January 5 summaries
Welch v. United States
Whether the ruling in Johnson v United States applies retroactively, which held that increasing sentencing under the Armed Career Criminal Act’s residual clause violates due process; and whether the lower court erred in finding that “robbery by sudden snatching” qualifies as a violent felony under the residual clause of the Act?
Area(s) of Law:- Post-Conviction Relief
Dietz v. Bouldin
Whether a judge can recall a jury to perform further work on a case after the jury has been discharged from the case.
Area(s) of Law:- Appellate Procedure
Mathis v. United States
Whether it is appropriate to use the modified categorical approach of defining a crime to include a burglary conviction within the Armed Career Criminal Act.
Area(s) of Law:- Criminal Law
Salman v. United States
Whether familial relations is sufficient for a conviction of securities fraud or if personal benefit from the actual information is required.
Area(s) of Law:- Criminal Law
United States v. Texas
Whether states that subsidize aliens with deferred action have Article III standing and a cause of action under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) to challenge the Department of Homeland Security’s guidance, which established a process to postpone deportation for certain aliens.
Area(s) of Law:- Immigration
February 0 summaries
March 2 summaries
Samsung Electronics Co., Et Al. v. Apple, Inc.
Whether a design patent holder is limited to damages of the protected non-ornamental component.
Area(s) of Law:- Patents
Bravo-Fernandez v. United States
Whether an acquittal’s preclusive effect pursuant to the Double Jeopardy Clause is divested by a vacated, unconstitutional conviction?
Area(s) of Law:- Constitutional Law
April 1 summary
Pena-Rodriguez v. Colorado
Whether "no-impeachment" rules (generally prohibiting juror testimony regarding statements made during jury deliberations to challenge the jury's verdict) bar evidence of racial bias during jury deliberations, and if so, whether the constitutional right to a fair trial requires admission.
Area(s) of Law:- Constitutional Law
May 3 summaries
Manrique v. United States
Should Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(b)(2) allow for the ripening of premature notices of appeal in criminal matters, filed after sentencing judgments but before entry of deferred restitution judgments, after the final judgment is entered?
Area(s) of Law:- Appellate Procedure
SCA Hygiene Prods. Aktiebolag v. First Quality Baby Prods., LLC
“Whether and to what extent the defense of laches may bar a claim for patent infringement brought within the Patent Act’s six-year statutory limitations period, 35 U.S.C. § 286?”
Area(s) of Law:- Patents
Star Atheltica, LLC v. Varsity Brands, Inc.
Whether the standard analytical test is the appropriate test to determine which portions of an article can be copyrighted?
Area(s) of Law:- Copyright
June 5 summaries
Jennings, Et Al. v. Rodriguez, Et Al.
Whether illegal immigrants awaiting deportation have a right to release on bond.
Area(s) of Law:- Immigration
National Labor Relations Board v. SW General, Inc.
Whether the precondition in Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 § b(1), governing service in an acting capacity by a person nominated by the President to fill the office on a permanent basis, applies only to first assistants who take office under Subsection (a)(1) of FVRA, or whether it also limits acting service by officials who assume acting responsibilities under Subsections (a)(2) and (a)(3)?
Area(s) of Law:- Employment Law
Beckles v. United States
Whether Johnson: (1) applies retroactively to collateral cases challenging federal sentences enhanced under the residual clause in U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(a)(2), (2) renders the Guidelines’s residual clause void for vagueness, and (3) makes a federal sentence enhanced for mere possession of a sawed-off shotgun because that offense is listed as a crime of violence in the Guidelines commentary?
Area(s) of Law:- Sentencing
Life Technologies Corporation v. Promega Corporation
Whether the lower court erred in holding that a single entity, when supplying a single commodity component of a multi-component invention, can “actively induce itself to infringe a patent, under 35 U.S.C. § 271(f)(1)?
Area(s) of Law:- Patents
Lightfoot v. Cendant Mortgage Corporation
Whether a congressional charter authorizing an entity to “sue and be sued…in any court of competent jurisdiction, state or federal” confers federal subject matter jurisdiction?
