Category: Current

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...

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...