Supreme Court of the United States, 2014

Justice Thomas, dissenting, argues that the Supreme Court lacks jurisdiction to review the Court of Appeals' denial of a permission‑to‑appeal application because such an application is not a "case" within the meaning of 28 U.S.C. §1254.

The Supreme Court issued a fifth supplemental decree delineating the precise offshore boundary between the United States and the State of California under the Submerged Lands Act.

The Supreme Court granted the parties’ joint motion for entry of a supplemental decree, further defining the offshore boundary between the United States and California. The decree delineates the precise lines of jurisdiction for lands, minerals, and natural resources beneath the Pacific Ocean based on the Submerged…

The Court held that a defendant's notice of removal under 28 U.S.C. §1446(a) need contain only a plausible allegation that the amount in controversy exceeds the jurisdictional threshold — not evidentiary submissions — that no antiremoval presumption attends CAFA removals, that the Tenth Circuit abused its discretion…

The Supreme Court held that Federal Rule of Evidence 606(b) precludes a party seeking a new trial from using juror testimony about deliberations to show that a juror lied during voir dire.

The Supreme Court held that time spent waiting for and undergoing security screenings is not compensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act because such activity is not integral and indispensable to the principal activities the employees were employed to perform. The Court reversed the Ninth Circuit's judgment.

The Supreme Court denied the petition for a writ of certiorari filed by Patrick Joseph. In Justice Kagan’s statement, the Court noted that appellate courts have broad discretion over procedural rules but questioned whether the Eleventh Circuit’s refusal to accept a supplemental brief after the Supreme Court’s decision…

The Supreme Court denied the application for a stay of the Ninth Circuit’s judgment striking down an Arizona constitutional amendment and vacated the earlier stay order. The denial was based on the lack of a reasonable probability that enough Justices would find the issue meritorious for certiorari.

The Supreme Court granted certiorari, reversed the Third Circuit’s denial of qualified immunity, and remanded for further proceedings. The Court held that Officer Carroll was entitled to qualified immunity because the applicable Fourth Amendment rule was not clearly established.

In a per curiam summary reversal, the Supreme Court held that Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a)(2) does not permit dismissal of a complaint that plainly alleges facts showing substantive plausibility merely because it fails to expressly invoke 42 U.S.C.

The Supreme Court granted certiorari and vacated the judgment, remanding the case to the Sixth Circuit for further consideration in light of Burrage v. United States, which clarified the causation standard for sentencing enhancements involving drug-related deaths.

Justice Ginsburg, joined by Justices Sotomayor and Kagan, dissented from the Court's denial of applications to vacate the Fifth Circuit's stay of the District Court's permanent injunction against Texas Senate Bill 14.

Justice Ginsburg, dissenting, argued that the Supreme Court should deny the application to stay the Fourth Circuit’s mandate and the district court’s preliminary injunction, because the appellate court’s finding that North Carolina’s voting changes likely violated §2 of the Voting Rights Act was well‑reasoned and the…

The Supreme Court held that the Ninth Circuit erred in granting habeas relief because no clearly established Supreme Court rule requires that a prosecutor’s focus on one theory of liability deprives a defendant of adequate notice of another theory.

Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justices Ginsburg and Kagan, dissents from the Court’s order granting Wheaton College an emergency injunction under the All Writs Act. The dissent argues that Wheaton’s RFRA claim does not show an indisputably clear right to relief, that the accommodation does not substantially burden its…

The Supreme Court held that the Recess Appointments Clause empowers the President to fill any existing vacancy during any recess of sufficient length, whether intra-session or inter-session.

A unanimous Court held that the search-incident-to-arrest exception does not extend to digital data on cell phones: neither of Chimel's rationales—protecting officer safety and preventing destruction of evidence—has force with respect to digital content, and cell phones hold vast quantities of personal information…

The Court held that Aereo infringes copyright owners' exclusive right to perform works publicly under the Copyright Act. Aereo's system, which allows subscribers to watch over-the-air broadcasts over the internet using individual antennas and personal copies, is functionally equivalent to cable systems Congress…

The Supreme Court held that ERISA does not create a special presumption of prudence for employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) fiduciaries, rejecting the Sixth Circuit's view that such a presumption applies at the pleading stage.

The Court held that the EPA lacks authority to require PSD or Title V permits for stationary sources solely on the basis of potential greenhouse‑gas emissions, but it may require best‑available‑control‑technology (BACT) for greenhouse gases from sources already subject to permitting because of conventional pollutants.

The Court held that 18 U.S.C. § 1344(2) does not require the Government to prove that the defendant specifically intended to defraud a financial institution or that the bank faced a risk of financial loss.

