Supreme Court

Justices decline to halt two executions in Oklahoma amid questions about state’s lethal-injection method

On Wednesday afternoon, in the shadow of reports of Justice Stephen Breyer’s forthcoming retirement announcement, the Supreme Court denied an application to postpone the executions of two Oklahoma men. The brief order, with no recorded dissents, cleared the way for Oklahoma to execute one of the men, Donald Grant, at 11 a.m. EST on Thursday morning. The other, Gilbert Postelle, is scheduled to be executed on Feb. 17.

Oklahoma’s lethal-injection protocol has received increased scrutiny in recent years. Grant … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Justices affirm Crawford’s application of Sixth Amendment confrontation clause to testimonial evidence

Thursday’s decision in Hemphill v. New York affirmed the requirement for cross-examination of testimonial statements offered at trial and rejected a state law exception to the rule. A jury convicted Darrell Hemphill of second-degree murder after a trial court admitted un-cross-examined testimonial statements from a third-party’s plea allocution. New York courts agreed the admission did not violate Crawford v. Washington, which interpreted the Sixth Amendment’s confrontation clause to require cross-examination of testimonial statements offered at trial. But in … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Suing the International Finance Corporation, and Chicago police’s destroy-or-sell policy

This week we highlight cert petitions that ask the Supreme Court to consider, among other things, whether the International Finance Corporation is immune from suit over its actions concerning the Tata Mundra Power Plant in Gujarat, India, and whether Chicago police’s policy of destroying or selling arrestees’ property left unretrieved after 30 days violates the Fourth or Fifth Amendments.

The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act’s commercial-activity exception

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court in Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation heard oral … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Majority turns down request to send Texas abortion litigation back to federal district court

The Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon rejected abortion providers’ request to order a federal appeals court to send their challenge to a Texas law banning almost all abortions in the state promptly back to the friendlier confines of a federal district court in that state. The providers argued that failing to do so would “derail indefinitely the timely resolution of the merits of the case” and “compound the ongoing harm to pregnant Texans under” the law, which has been … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Over Gorsuch dissent, justices deny review in dispute over definition of “minister” for tax-exemption purposes

After adding five cases to its merits docket for the spring on Friday, the Supreme Court on Tuesday morning issued more orders from the justices’ private conference last week. As expected, the justices did not grant any new cases. Perhaps most notably, they once again did not act on a pair of petitions challenging the consideration of race in the undergraduate admissions process at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, nor did they act on a petition … Read the rest

Supreme Court

A quest to reclaim a Pissarro masterpiece hinges on the Erie doctrine

At the beginning of World War II, the heir of a prominent German Jewish art collector was forced to surrender her family’s Camille Pissarro painting to the Nazis. Her heirs have been litigating for more than 15 years over rights to the painting, an Impressionist masterpiece once thought to be lost. Whether they will succeed depends on how the Supreme Court decides a very technical question: Must a federal court hearing state law claims brought under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Reductions on deductions and state courts on out-of-state businesses

This week we highlight cert petitions that ask the Supreme Court to consider, among other things, whether a 2017 law’s cap of $ 10,000 for the deduction for state and local taxes on federal income returns violates the Constitution by coercing states’ tax policies, and whether state courts can exercise jurisdiction over out-of-state businesses on the basis of their registration as foreign corporations.

The 2017 cap on the federal tax deduction for state and local taxes

New York v. … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Announcement of opinions for Thursday, Jan. 13

On Thursday, Jan. 13, we will be live blogging as the court releases opinions in one or more argued cases from the current term.

Click here for a list of FAQs about opinion announcements.

The post Announcement of opinions for Thursday, Jan. 13 appeared first on SCOTUSblog.

SCOTUSblog… Read the rest