commonly known as the “Brady Rule.”   The Fac...

In Utah v Strieff, the U.S. Supreme Court held that evidence seized incident to a lawful arrest on an outstanding warrant need not be suppressed just because the warrant was discovered during an investigatory stop, later found to be unlawful. The 5-3...

In US v Bryant 579 ___ (2016), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the inclusion of tribal-court convictions as predicate offenses under a federal domestic violence law targeting repeat offenders does not violate the Sixth Amendment’s right to counsel...

Puerto Rico is having a bad month, at least as far as the U.S. Supreme Court is concerned. In Commonwealth of Puerto Rico v Franklin California Tax-Free Trust 579 U.S. ___ (2016), the justices struck down a law that would have allowed public utilitie...

In Reynolds v Sims, 377 U.S. 533 (1964), the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Alabama’s legislative apportionment scheme. By a vote of 8-1, the justices held that the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause requires that both houses of a ...

Enacted in the early days of World War I, the Selective Service Act of 1917 authorized the country’s first military draft. By the conclusion of the war, 24 million men had registered for military service.   At the end of the Civil War, t...

In Williams v Pennsylvania, the U.S. Supreme Court held that judges must recuse themselves in cases that they once prosecuted 579 U.S. ___ (2016). By a vote of 5-3, the justices held that a Pennsylvania judge’s participation in a death penalty case...

In Commonwealth of Puerto Rico v Sanchez Valle 579 U.S ___ (2016), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the federal government are not separate sovereigns for purposes of the Double Jeopardy Clause of the United States...

The Pendleton Civil Service Act, which was enacted in 1883, established a merit-based system for federal employment. The landmark legislation effectively ended the controversial “spoils system,” which was largely based on political party affiliat...