Supreme Court Report

Second Lives: For These Former Justices, Retirement Is No Day at the Beach

When Justice John Paul Stevens stepped down from the U.S. Supreme Court last year, it marked the first time in 12 years that there have been at least three retired justices. And going back to 1994, when Justice Harry A. Blackmun retired, there began a period of a little more…

Jul 1, 2011 7:49 AM CDT

A Real-Life Grisham Story: Denial of Jury Award Marks Disappointing Postscript to Death Row Release

Photo by Jennifer S. Altman John Thompson has had worse days than the one in late March when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 against him in his civil rights case. After all, the Louisiana man spent 14 years on death row for a murder he didn’t commit and he…

Jun 1, 2011 7:09 AM CDT

Back at Ya: Employee Retaliation Claims Play Big Before the High Court

Employers, beware! if you or your supervisors retaliate against employees, don’t expect relief from the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court continues to be a favorable forum for employees who allege retaliation from their employers. It’s a trend that belies the court’s reputation as favoring business, and it contrasts with…

Jun 1, 2011 7:00 AM CDT

Dead Precedents: The Justices Overrule, But They Often Do So Stealthily

If the U.S. Supreme Court is going to overrule a precedent, wrote an exasperated Justice Antonin Scalia four years ago, then “in any sane world” just go ahead and do it. And say so. Overruling is indeed a “serious undertaking,” Scalia wrote in Hein v. Freedom from Religion Foundation Inc.…

May 1, 2011 7:40 AM CDT

Court May Make It Easier to Invalidate an Invention

The small software firm i4i limited Partnership punches above its weight. Its clients include heavyweights like Amgen, Bayer, Biogen Idec, Warner Chilcott, Merck and Novo Nordisk. But the Toronto-based firm may have landed its biggest blow in 2009, when the company successfully sued Microsoft for patent infringement and won a…

Apr 1, 2011 7:30 AM CDT

Corporate Giant Wal-Mart Faces a Huge Class Action by Female Workers

Female plaintiffs allege that Wal-Mart’s pay and promotion policies favor male employees. Photo by James Leynse/Corbis By many measures, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has been an American corporate success story. Founded in 1962 in Arkansas by Sam Walton, the company became the nation’s top retailer by revenue in the 1980s, the…

Mar 1, 2011 10:10 AM CST

Candidates Say Public Campaign Funds Chill Their 1st Amendment Rights

If setting limits on the amounts of campaign contributions is supposed to keep candidates for office from falling prey to corruption, then Arizona’s 1986 attempt to do so failed miserably. Almost as soon as Arizona tried to rein in campaign donations, state government began to resemble a sort of rogues…

Mar 1, 2011 10:01 AM CST

Court Probes Whether Officials Can Pull Kids Out of Class for Questioning

Officials in Deschutes County, Ore., initially believed they had caught a break from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Sure, the court held in 2009 that a deputy sheriff and a state child-welfare caseworker violated a 9-year-old girl’s Fourth Amendment rights when they went to her school, pulled her…

Feb 1, 2011 8:30 AM CST

Corporate Rights Are Again at Issue as AT&T Wants to Keep Info a Secret

Six years ago, a major telecommunications provider informed the Federal Communications Commission that it had discovered “irregularities” in one of its operations under the federal E-Rate program, which helps fund telephone and Internet access for schools and libraries. The provider was SBC Communications Inc., at the time a quite large…

Jan 1, 2011 8:40 AM CST

Raising Arizona: High Court Eyes State’s Punishments for Hiring Unauthorized Aliens

With the second-longest border to Mexico, Arizona has been at the center of the national debate over immigration policy. The state’s law enforcement officials are known for workplace raids, and earlier this year the state enacted Senate Bill 1070, a controversial law requiring the police to verify the immigration status…

Dec 1, 2010 7:10 AM CST

Second Lives: For These Former Justices, Retirement Is No Day at the Beach

A Real-Life Grisham Story: Denial of Jury Award Marks Disappointing Postscript to Death Row Release

Back at Ya: Employee Retaliation Claims Play Big Before the High Court

Dead Precedents: The Justices Overrule, But They Often Do So Stealthily

Court May Make It Easier to Invalidate an Invention

Corporate Giant Wal-Mart Faces a Huge Class Action by Female Workers

Candidates Say Public Campaign Funds Chill Their 1st Amendment Rights

Court Probes Whether Officials Can Pull Kids Out of Class for Questioning

Corporate Rights Are Again at Issue as AT&T Wants to Keep Info a Secret

Raising Arizona: High Court Eyes State’s Punishments for Hiring Unauthorized Aliens

Mortal Combat

A Changing Landscape

Turning Miranda ‘Upside Down’?

Standing by Its Flexible Standards

The ‘Super Median’

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