United States Supreme Court - April 2003 Opinion Summaries

ROELL v. WITHROW

Civil Procedure
Under the expanded power of magistrate judges authorized by the Federal Magistrate Act of 1979, consent to a magistrate judge's designation can be...

DEMORE v. KIM

Constitutional Law, Criminal Law & Procedure, Habeas Corpus, Immigration Law
Congress may require that deportable criminal aliens be detained for the brief period necessary for removal proceedings. Federal courts have...

MASSARO v. US

Criminal Law & Procedure, Habeas Corpus
An ineffective assistance of counsel claim may be brought in a collateral proceeding under 28 U.S.C. section 2255, whether or not the petitioner could...

FRANCHISE TAX BD. OF CALIFORNIA v. HYATT

Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Government Law, Tax Law
The Full Faith and Credit Clause (U.S. Const. Art. IV, section 1) does not require Nevada to give full faith and credit to California's statutes...

CLACKAMAS GASTROENTEROLOGY ASSOCS., P.C. v. WELLS

Civil Rights, Corp. Governance, Corporation & Enterprise Law, Labor & Employment Law
In determining whether shareholder-directors of a corporation should be counted as "employees" under the ADA, courts should assess whether the...

JINKS v. RICHLAND COUNTY

Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Government Law
28 U.S.C. section 1367(d), requiring that a state statute of limitations be tolled for the period during which a cause of action had previously been...

DOLE FOOD CO. v. PATRICKSON

Civil Procedure, Corp. Governance, Corporation & Enterprise Law, International Law, Securities Law
A corporation is an instrumentality of a foreign state under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 only if the foreign state itself owns a...

STATE FARM MUT. AUTO. INS. CO. v. CAMPBELL

Constitutional Law, Injury & Tort Law, Insurance Law, Remedies
A punitive damages award of $145 million, where full compensatory damages are $1 million, is excessive and violates the Due Process clause of the...

PACIFICARE HEALTH SYS., INC. v. BOOK

Contracts, Dispute Resolution & Arbitration, Health Law, Injury & Tort Law, Remedies
Physicians' claims that managed-health-care organizations violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) can be compelled to...

VIRGINIA v. BLACK

Constitutional Law
Consistent with the First Amendment, a state may ban cross-burning carried out with the intent to intimidate, but a Virginia statute provision...