Court : US Supreme Court
Harbison v. Bell - 07-8521 (2009) SYLLABUS OCTOBER TERM, 2008 HARBISON V. BELL SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES HARBISON v . BELL, WARDEN certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the sixth circuit No. 078521.Argued January 12, 2009Decided April 1, 2009 After the Tennessee state courts rejected petitioner Harbisons conviction and death sentence challenges, the Federal District Court appointed a federal public defender to represent him in filing a habeas petition under 28 U. S.C. 2254. That petition was denied. Harbison then sought appointment of counsel for state clemency proceedings. Because Tennessee law no longer authorizes the appointment of state public defenders as clemency counsel, his federal counsel moved to expand the scope of her representation to include the state proceedings. In denying the motion, the District Court relied on Circuit precedent construing 18 U. S.C. 3599, which provides for the appointment of federal counsel. The Sixth Circuit affir...
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Corley v. United States - 07-10441 (2009) SYLLABUS OCTOBER TERM, 2008 CORLEY V. UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES CORLEY v . UNITED STATES certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the third circuit No. 0710441.Argued January 21, 2009Decided April 6, 2009 McNabb v. United States , 318 U. S. 332 , and Mallory v. United States , 354 U. S. 449 , generally rende[r] inadmissible confessions made during periods of detention that violat[e] the prompt presentment requirement of [Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure] 5(a). United States v. Alvarez-Sanchez , 511 U. S. 350 , 354. Rule 5(a), in turn, provides that a person making an arrest must take the defendant without unnecessary delay before a magistrate judge . Congress enacted 18 U. S.C. 3501 in response to Miranda v. Arizona , 384 U. S. 436 , and some applications of the McNabb-Mallory rule. In an attempt to eliminate Miranda , 3501(a) provides that a confession shall be admiss...
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Horne v. Flores - 08-289 (2009) SYLLABUS OCTOBER TERM, 2008 HORNE V. FLORES SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES HORNE, SUPERINTENDENT, ARIZONA PUBLICINSTRUCTION v . FLORES etal. certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the ninth circuit No. 08289.Argued April 20, 2009Decided June 25, 2009 A group of English Language-Learner (ELL) students and their parents (plaintiffs) filed a class action, alleging that Arizona, its State Board of Education, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction (defendants) were providing inadequate ELL instruction in the Nogales Unified School District (Nogales), in violation of the Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974 (EEOA), which requires States to take appropriate action to overcome language barriers in schools, 20 U. S.C. 1703(f). In 2000, the Federal District Court entered a declaratory judgment, finding an EEOA violation in Nogales because the amount of funding the State allocated for the special needs of ELL students (ELL ...
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LORD COLLINS The right to free elections 1. As a result of the experience of the pre-war dictatorships, the right to free elections was emphasised during and immediately following the Second World War as an essential element of personal freedom and equality before the law. As Professor Hersch (later Sir Hersch) Lauterpacht put it in 1945: " the right of self-government “ which in developed society means government by persons freely chosen by and accountable to the electors “ is in itself an expression and a condition of freedom. No individual is free if he is governed against his will, that is, if the persons who exercise authority are not chosen by and accountable to the community at large." (Lauterpacht, An International Bill of the Rights of Man (1945), 135) 2. Five years later Lauterpacht said: "Without an effective guarantee of these political rights of freedom, personal freedom and equality before the law must be, at best, precarious; at worst they may be meaningle...
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LORD HOPE 1. The Scottish Parliament was established by section 1 of the Scotland Act 1998. It was opened on 1 July 1999. Section 29(1) of the Act provides: "An Act of the Scottish Parliament is not law so far as any provision of the Act is outside the legislative competence of the Parliament." 2. This provision lies at the heart of the scheme of devolution to which the Act gives effect. Section 29 has to be read together with Schedule 4 which protects certain enactments from modification, and then with section 30 and Schedule 5 which defines reserved matters. These are matters reserved to the UK Parliament, and which are therefore excluded from the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament. The area of competence that is identified by this group of provisions forms the basis for a series of sections that are designed to ensure that the Scottish Parliament confines itself to the defined areas of competence: section 31 (scrutiny of Bills before introduction), section 32 (the re...
