Shannon Powell

United States Supreme Court (7 summaries)

Heimeshoff v. Hartford Life & Accident Insurance Co. and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Participants in an employee benefit plan covered by ERISA may contract to a specific limitation period so long as the period is reasonable and no contrary controlling statute exists.

Area(s) of Law:
  • Employment Law

Nevada v. Jackson

The exclusion of extrinsic evidence relating to prior acts of a witness is not a violation of the constitutional right to present a complete defense.

Area(s) of Law:
  • Evidence

Already, LLC v Nike, Inc.

Broad language to "unconditionally and irrevocably" prohibit suit, claim or demand meets the burden of the voluntary cessation test and therefore ends any actual case or controversy necessary for Article III standing.

Area(s) of Law:
  • Standing

Lefemine v. Wideman

A plaintiff who is awarded an injunction without monetary damages is still entitled to attorney fees under 42 USC §1988 because an injunction is a form of actual relief that “materially alters the legal relationship between the parties by modifying the defendant’s behavior in a way that directly benefits the plaintiff.”

Area(s) of Law:
  • Remedies

FCC v. Fox Television Stations, Inc.

The FCC violated the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment when it applied sanctions to broadcasters without providing them with fair notice of the Commission's policy shift regarding indecency.

Area(s) of Law:
  • Constitutional Law

Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders of the County of Burlington

The elimination of contraband in correctional facilities requires reasonable search procedures, and courts should defer to prison officials as to the reasonableness of these procedures.

Area(s) of Law:
  • Criminal Procedure

Clapper v. Amnesty International USA

Neither the possibility of future injury nor the choice to spend money to minimize the possibility of future injury is sufficient to “satisfy the well-established requirement that threatened injury must be ‘certainly impending.’”

Area(s) of Law:
  • Standing

United States Supreme Court Certiorari Granted (6 summaries)

Plumhoff v. Rickard

(1) Whether the Sixth Circuit incorrectly denied qualified immunity to Petitioner and (2) whether the force used by Petitioner was reasonable.

Area(s) of Law:
  • Constitutional Law

Fernandez v California

"Whether, under Georgia v. Randolph, a defendant must be personally present and objecting when police officers ask a co-tenant for consent to conduct a warrantless search or whether a defendant’s previously stated objection, while physically present, to a warrantless search is a continuing assertion of 4th Amendment rights which cannot be overridden by a co-tenant."

Area(s) of Law:
  • Constitutional Law

Hollingsworth v. Perry

Whether it is a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment for a state to use the ballot initiative process to ban marriage between same-sex couples.

Area(s) of Law:
  • Constitutional Law

Gabelli v. Securities and Exchange Commission

Whether the five-year limitations period under 28 U.S.C. § 2462 is calculated from the date of the underlying infraction or from when the government actually—or should have—discovered the fraud when there are no additional legislative controlling provisions.

Area(s) of Law:
  • Civil Procedure

Already, LLC v. Nike, Inc.

Whether a covenant not to sue deprives a defendant of a counterclaim due to loss of Article III subject matter jurisdiction since there is no case or controversy for the court to rule on.

Area(s) of Law:
  • Constitutional Law

Clapper v. Amnesty Int'l USA

Whether a belief that legislation might result in future injury coupled with the funds expended in an effort to prevent that future injury is sufficient to meet the injury in fact requirement for Article III standing.

Area(s) of Law:
  • Standing

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