U.S. Courts News Reporter
This blog was co-authored by Sebenzile Magagula, Candidate Attorney.
A claim (Joubert and Others v Louw (CIV APP RC 08/2022) [2023] ZANWHC 102 (22 June 2023)) was dismissed by the High Court on the grounds that the respondent lacked the requisite legal standing to litigate on behalf of her husband who was the party to the contract sued on.
The claimant sued for delictual damages arising from failure by the defending attorneys to institute timeous action against a construction … Read the rest
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Lawyers for a self-appointed civil rights “tester” have asked the Supreme Court to dismiss her case as moot – that is, no longer a live controversy. Deborah Laufer, who has physical disabilities and vision impairments, told the justices that she has voluntarily dismissed her case in the district court after an attorney who represented her in other cases was disciplined by a federal court in Maryland. But lawyers for the hotel company that Laufer is suing urged the justices … Read the rest
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The Supreme Court agreed to decide what protections Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 provides to employees who contend they were the victim of a discriminatory transfer. The justices announced on Friday that they had granted review in Muldrow v. St. Louis and six other cases, two of which will be argued together. (I covered one of those cases, United States v. Rahimi, in a separate article.)
The question comes to the court in the … Read the rest
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Nearly 40 years ago, in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, the Supreme Court ruled that courts should defer to a federal agency’s interpretation of an ambiguous statute as long as that interpretation is reasonable. On Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to reconsider its ruling in Chevron.
The question comes to the court in a case brought by a group of commercial fishing companies. They challenged a rule issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service that requires the fishing industry to pay … Read the rest
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Kevin Younger was detained before trial at a state prison in Baltimore, Maryland. While Younger in custody, a prison official, Neil Dupree, directed three prison guards to attack Younger and other inmates. The guards beat Younger viciously, leaving him unconscious and bleeding profusely. Younger suffered permanent injuries to his face, wrist, ribs, hand, and leg.
Younger filed a federal civil rights claim against Dupree, alleging that the use of excessive force against him violated his constitutional rights. In the … Read the rest
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The Relist Watch column examines cert petitions that the Supreme Court has “relisted” for its upcoming conference. A short explanation of relists is available here.
The Supreme Court will observe St. Patrick’s Day this year by meeting in conference to discuss which of the 184 petitions and applications for resolution that day should be granted favorable consideration. Only one of those cases is newly relisted: Chapman v. Doe. Jane Doe, then an unemancipated 17-year-old, went to Missouri … Read the rest
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The Supreme Court on Monday morning added a maritime law case to its docket for the 2023-24 term and invited the federal government to submit briefs expressing its views in two more cases. Both announcements came on an otherwise quiet order list released from the justices’ conference on Friday, March 3.
The justices granted review in Great Lakes Insurance SE v. Raiders Retreat Realty Co., a dispute that began after a yacht owned by Raiders Retreat Realty Co. … Read the rest
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The federal aggravated identity theft statute imposes a two-year sentence for any person who, “during and in relation to” certain enumerated felonies, “knowingly transfers, possesses, or uses without lawful authority, a means of identification of another person.” On Monday, the Supreme Court will consider the reach of this statute in Dubin v. United States.
As background, petitioner David Dubin was convicted of health care fraud — an enumerated felony. Dubin was the managing partner of a psychological services … Read the rest