Category: Current

In Pavan v Smith, 582 U. S. ____ (2017), the U.S. Supreme Court reversed an Arkansas State Supreme Court decision that prevented same-sex married couples from having both spouses’ names listed on their children’s birth certificates. The Court’s...

The U.S. Supreme Court will allow part of President Donald Trump’s travel ban to proceed. In Trump v. International Refugee Assistance Project, 582 U. S. ____ (2017), the Court held that individuals from affected countries who have “a credible c...

Now that it’s back at full strength, the Supreme Court is no longer shying away from the blockbusters. The justices recently agreed to consider Gill v. Whitford, which involves partisan gerrymandering.   The term “gerrymander” dates ...

In Packingham v. North Carolina, 582 U. S. ____ (2017), the U.S. Supreme Court held that a North Carolina law prohibiting registered sex offenders from accessing social media runs afoul of the First Amendment. The Court’s decision, which hig...

In Matal v Tam (formerly Lee v. Tam), 582 U. S. ____ (2017), the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal ban on registering disparaging trademarks. According to the unanimous Court, the Lanham Act provision prohibiting the registration of di...

In Sessions v. Morales-Santana, 582 U. S. ____ (2017), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a citizenship rule favoring unwed mothers over unwed fathers violated the U.S. Constitution. Not surprisingly, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a long-time champion ...

In Henson v. Santander Consumer USA, Inc., 582 U. S. ____ (2017), the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that a company may collect debts that it purchased for its own account without triggering the statutory definition of a "debt collector" under t...

In Honeycutt v United States, 581 U. S. ____ (2017), the U.S. Supreme Court held that joint and several liability does not apply to criminal asset forfeiture under the under the Controlled Substances Act. The Court’s unanimous opinion resolved a s...

In Town of Chester v Laroe Estates, Inc, 581 U. S. ____ (2017), the U.S. Supreme Court held that a litigant seeking to intervene as of right under Federal Rule Of Procedure 24(a)(2) must meet the requirements of Article III standing if the intervenor...

In County of Los Angeles vs Mendez, 581 U. S. ____ (2017), the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal’s controversial provocation rule, which required courts to consider pre-shooting conduct when determining the reasonable...