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Supreme Court

Mississippi’s permanent felony voting ban returns to the court

The Petitions of the Week column highlights some of the cert petitions recently filed in the Supreme Court. A list of all petitions we’re watching is available here.

In 1974, the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution generally permits states to strip people convicted of felonies of their right to vote. Widespread at the time, that practice has since fallen out of favor in many states, although a minority still disenfranchise people who commit serious, non-election-related crimes. This … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Supreme Court skeptical of ban on TikTok

The Supreme Court on Friday was divided over the constitutionality of a federal law that would require social-media giant TikTok to shut down in the United States unless its Chinese parent company can sell it by Jan. 19. During two hours of oral arguments, the justices raised questions about whether the law at the center of the case actually restricts TikTok’s freedom of speech, as well as about what will happen if there is no sale by the deadline.… Read the rest

Supreme Court

Court adds three new cases

The Supreme Court on Friday evening added three new cases to its docket for the 2024-25 term. The cases, which involve issues ranging from the constitutionality of appointments to an HHS task force to student loan forgiveness and mootness in tax cases, are likely to be among the final cases argued during the current term.

In Becerra v. Braidwood Management, the justices agreed to take up a challenge to the structure of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Heir to Chicago political dynasty brings his “false statement” charges to Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear the case of a former Chicago alderman, who served four months in a federal prison for lying to federal financial regulators about loans he took out from a local bank and failed to pay. Patrick Daley Thompson, a member of the city’s most famous political dynasty, hopes that his case will be the latest in a series of cases in which the justices push back against what a majority of the court … Read the rest

Supreme Court

Parties file final briefs before Supreme Court hears TikTok case

One week ahead of oral arguments in its challenge to a federal law that would require social-media giant TikTok to shut down in the United States unless its parent company can sell it by Jan. 19, the Biden administration filed its reply brief on Friday, urging the justices to allow the law to go into effect. The law, U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told the justices, targets the national security risk of China’s potential control of the Beijing company, … Read the rest

Civil Law

Wednesday Returns: Court of Appeals Changes Release Schedule for New Opinions

You can hit your snooze button a little later on Tuesdays. Effective January 1, 2025, the Court of Appeals’ scheduled filing days for opinions will be the first and third Wednesday of the month, Since the Court will be issuing a big batch of opinions on New Year’s Eve (and no one wants to read opinions on New Year’s Day), January 15 will be January 2025’s only opinion release date. The rest of the year will follow the new schedule.… Read the rest

Supreme Court

Court turns down challenges to school admissions, gender support plans, and gun licensing

The Supreme Court on Monday morning declined to take up several hot-button issues, including a challenge by parents to a school district’s plan to provide support for transgender and non-binary students, a dispute over the admissions policy used during the 2021-22 school year for three of Boston’s elite public high schools, and the case of a Hawaii man prosecuted for carrying a handgun without a license.

The announcement came in a list of orders released from the justices’ private … Read the rest

Civil Law

Federal Court denies samples for testing infringement of biologic process patent

The Federal Court recently refused to order a defendant to produce samples of cell culture because there was no “reasonable possibility” that testing the samples would yield evidence of patent infringement. In pharmaceutical patent cases, testing samples of a defendant’s product – or samples from a defendant’s process – can lead to crucial evidence of infringement for trial. However, as seen in the Court’s recent decision, a defendant can resist producing samples where the plaintiff only proposes “speculative undefined tests”. … Read the rest