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United States v. Stevens - 08-769 (2010) SYLLABUS OCTOBER TERM, 2009 UNITED STATES V. STEVENS SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES UNITED STATES v . STEVENS certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the third circuit No. 08769.Argued October 6, 2009Decided April 20, 2010 Congress enacted 18 U. S.C. 48 to criminalize the commercial creation, sale, or possession of certain depictions of animal cruelty. The statute addresses only portrayals of harmful acts, not the underlying conduct. It applies to any visual or auditory depiction in which a living animal is intentionally maimed, mutilated, tortured, wounded, or killed, if that conduct violates federal or state law where the creation, sale, or possession takes place, 48(c)(1). Another clause exempts depictions with serious religious, political, scientific, educational, journalistic, historical, or artistic value. 48(b). The legislative background of 48 focused primarily on crush videos, which feature the torture and ...
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Dillon v. United States - 09-6338 (2010) SYLLABUS OCTOBER TERM, 2009 DILLON V. UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES DILLON v . UNITED STATES certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the third circuit No. 096338.Argued March 30, 2010Decided June 17, 2010 In 1993, petitioner Dillon was convicted of, inter alia , crack and powder cocaine offenses, which produced a base offense level of 38 and a Guidelines range of 262-to-327 months imprisonment. The court sentenced him at the bottom of the range for those counts. After the Sentencing Commission amended the Guidelines to reduce the base offense level associated with each quantity of crack cocaine, USSG Supp. App. C, Amdt. 706, and made that amendment retroactive, USSG Supp. App. C, Amdt. 713, Dillon moved for a sentence reduction under 18 U. S.C. 3582(c)(2). That provision authorizes adistrict court to reduce an otherwise final sentence pursuant to a Guidelines amendment if a reduction is consistent wit...
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Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd. v. Regal-Beloit Corp. - 08-1553 (2010) SYLLABUS OCTOBER TERM, 2009 UNICODE VALUE="8195">KAWASAKI KISEN KAISHA LTD. V. REGAL-BELOIT CORP. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES KAWASAKI KISEN KAISHA LTD. etal. v . REGAL-BELOIT CORP. etal. certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the ninth circuit No. 081553.Argued March 24, 2010Decided June 21, 2010* Respondents (cargo owners) delivered to petitioners in No. 081553 (K Line) goods for shipping from China to inland United States destinations. K Line issued them four through bills of lading, i.e., bills of lading covering both the ocean and inland portions of transport in a single document. As relevant here, the bills contain a Himalaya Clause, which extends the bills defenses and liability limitations to subcontractors; permit K Line to subcontract to complete the journey; provide that the entire journey is governed by the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act (COGSA), which regulates bills of lading...
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Skilling v. United States - 08-1394 (2010) SYLLABUS OCTOBER TERM, 2009 SKILLING V. UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES SKILLING v . UNITED STATES certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the fifth circuit No. 081394.Argued March 1, 2010Decided June 24, 2010 Founded in 1985, Enron Corporation grew from its headquarters in Houston, Texas, into the seventh highest-revenue-grossing company in America. Petitioner Jeffrey Skilling, a longtime Enron officer, was Enrons chief executive officer from February until August 2001, when he resigned. Less than four months later, Enron crashed into bankruptcy, and its stock plummeted in value. After an investigation uncovered an elaborate conspiracy to prop up Enrons stock prices by overstating the companys financial well-being, the Government prosecuted dozens of Enron employees who participated in the scheme. In time, the Government worked its way up the chain of command, indicting Skilling and two other top Enron...
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Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Bd. - 08-861 (2010) SYLLABUS OCTOBER TERM, 2009 FREE ENTERPRISE FUND V. PUBLIC COMPANYACCOUNTING OVERSIGHT BD. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FREE ENTERPRISE FUND etal. v . PUBLIC COMPANY ACCOUNTING OVERSIGHT BOARD etal. certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the district of columbia circuit No. 08861.Argued December 7, 2009Decided June 28, 2010 Respondent, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, was created as part of a series of accounting reforms in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The Board is composed of five members appointed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. It was modeled on private self-regulatory organizations in the securities industrysuch as the New York Stock Exchangethat investigate and discipline their own members subject to Commission oversight. Unlike these organizations, the Board is a Government-created entity with expansive powers to govern an entire industry. Eve...
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