Supreme Court of the United States, 2022

The Court granted a stay of the District Court’s order vacating the Title 42 policy and treated the stay application as a petition for certiorari, granting review solely on whether the States could intervene to challenge the District Court’s summary judgment order.

The Court denied certiorari without addressing the merits of Chinn’s Brady claim. Justice Jackson, joined by Justice Sotomayor, dissented. She argued that the Sixth Circuit improperly equated Brady’s reasonable-probability materiality standard with the more demanding more-likely-than-not standard.

The Court denied certiorari without explaining its reasons or deciding the merits. Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson, dissented. She concluded that Thomas received ineffective assistance when counsel failed to question or challenge jurors who expressed opposition to interracial marriage and…

The Court's unsigned order denied Yeshiva University's application for a stay without prejudice because avenues for expedited review or interim relief remained available in the New York courts. Applicants could return to the Supreme Court if they properly sought and received neither form of relief.

The Court denied Yeshiva University's stay application without prejudice because avenues for expedited review and interim relief remained available in the New York courts. Applicants could return if they properly sought and received neither form of relief.

Chief Justice Roberts, joined by Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, held that the state petitioners had standing, that EPA's announced nonenforcement of the Clean Power Plan did not moot the dispute, and that Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act did not authorize the Plan's generation-shifting…

The Court held that the District violated Kennedy’s Free Exercise and Free Speech rights by disciplining him for brief, personal postgame prayers during a period when comparable secular activities were permitted.

The Court denied certiorari without addressing the merits of the Fifth Circuit’s qualified-immunity ruling. Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justices Breyer and Kagan, dissented. She would have summarily reversed because the complaint plausibly alleged that officers knowingly ignited a gasoline-soaked man by tasing him…

The Court held that terminating the Migrant Protection Protocols did not violate 8 U.S.C. §1225 because contiguous-territory return is discretionary, even assuming the Government is violating its detention obligations.

The Court denied certiorari without explaining its reasons or resolving the merits. Justice Sotomayor dissented, with no other Justice joining, and would have summarily reversed.

The Court denied certiorari without addressing the merits. Justice Sotomayor, writing alone in a statement respecting the denial, criticized the Fifth Circuit’s rule treating later habeas petitions asserting previously concealed prosecutorial misconduct as second or successive regardless of whether the petitioner…

Chief Justice Roberts’s majority opinion held that the state petitioners had standing, that EPA’s stated intention not to enforce the Clean Power Plan did not moot the controversy, and that Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act did not authorize the Plan’s generation-shifting approach.

The Court denied certiorari without addressing the merits of the Fifth Circuit’s qualified-immunity ruling. Justice Sotomayor dissented, with no other Justice joining. She would have summarily reversed the qualified-immunity determinations for all three jail officials, reasoning that placing a known suicidal detainee…

The Court denied certiorari without explaining its reasons or deciding the merits of the Free Exercise Clause challenge to New York’s healthcare-worker vaccination mandate. Justice Thomas, joined by Justices Alito and Gorsuch, dissented.

The Court held that States and the Federal Government have concurrent jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed by non-Indians against Indians in Indian country. Justice Kavanaugh, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas, Alito, and Barrett, explained that Indian country lies within state territory and…

Justice Breyer, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Kavanaugh, held that the States surrendered their sovereign immunity against congressionally authorized suits under Congress’ powers to raise and support armies and provide and maintain a navy.

Justice Breyer, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh, held that §841’s requirement of knowing or intentional conduct applies to its authorization exception.

Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justices Thomas, Breyer, Kagan, and Gorsuch, held that courts deciding sentence-reduction motions under §404 of the First Step Act may consider intervening legal and factual developments, including nonretroactive Guidelines changes and postsentencing conduct.

The Court, through Justice Gorsuch, held that the school district violated Kennedy’s free exercise and free speech rights by disciplining him for brief, personal postgame prayers while permitting comparable secular activities.

The Court upheld HHS’s interpretation of the Medicare disproportionate-share hospital formula: patients are entitled to Medicare Part A benefits when they qualify for the program, even when Medicare does not pay for particular hospital days.

