United States Supreme Court Certiorari Granted

Opinions Filed in January 2015

Glossip v. Gross

Whether Oklahoma's prisoner execution protocols violate the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Area(s) of Law:
  • Constitutional Law

OBB Personenverkehr AG v. Sachs

(1) Whether common law agency, the definitions in Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, 28 USC 1602 (FSIA), or the factors set out in First National City Bank v. Banco Para el Comercio Exterior de Cuba should determine when an entity is an “agent” of a foreign state under the commercial-activity exception of FSIA; and (2) whether under the commercial-activity exception of the FSIA, a tort claim in connection with travel outside of the United States arises from allegedly tortuous conduct which occurred outside of the United States; or the from preceding sale of the ticket within the United States.

Area(s) of Law:
  • Sovereign Immunity

Horne v. Department of Agriculture

(1) Whether the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment applies only to real property and not personal property; (2) whether government may avoid paying just compensation for a physical taking of property by reserving a contingent interest in a portion of the value of the property to the property owner; and (3) whether the California raisin marketing order is a per se taking that requires just compensation.

Area(s) of Law:
  • Constitutional Law

Kingsley v. Hendrickson

Whether a pretrial detainee's 42 U.S.C. § 1983 excessive force claim requires a showing that the force used by the state actor was objectively unreasonable and that the use of force was deliberate.

Area(s) of Law:
  • Civil Rights § 1983

Mata v. Holder

Whether the Fifth Circuit erred in determining that it had no jurisdiction to review a petitioner's request that the Board of Immigration Appeals equitably toll a deadline on his motion to reopen due to ineffective assistance of counsel under 8 C.F.R. § 1003.2(c)(2).

Area(s) of Law:
  • Immigration

McFadden v. United States

Whether the government must prove a defendant knew a substance was a controlled substance before convicting the defendant for distribution of a controlled substance.

Area(s) of Law:
  • Criminal Law

Obgerfell, et al. v. Hodges, et al.

Whether the Fourteenth Amendment requires a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex, and whether the Fourteenth Amendment requires a state to recognize a same sex marriage when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-state.

Area(s) of Law:
  • Constitutional Law

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