U.S. Supreme Court rulings giving federal District Court judges more flexibility in awarding attorney fees to prevailing parties in patent suits could help curb the recent uptick in abusive patent litigation.
Read More »Tag Archives: Antonin Scalia
Patent case gives US justices a workout
In a case that could clarify the specificity with which patent holders must describe their inventions, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court and the attorneys arguing the case of Nautilus Inc. v. Biosig Instruments Inc., No. 13-369, had a tough time finding the right words to articulate a standard.
Read More »US high court takes on law barring false political speech
The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court seemed to cast some constitutional doubt on a state statute that prohibits making false statements about political candidates during oral arguments in the case of Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus, No. 13-193.
Read More »US justices struggle with software patentability
The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court are facing the difficult task of determining whether computer-implemented software programs that draw on non-computerized principles — a category that could encompass countless types of programs that are in use by millions of people — are eligible for patents.
Read More »Justices revisit securities fraud class actions
The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court have an opportunity to dramatically change the landscape of securities fraud class action litigation by limiting, or perhaps overruling altogether, a decision upon which plaintiffs have relied for decades.
Read More »Justices struggle over attorney fees in patent troll cases
The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court wrangled over the language of a statute that allows prevailing parties in certain patent infringement cases to recoup attorney fees — an issue that could mean millions of dollars in already costly legal proceedings.
Read More »US Supreme Court takes dim view of NLRB appointments
The U.S. Supreme Court has cast serious doubt on President Barack Obama’s constitutional authority to install three members on the National Labor Relations Board without Senate approval in 2012.
Read More »Court rules for airline in pilot defamation claim
Ruling that airlines have broad immunity from lawsuits under a post-9/11 security law, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday threw out a $1.4 million defamation judgment awarded to a pilot who was reported by his employer as mentally unstable and potentially armed.
Read More »US justices grapple with proximate cause in child porn case
The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court are struggling to determine how mandatory statutory damages to victims of child pornography should be allocated among those convicted of possessing and viewing the material, and what proof is required to establish liability.
Read More »US high court considers whether anonymous call warrants police stop
The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court used a parade of hypotheticals involving speeding, kidnapping and terrorist threats to try to pinpoint just when information from an anonymous tip can serve as the basis for a police traffic stop.
Read More »Justices air out issues in EPA pollution case
During an expanded, 90-minute argument session Tuesday, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court wrangled over whether the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to impose power plant emission rules upon states that contribute to the air pollution of neighboring states.
Read More »US justices cast doubt on validity of union pact
The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court expressed doubt on Wednesday as to the legality of a commonly used type of labor negotiating pact, setting up the possibility of a high court ruling that could shake up workplace organization efforts.
Read More »Justices wrangle over intent needed for aiding, abetting liability
During oral arguments Tuesday, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court tried to nail down just what intent is necessary for a conviction for the federal crime of aiding and abetting the use of a firearm in a violent or drug felony.
Read More »US justices hear town meeting prayer case
The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court faced the task of drawing a line between permissible religious addresses by private citizens at public meetings and unconstitutional government-sanctioned prayer during Wednesday’s oral arguments in Town of Greece v. Galloway, No. 12-696.
Read More »US justices hear ineffective assistance case
The U.S. Supreme Court is poised to fill in some of the legal blanks left by its 2012 ruling in Lafler v. Cooper, which extended criminal defendants’ right to effective counsel to the plea bargaining stage.
Read More »US high court leery of campaign contribution limits
The U.S. Supreme Court appeared likely Tuesday to throw out caps on some contributions by the biggest individual donors to political campaigns.
Read More »Scalia: Christian values needed for capitalism
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says he thinks Christian values are necessary for capitalism to succeed.
Scalia: Court shouldn’t ‘invent new minorities’
The U.S. Supreme Court is making decisions that should be left to Congress or the people, from wiretapping to "inventing" new classes of minorities, Justice Antonin Scalia said Monday.
Read More »Supreme Court strikes federal marriage provision (UPDATE)
In a historic victory for gay rights, the Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down a provision of a federal law denying federal benefits to married gay couples and cleared the way for the resumption of same-sex marriage in California.
Court makes it harder to sue businesses
A sharply divided Supreme Court on Monday made it more difficult for Americans to sue businesses for discrimination and retaliation, leading a judge to call for Congress to overturn the court's actions.
Read More »Supreme Court nixes human gene patents
In a decision that seemed designed to carve out a middle ground in the legal battle over whether companies can hold exclusive rights in the use of biological material, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that isolated human genes are not patentable, but synthetically created genetic material may be patented.
Read More »Procedural default not a bar to ineffective assistance claim, justices rule
A deeply divided U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a procedural default in state court did not bar a Texas death row inmate from seeking relief in federal court based on the assertion that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel at sentencing.
Read More »Will justices take note of new gay marriage laws?
Three U.S. states and three countries have approved same-sex unions just in the two months since the Supreme Court heard arguments over gay marriage, raising questions about how the developments might affect the justices' consideration of the issue.
Read More »US high court upholds FCC power in cell tower disputes
The Supreme Court has affirmed the authority of federal regulators to try to speed local government decisions on proposals to build or expand cellphone towers.
Read More »In extortion case, US Supreme Court to decide what constitutes ‘property’
Defining “property” may seem an easy task. But for the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court it may be much trickier as they consider whether a nonbinding recommendation for an investment fund qualifies as “property” that can be the subject of attempted extortion.
Read More »US Supreme Court finds defendant’s retro plea a tough sell
Can a common practice in criminal defense trigger constitutional protections when it’s suddenly changed?
Read More »Shushing Sotomayor
Emotions - and tensions - ran high at the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday in a case asking whether a federal tribal law allows a biological father to regain custody of a child who had been legally adopted by a couple under state law.
US Supreme Court’s class-action ruling leaves unanswered questions
It was a closely watched case that came to a dramatic and unexpected conclusion of questionable precedential value. Now attorneys are left pondering what effect, if any, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Comcast Corp. v. Behrend will have on class-action certifications.
Read More »U.S. Supreme Court justices rule in closely-watched class action case
A consumer class action should not have been certified because the plaintiffs’ expert testimony failed to establish that the case was susceptible to awarding damages on a class-wide basis, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled 5-4.
Read More »Use of drug-sniffing dog constituted ‘search’, says U.S. Supreme Court
Police engaged in a “search” within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment when they used a drug-sniffing dog on a homeowner’s porch to investigate the contents of the home, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled 5-4.
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