Volume 564

Justia Opinion Summary: Respondents, representing the video game and software industries, filed a preenforcement challenge to California Assembly Bill 1179 (Act), Cal. Civ. Code Ann. 1746-1746.5, which restricted the sale or rental of violent video ...

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a Mexican national, was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by a Texas court. Petitioner sought a stay of execution on the ground that his conviction was obtained in violation of the Vienna Convention on ...

Justia Opinion Summary: The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 ("Act"), 18 U.S.C. 3551 et seq., called for the creation of Sentencing Guidelines to inform judicial discretion in order to reduce unwarranted disparities in federal sentencing. The Act allowed ...

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner was arrested on charges of driving while intoxicated ("DWI") and the principal evidence against him was a forensic laboratory report certifying that his blood alcohol concentration was well above the threshold ...

Justia Opinion Summary: These consolidated lawsuits involved state tort law claims based on certain drug manufacturers' alleged failure to provide adequate warning labels for the generic drug metoclopramide. State tort law required a manufacturer ...

Justia Opinion Summary: This case stemmed from the long-running dispute between Vickie Lynn Marshall and E. Pierce Marshall over the fortune of J. Howard Marshall II, a man believed to have been one of the richest people in Texas. Vickie married ...

Justia Opinion Summary: The Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Act (matching funds provision), Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. 16-940 et seq., created a voluntary public financing system to fund the primary and general election campaigns of candidates for state ...

Justia Opinion Summary: Vermont's Prescription Confidentiality Law, Vt. Stat. Ann., Tit. 18, 4631(d), restricted the sale, disclosure, and use of pharmacy records that revealed the prescribing practices of individual doctors. Respondents, Vermont ...

Justia Opinion Summary: This case concerned the extent of the protection, if any, that the Petition Clause granted public employees in routine disputes with government employers where petitioner filed a 42 U.S.C. 1983 suit after respondent's termination ...

Justia Opinion Summary: This case stemmed from petitioner's civil contempt proceedings where South Carolina's Family Court enforced child support orders against him. At issue was whether the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause required the ...

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs, several states, the city of New York, and three private land trusts, sued defendants, four private power companies and the federal Tennessee Valley Authority, alleging that defendants' emissions substantially ...

Justia Opinion Summary: This case concerned the standard of causation applicable in cases arising under the Federal Employers' Liability Act ("FELA"), 45 U.S.C. 51 et seq., which rendered railroads liable for employees' injuries or deaths "resulting ...

Justia Opinion Summary: J.D.B., a thirteen-year-old seventh-grade student, was taken from his classroom to a closed-door conference room where uniformed police and school administrators questioned him for at least 30 minutes regarding two home break-ins ...

Justia Opinion Summary: While conducting a routine vehicle stop, police arrested petitioner, a passenger of the vehicle, for giving a false name. After handcuffing him and securing the scene, the police searched the vehicle and found petitioner's ...

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner was indicted for violating 18 U.S.C. 229, which forbid knowing possession or use, for nonpeaceful purposes, of a chemical that "can cause death, temporary incapacitation or permanent harm to humans," and which ...

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner was convicted of, inter alia, smuggling unauthorized aliens into the United States. The District Court imposed a 51 month prison sentence, reasoning that petitioner should serve that long in order to qualify for ...

Justia Opinion Summary: In this case, a Federal District Court enjoined a state court from considering a plaintiff's request to approve a class action. The District Court did so because it had earlier denied a motion to certify a class in a related ...

Justia Opinion Summary: Respondent, First Derivative Traders, representing a class of stockholders in petitioner Janus Capital Group, Inc. ("JCG"), filed a private action under the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") Rule 10b-5, alleging ...

Justia Opinion Summary: The Jicarilla Apache Nation's ("Tribe") reservation contained natural resources that were developed pursuant to statutes administered by the Interior Department and proceeds from these resources were held by the United States ...

Justia Opinion Summary: When petitioner pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, he had prior convictions for at least three felonies, including the state-law crime of "using a vehicle" to "knowingly or intentionally" "flee from ...

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner was convicted for distribution of 50 grams or more of cocaine base under section 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(A)(iii) of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 ("ADAA"), 21 U.S.C. 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(A)(iii), and sentenced to ...

Justia Opinion Summary: The Telecommunications Act of 1996, 110 Stat. 56, required incumbent local exchange carriers ("LECs"), providers of local telephone service, to share their physical networks with competitive LECs at cost-based rates. This ...

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner administered and enforced Nevada's Ethics in Government Law, Nev. Rev. Stat. 281A.420, and investigated respondent, an elected official who voted to approve a hotel/casino project proposed by a company that used ...

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2005, respondent was charged with delinquency under the Federal Juvenile Delinquency Act, 18 U.S.C. 5031 et seq., for sexually abusing a boy for approximately two years until respondent was 15 years old and his victim ...

Justia Opinion Summary: Respondents (collectively, "i4i"), holding a patent which claimed an improved method for editing computer documents, sued petitioner, Microsoft Corp. ("Microsoft"), for willful infringement of the patent. Microsoft counterclaimed ...