The Supreme Court Considers Discipline for Off-Campus Student Speech
5/3/21
By: Rachael Slimmon
Last week the Supreme Court heard oral argument in a case that tests the boundaries of a school’s right to control the off-campus speech of its students. In Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L.,a Pennsylvania public …
Google’s Use of Oracle’s java Application Programming Interfaces declared “Fair Use” by the United States Supreme Court
4/30/21
By: Kirsten Patzer
In a 6-2 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States(the “Court”) reversed the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc., holding Google’s use of Oracle’s Java Application …
SCOTUS Grants Injunctive Relief In Free Exercise Case Challenging California’s COVID-19 Restrictions
4/14/21
By: Caitlin Tubbesing
Building on its pandemic-era Free Exercise Clause decisions, SCOTUS rejected the Ninth Circuit’s analysis of California’s COVID restrictions on religious activities for the fifth time on Friday (4/9/21). In a 5-4 vote in Tandon, et al. v. …
U.S. Supreme Court Hears Argument Regarding the Scope of the “Hot Pursuit” Exception to the Warrant Requirement
3/2/21
By: Curt Graham
Courts have long held that a warrantless entry by police into a residence to effectuate an arrest is presumptively unlawful in the absence of exigent circumstances. One such “exigent circumstance” arises when officers are in hot pursuit …
Supreme Court Hears TCPA Case on Autodialer Definition
1/22/21
By: Matthew Foree
The Supreme Court of the United States recently heard an important Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) case concerning the statutory definition of “automatic telephone dialing system” (“ATDS”). Whether a person used an ATDS can be a basis for …
Are Adult Entertainment Clubs Going To Save California’s Restaurants?
12/22/20
By: John Moot
In what could be the beginning of a reopening for restaurants hard hit by California’s new stay at home orders, two San Diego adult entertainment clubs have come to the rescue. A San Diego Superior Court Judge on …
Is Qualified Immunity at Risk in the Coming Supreme Court Term?
10/22/20
By: Phil Savrin
The year 2020 has been tumultuous and unpredictable in many ways. Momentarily lost in the shuffle between the ongoing pandemic and the upcoming presidential election are the cries from some sectors of the community to “defund” police …
Who Falls Within The Ministerial Exception? Look To The Job Duties, Not The Job Title
7/14/20
By: Michael Hill
The Supreme Court has clarified the so-called “ministerial exception” to federal employment laws, such that it is not necessarily limited to leadership positions in a religious institution. In Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, the …
The End of Qualified Immunity?
6/18/20
By: Christopher S. Lee
Since its genesis in Pierson v. Ray, the qualified immunity doctrine has never been shy of critics. If you were to talk to the late Justice William Douglas (the lone dissenter in Pierson) about …
U.S. Supreme Court Rules 6-3 That Federal Employment Law Prohibits Discrimination On The Basis Of Sexual Orientation Or Gender Identity
6/17/20
By: Ryan Greenspan
In perhaps the most significant and far-reaching employment-law decision in decades, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 15, 2020 that the 1964 Civil Rights Act’s prohibition of discrimination “because of… sex” necessarily includes discrimination based on …
Supreme Court to Hear Arguments Remotely, Including TCPA Constitutional Challenge
4/16/20
By: Matthew Foree
This week, the United States Supreme Court announced that it would hear oral arguments remotely for the first time in its history. The Court will hear oral arguments by telephone conference on certain dates in May in …
Narrow Victory for Law Enforcement and Commonsense in Kansas v. Glover
4/9/20
By: Peter Dooley
The scope of reasonable judgments that police officers can make during traffic-stops under the Fourth Amendment was recently widened, at least narrowly, by the U.S. Supreme Court on April 6th in their 8-1 decision in Kansas …