Category: Current

In BNSF Railway v Tyrrell, the Court addressed when courts have jurisdiction over corporate defendants. It held that “the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause does not permit a state to have an out-of-state corporation before its courts wh...

In Advocate Health Care Network v Stapleton, 581 U. S. ____ (2017), the Supreme Court held that church-affiliated hospitals qualify as a “church plan” under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). The Court’s decision, whi...

In Bristol-Myers Squibb Co v Superior Court of California, San Francisco County, 582 U.S. ____ (2017), the U.S. Supreme Court tightened the requirements for exercising personal jurisdiction. It held that California courts lacked specific jurisdictio...

In Turner v United States, 582 U. S. ____ (2017), the U.S. Supreme Court refused to grant new trials to several defendants convicted of the brutal 1984 murder of Catherine Fuller in Washington, D.C. The defendants had argued that prosecutors withhel...

In Weaver v Massachusetts, 582 U. S. ____ (2017), the U.S. Supreme Court held that “structural error” requires a showing of prejudice when raised via an ineffective assistance claim. The decision provides clarity regarding the intersection of the...

In Jae Lee v United States, 582 U. S. ____ (2017), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Korean immigrant received ineffective assistance of counsel when his attorney erroneously advised him that pleading guilty to a drug charge would not result in dep...

In Maslenjak v United States, 582 U. S. ____ (2017), the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that trivial misstatements made during naturalization proceedings can’t serve as grounds for revoking citizenship. Rather, the illegal act must have playe...

The U.S. Supreme Court again delved into the controversy surrounding the Trump Administration’s travel ban. The Court denied the Government’s motion seeking clarification of its June 26, 2017 order. However, it stayed the district court’s order...

In McWilliams v Dunn, 582 U. S. ____ (2017), the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a death penalty sentence imposed more than 30 years ago. By a vote of 5-4, the majority held that Alabama failed to provide access to the kind of expert assistance from a ...

In a per curium opinion in Hernandez v Mesa, 582 U. S. ____ (2017), the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and remanded the case for further proceedings. The closely-watched case involves the fatal s...