Broadcast Station Contest Rules Aren’t Just for Contestants, They Apply to the Stations, Too!

The FCC recently released a Notice of Apparent Liability (“NAL”) for a forfeiture of $ 8,000 that should be a cautionary tale for other broadcast licensees that conduct contests for listeners or viewers.  This fine arose out of the station’s failure to conduct a contest in accordance with its announced terms, and specifically to make payment of a prize by the deadline which the station had established for itself.  The FCC found that this failure was a violation of its Read the rest

One police officer opens a car door, and another looks inside. Did they search without a warrant?

One police officer opens a car door, and another looks inside. Did they search without a warrant?

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

A police officer who opens a car door and looks inside, without permission, probable cause, or a search warrant, violates the Fourth Amendment’s ban on “unreasonable searches.” This week, we highlight cert petitions that ask the court to consider, among other things, whether two officers likewise commit a search when … Read the rest

Justices were not asked to swear under penalty of perjury that they didn’t leak Dobbs

Justices were not asked to swear under penalty of perjury that they didn’t leak <em>Dobbs</em>

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Gail Curley, the Supreme Court’s marshal, said on Friday that she spoke with the justices as part of her investigation into the Dobbs leak but that the justices – unlike court employees – were not asked to swear under penalty of perjury that they were not responsible for the leak.

In a brief, prepared statement released by the court, Curley indicated that she “followed up on all credible leads, none of which implicated the Justices or their spouses.”

Curley’s … Read the rest

The lives they lived and the court they shaped: Remembering those we lost in 2022

The lives they lived and the court they shaped: Remembering those we lost in 2022

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At the end of each year, SCOTUSblog remembers some of the people whose lives and work left an imprint on the Supreme Court. From legendary lawyers to lesser-known activists, journalists, and plaintiffs, the following individuals who died in 2022 all shaped the court and the law in their own ways.

Read past years’ remembrances: 2021, 2020.

David Beckwith (Oct. 30, 1942 – Oct. 2, 2022)

Forty-nine years before the leaked opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, … Read the rest

The statistics of relists over the past five terms: The more things change, the more they stay the same

The statistics of relists over the past five terms: The more things change, the more they stay the same

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Regular readers of SCOTUSblog know that in addition to flyspecking the Supreme Court’s docket most weeks to identify cert petitions that the justices are considering repeatedly at consecutive conferences (a practice called “relisting” cases), we periodically crunch the numbers to determine what relisting portends about what the court is likely to do with those cases it has relisted. Relists are a hint that at least some justices want to take a closer look at a case, which is often … Read the rest

The lives they lived and the court they shaped: Remembering those we lost in 2021

The lives they lived and the court they shaped: Remembering those we lost in 2021

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The first Black woman to clerk on the Supreme Court. Two trailblazing civil-rights litigators. The unofficial barber of the justices. The woman who argued Roe v. Wade just a few years out of law school.

These were among the lives lost in 2021.

As we did last year, SCOTUSblog looks back and remembers some of the people who died this year and whose lives and work brought them to the highest court in the nation. Some were lawyers. Some … Read the rest