The Supreme Court held that a taxpayer must provide specific facts plausibly raising an inference of bad faith to examine IRS officials about summons purposes, rejecting the Eleventh Circuit's rule that bare allegations suffice. The Court vacated the judgment and remanded for consideration under the correct standard.

The Court held that Edward Lane's truthful sworn testimony, given under subpoena and outside the scope of his ordinary job duties, is protected speech as a citizen on a matter of public concern, but affirmed qualified immunity for Steve Franks in his individual capacity and reversed the Eleventh Circuit’s ruling on…

The Court held that a taxpayer may examine IRS officials about a summons only when he points to specific facts or circumstances that plausibly infer bad‑faith, rejecting the Eleventh Circuit’s categorical rule; it affirmed that appellate review of a district court’s decision on this issue is abuse‑of‑discretion…

The Court unanimously held that Alice's method, system, and computer-readable-media claims were ineligible for patent protection under 35 U.S.C. § 101. Applying Mayo's two-step framework, Justice Thomas's opinion concluded that intermediated settlement is an abstract idea and that generic computer implementation…

The Supreme Court held that a false statement on ATF Form 4473 regarding whether one is the 'actual transferee/buyer' is material under 18 U.S.C. §922(a)(6) even if the actual buyer is legally eligible to own a firearm.

The Supreme Court held that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act contains no provision that bars post‑judgment discovery of a foreign sovereign’s extraterritorial assets, and therefore affirmed the Second Circuit’s order permitting such discovery.

The Court held that Susan B. Anthony List and COAST adequately alleged an Article III injury in fact to bring a preenforcement First and Fourteenth Amendment challenge to Ohio's campaign false-statement statute: they intend to repeat political speech arguably proscribed by the statute and face a credible threat of…

The Supreme Court held that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act does not limit postjudgment discovery of a foreign sovereign's extraterritorial assets. The Court reasoned that the FSIA provides a comprehensive framework for immunity but does not mention discovery, and thus federal discovery rules apply.

The Court held that funds in an inherited individual retirement account are not “retirement funds” within the meaning of 11 U.S.C. § 522(b)(3)(C) and therefore are not exempt from the bankruptcy estate.

The Supreme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit, holding that the FDCA does not preclude private Lanham Act claims challenging food and beverage labels regulated by the FDCA. The Court reasoned the statutes complement each other, with the FDCA protecting public health and the Lanham Act protecting competitors against…

The Court held that CERCLA § 9658 does not preempt state statutes of repose. The opinion reasoned that the statute’s text distinguishes between statutes of limitations and statutes of repose by referring exclusively to the former, and the presumption against preemption favors the state law.

The Supreme Court held that 35 U.S.C. § 112, ¶ 2 requires a patent's claims, read in light of the specification and prosecution history, to inform those skilled in the art about the scope of the invention with reasonable certainty, and that the Federal Circuit's 'amenable to construction'/'insolubly ambiguous' test…

The Court reversed Bond's conviction, holding that the Chemical Weapons Convention Implementation Act does not cover purely local crimes like Bond's attempted assault with chemicals.

Justice Alito delivered the Court's unanimous opinion holding that liability for inducing patent infringement under 35 U.S.C. § 271(b) requires underlying direct infringement. Assuming without deciding that the Federal Circuit's Muniauction rule correctly defined direct infringement of a method patent, no infringement…

Justice Thomas, joined by Justices Scalia, Ginsburg, and Alito, dissented from the Court's decision to reaffirm tribal sovereign immunity for off-reservation commercial activities. He argued the doctrine lacks substantive justification and that stare decisis should not protect erroneous common-law precedents.

The Supreme Court reversed the Sixth Circuit's affirmance of the denial of qualified immunity to West Memphis police officers who fired fifteen shots at Donald Rickard, killing him and his passenger Kelly Allen, to end a high-speed car chase.

The Supreme Court held that tribal sovereign immunity bars Michigan's suit against the Bay Mills Indian Community for operating a casino outside Indian lands: IGRA §2710(d)(7)(A)(ii) abrogates immunity only for class III gaming located on Indian lands, and "class III gaming activity" cannot be stretched to cover the…

The Supreme Court held that Florida's practice of barring any inquiry into intellectual disability whenever a capital defendant's IQ score exceeds 70 violates the Eighth Amendment, because it disregards the inherent standard error of measurement and forecloses consideration of adaptive-functioning evidence.

The Supreme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit and held that two Secret Service agents who, during President George W. Bush's unscheduled 2004 dinner stop in Jacksonville, Oregon, had anti-Bush protesters moved twice as far from him as his supporters were entitled to qualified immunity.