United States Supreme Court - February 2013 Opinion Summaries

Gabelli v. SEC

Banking Law, Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Government Law, Securities Law, White Collar Crime
The five-year statute of limitations in 28 U.S.C. section 2462, the general statute of limitations for civil penalty actions, including an SEC...

Amgen Inc. v. Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds

Class Actions, Constitutional Law, Securities Law
Although required to prevail on the merits, proof of materiality is not a prerequisite to certification of a securities-fraud class action seeking...

Clapper v. Amnesty International USA

Civil Rights, Communications Law, Constitutional Law, Government Law, International Law
Plaintiffs do not have Article III standing to challenge 50 U.S.C. section 1881a of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which permits the...

Marx v. General Revenue Corp.

Attorney's Fees, Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Consumer Protection Law, Debt Collection
A district court may award costs to prevailing defendants in Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) cases without finding that the plaintiff...

Chaidez v. US

Constitutional Law, Criminal Law & Procedure, Immigration Law
Padilla v. Kentucky, which held that the Sixth Amendment requires defense attorneys to inform non-citizen clients of the deportation risks of guilty...

Evans v. Michigan

Constitutional Law, Criminal Law & Procedure
The Double Jeopardy Clause bars retrial of defendant for arson, where: 1) defendant's court-decreed acquittal was the product of an erroneous...

Gunn v. Minton

Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Intellectual Property, Patent, Legal Malpractice
28 U.S.C. section 1338(a), which provides federal district courts with exclusive jurisdiction over patent cases, does not deprive the state courts of...

Johnson v. Williams

Constitutional Law, Criminal Law & Procedure, Habeas Corpus
For purposes of 28 USC section 2254(d), which limits the relief a federal habeas court may grant to a state prisoner, when a state court rules against...

Henderson v. US

Constitutional Law, Criminal Law & Procedure
An error is "plain" within the meaning of Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure Rule 52(b) so long as the error is plain at the time of appellate review,...

Florida v. Harris

Constitutional Law, Criminal Law & Procedure, Evidence
During a routine traffic stop, the officer had probable cause to search defendant's truck under the totality of the circumstances, where: 1) training...