Area(s) of Law:- Civil Procedure
July 0 summaries
August 0 summaries
September 0 summaries
October 5 summaries
Dean v. United States
Whether Pepper v. United States overruled United States v. Hatcher and similar Eighth Circuit that limited the "district court's discretion to consider the mandatory consecutive sentence under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) in determining the appropriate sentence for the felony serving as the basis for the Section 924(c) conviction.”
Area(s) of Law:- Sentencing
Esquivel-Quintana v. Lynch
Whether a conviction under the laws of seven states that criminalize consensual sex with a twenty-one year old and an individual who is almost eighteen is an "aggravated felony" under the Immigration and Nationality Act and in turn grounds for mandatory removal, when such conduct is legal in forty-three other states, the District of Columbia, and the Model Penal Code?
Area(s) of Law:- Immigration
Gloucester County School Board v. G. G.
Whether an agency’s interpretation of Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 should be afforded deference pursuant to Auer v. Robbins, when that interpretation requires schools to allows transgender students the use of facilities on the basis of their gender identity and the interpretation was unpublished and issued solely in response to the present controversy?
Area(s) of Law:- Administrative Law
Kindred Nursing Centers, et al. v. Clark, et al.
Whether the Federal Arbitration Act preempts a Kentucky contract rule that requires a power of attorney to expressly refer to arbitration agreements, despite containing a broad power to contract, in order to authorize the attorney-in-fact to enter into arbitration agreements on the principal's behalf?
Area(s) of Law:- Preemption
Packingham v. North Carolina
Whether a conviction on a statute prohibiting registered sex offenders from accessing social media platforms is a violation of First Amendment rights?
Area(s) of Law:- Constitutional Law
November 1 summary
Coventry Health Care of Missouri, Inc. v. Nevils
(1) Whether the Federal Employees Health Benefits Act pre-empts state laws that prevent carriers from seeking subrogation or reimbursement pursuant to their FEHBA contracts; and (2) whether FEHBA's express-pre-emption provision, 5 U.S.C. § 8902(m)(1), violates the supremacy clause.
Area(s) of Law:- Insurance Law
December 9 summaries
Advocate Health Care, et al. v. Stapleton, et al., St. Peter's Healthcare, et al. v. Kaplan, Dignity Health, et al. v. Rollins
Whether a church must originally establish a pension plan in order for the church plan exemption of ERISA to apply to church-affiliated organizations that maintain pension plans and are otherwise qualified for the exemption?
Area(s) of Law:- ERISA
Howell v. Howell
Whether a former spouse is entitled to indemnification from a former veteran-spouse’s retirement when waived post divorce?
Area(s) of Law:- Family Law
Impression Products, Inc. v. Lexmark International, Inc.
Whether a patentee’s post-sale restrictions on the use or sale of its patented articles allows the patentee to avoid the doctrine of exhaustion upon first sale. Also, whether the doctrine of exhaustion applies when a U.S. patentee sells its articles abroad?
Area(s) of Law:- Patents
Los Angeles County, CA, et al. v. Mendez, et al.
Whether the Ninth Circuit's "provocation" rule is invalid for conflicting with Graham v. Connor's test of police officer liability for use of force under 42 USC § 1983 and whether the reasonable use of force constitutes an intervening and superseding event that breaks the causation chain from an entry made in violation of the Fourth Amendment?
Area(s) of Law:- Civil Rights § 1983
Honeycutt v. United States of America
Whether there is joint and several liability for co-conspirators to forfeit funds from a drug conspiracy under 21 USC § 853(a)(1)?
Area(s) of Law:- Criminal Law
Lee v. United States
Whether it is always irrational for a immigrant, who has resided in the United States for a substantial time and who is charged with a crime, to choose to refuse to take a plea and proceed to trial in spite of overwhelming evidence of guilt, if taking a plea would subject the individual to removal?
Area(s) of Law:- Immigration
TC Heartland, LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC
Whether the patent venue statute, 28 USC § 1400(b), is the sole and exclusive venue statute for patent infringement cases, or whether it is supplemented by the venue statute 28 USC § 1391?
Area(s) of Law:- Patents
Turner et al. v. United States Overton, Russell L. v. United States
Whether Brady v. Maryland requires that the Petitioners' convictions be set aside?
Area(s) of Law:- Criminal Law
Water Splash, Inc v. Menon
Whether service of process may be achieved by mail under the Hague Service Convention?
Area(s) of Law:- Civil Procedure