Justice Alito’s opinion, joined by Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, held that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion, overruled Roe and Casey, and concluded that Mississippi’s 15-week abortion restriction survives rational-basis review. The Court reversed the Fifth Circuit and remanded.

Justice Alito, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, held that a Miranda violation does not provide a basis for a §1983 claim. Miranda establishes constitutionally based prophylactic rules, and violating those rules does not itself violate the Fifth Amendment.

Justice Kagan, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kavanaugh, held that a prisoner may bring a method-of-execution challenge under §1983 even when the proposed alternative method is not authorized by the executing State’s current law.

Justice Thomas’s opinion for the Court, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, held that the Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect ordinary, law-abiding citizens’ right to carry handguns publicly for self-defense.

Justice Gorsuch, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, held that attempted Hobbs Act robbery is not a crime of violence under 18 U.S.C. §924(c)(3)(A).

Justice Thomas, writing for seven Justices, held that the Medicaid Act permits a State to reimburse itself for medical expenses already paid from settlement funds allocated to future medical care.

Justice Alito, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, held that 8 U.S.C. §1252(f)(1) deprived the District Courts of jurisdiction to award class-wide injunctions requiring bond hearings for aliens detained under §1231(a)(6).

Justice Barrett, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas, Alito, Kagan, and Kavanaugh, held that the subsequent invalidation of a VA regulation cannot support collateral revision of a final benefits decision for clear and unmistakable error.

The Court, in an opinion by Justice Gorsuch joined by Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan, and Barrett, held that the Restoration Act prohibits on tribal lands only gaming activities that Texas bans outright, rather than incorporating all Texas gaming regulations as federal law.

Justice Alito’s majority opinion held that the Federal Arbitration Act preempts California’s rule prohibiting agreements to divide PAGA actions into individual and non-individual claims, but does not preempt the prohibition on wholesale waivers of PAGA claims.

The Court, per curiam, dismissed the writ of certiorari as improvidently granted without deciding whether the States could intervene to defend the 2019 Public Charge Rule. Chief Justice Roberts, joined by Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch, concurred, explaining that numerous unresolved threshold and…

The Court, in an opinion by Justice Sotomayor joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas, Alito, Kagan, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, held that 8 U.S.C. §1231(a)(6) does not require bond hearings after six months of detention at which the Government must establish dangerousness or flight risk by clear and…

Justice Thomas’s opinion for the Court held that “mistake” in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(1) includes a judge’s errors of law, whether or not obvious. Kemp’s motion therefore fell under Rule 60(b)(1), was subject to the one-year deadline, and was untimely; the Court affirmed the Eleventh Circuit.

Justice Alito, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, held that 8 U.S.C. §1252(f)(1) deprived the District Courts of jurisdiction to award class-wide injunctions requiring bond hearings for noncitizens detained under §1231(a)(6).

Justice Barrett, writing for the Court, held that the Double Jeopardy Clause permits successive prosecutions for offenses defined by separate sovereigns even when the same sovereign conducts both prosecutions.

The Court denied certiorari without addressing the merits of Andrus’ ineffective-assistance claim. Justice Sotomayor, joined by Justices Breyer and Kagan, dissented. She argued that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had disregarded the Court’s prior decision and substantial mitigating evidence in finding no…

The Court, in an opinion by Justice Thomas joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Alito, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, held that Bivens does not authorize either Boule’s Fourth Amendment excessive-force claim against a Border Patrol agent or his First Amendment retaliation claim.

Justice Thomas delivered the opinion for all eight participating Justices, affirming the Seventh Circuit. The Court held that the relevant class of workers under §1 of the Federal Arbitration Act is determined by the work its members actually perform, not by their employer’s industry generally.

Justice Sotomayor wrote for a unanimous Court that the 2017 increase in Chapter 11 quarterly fees violated the Bankruptcy Clause’s uniformity requirement by imposing higher fees on debtors in Trustee Program districts while exempting identically situated debtors in Alabama and North Carolina.

Justice Kagan delivered the unanimous opinion holding that the Federal Arbitration Act does not authorize an arbitration-specific waiver rule requiring prejudice. The Act places arbitration agreements on the same footing as other contracts, and Section 6 requires application of ordinary federal procedural rules rather…