United States Supreme Court - January 2009 Opinion Summaries

Nelson v. US

Criminal Law & Procedure, Sentencing
The Court re-emphasizes that its cases do not allow a sentencing court (as opposed to an appellate court) to presume that a sentence within the...

Van de Kamp v. Goldstein

Civil Procedure, Civil Rights, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law & Procedure
In the context of 42 U.S.C. section 1983 civil rights suits, a prosecutor's absolute immunity extends to claims that the prosecution failed to...

Kennedy v. Plan Admin. for DuPont Savings & Inv. Plan

ERISA, Family Law, Labor & Employment Law
In an ERISA case involving the Act's limitation on assignment or alienation of benefits, and a divorced spouse's purported waiver of her entitlement...

Arizona v. Johnson

Criminal Law & Procedure, Evidence
In a case involving the authority of police officers to "stop and frisk" a passenger in a motor vehicle after a traffic stop, the Court rules that: 1)...

US v. Eurodif S.A.

Commercial Law, Contracts, International Trade, Tax Law
In a case involving the propriety of the Commerce Department's treatment of certain transactions as sales of "foreign merchandise" subject to the...

Crawford v. Metro. Gov't of Nashville

Civil Procedure, Civil Rights, Labor & Employment Law
The protection of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which forbids retaliation by employers against employees who report workplace race or...

Spears v. US

Criminal Law & Procedure, Sentencing
In proceedings arising from the government's appeal of a sentence for conspiracy to distribute cocaine base and powder cocaine, a circuit court's...

Pearson v. Callahan

Civil Procedure, Civil Rights, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law & Procedure, Evidence
In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action against state law enforcement officers who conducted a warrantless search of plaintiff's house incident to his...

Locke v. Karass

Constitutional Law, Government Law, Labor & Employment Law
In a case involving circumstances where a local union charges nonmembers a service fee that (among other things) reflects an affiliation fee that the...

Fitzgerald v. Barnstable Sch.Comm'n

Civil Procedure, Civil Rights, Education Law, Government Law
Title IX does not preclude an action under 42 U.S.C. section 1983 alleging unconstitutional gender discrimination in schools.