News

What standard of review should federal habeas courts use when assessing state courts' prior determinations that constitutional trial errors were harmless?

A 6-to-3 divided Supreme Court answered that question yesterday in…

The U.S. Supreme Court struggled during oral arguments Wednesday over whether its landmark Miranda ruling allows criminal suspects to file civil suits against police officers who don't warn them of their rights against self-…

West Virginia used-car dealers file motion to suppress evidence obtained during search, and four years later a court agrees that the state trooper who applied for the warrant omitted important facts and made misleading statements and dismisses the criminal charges (failing to disclose to…

The Supreme Court on Monday turned away an appeal from a death row inmate in Texas who said his jury had been tainted by racial bias (…

The Senate in a historic vote today confirmed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court (view full article). When sworn in this summer, Judge Jackson will be the first Black woman to serve…

If someone is held at gunpoint and forced to withdraw money from an ATM, is the bank being robbed (a federal crime) or just the person (not a federal crime)? Seventh Circuit (2005): The bank - because the money belongs to the bank. Fifth Circuit (2005):  The person - because the money…

The Senate voted Thursday to confirm two of President Joe Biden's district court picks, one for the Northern District of Georgia and another for the District of New Jersey.

Sarah Elisabeth Geraghty, a senior counsel at the Southern…

The Supreme Court granted certiorari in Cruz v. Arizona, No. 21-846 (Mar. 28, 2022) (cert. granted), to decide “[w]hether the Arizona Supreme Court’s holding that Arizona Rule of Criminal Procedure 32.1 (g)…

On Thursday, the United States Supreme Court clarified the right of death-row inmates to receive spiritual guidance during execution. See Ramirez v. Collier, No. 21-5592 (Mar. 24, 2022).

Petitioner John Ramirez is a…

While many eyes were on Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court nomination hearing Tuesday evening, the Senate swiftly confirmed Victoria Calvert to sit on the bench in the Northern District of Georgia (…