A U.S. District Court has the authority to order that a federal criminal sentence run consecutively to an anticipated state sentence that has yet to be imposed, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled.

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The Privacy Act does not unequivocally authorize damages for mental or emotional distress and therefore, the Government has not waived sovereign immunity for such claims, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled.

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The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether the police’s use of trained narcotics sniffing dogs at the front door of a suspect’s house is a search under the Fourth Amendment requiring probable cause.

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The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court are searching for a standard to apply to determine whether qualified immunity protects police who conduct a search on a warrant that was facially valid, but is later invalidated because it was overbroad and pertinent information was misstated or omitted.

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At oral arguments on Tuesday, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court tried to determine whether emotional distress constitutes “actual damages” under the federal Privacy Act – a decision that will determine whether a pilot can sue government agencies for disclosing his HIV status.

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Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., a champion of the proposed Arbitration Fairness Act, recently led a hearing before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary called “Arbitration: Is It Fair When Forced?”

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The U.S. Supreme Court is trying to determine if the strip search of a county jail inmate, erroneously arrested on a warrant for a minor offense, violated the Fourth Amendment.

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After taking Columbus Day off, the U.S. Supreme Court is back in action to hear oral arguments this week on issues including whether claims arising under the Credit Repair Organizations Act are arbitrable, and whether the Fourth Amendment limits strip searches on jail inmates held on minor charges.

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“All crack is cocaine base but not all cocaine base is crack,” Judge Diane S. Sykes noted in U.S. v. Edwards, 397 F.3d 570 (7th Cir. 2005).

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In cases involving frivolous and non-frivolous claims, a court may grant reasonable fees to the defendant, but only for costs that would not have been incurred but-for the frivolous claims, the U.S. Supreme Court said.

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Justice Stephen Breyer is recovering from injuries he suffered when he took a spill on his bicycle over the weekend near his home in Cambridge, Mass.

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Boston, MA - Justice Samuel Alito said he should have recused himself from considering a 2009 Supreme Court case involving federal penalties for televised profanity - a move that would have changed the outcome of the case.

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Under 7th Circuit precedent, federal courts in Wisconsin are bound to apply the old mandatory minimum sentences for crack cocaine offenses occurring before the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 went into effect.

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Washington — Taking aim at a U.S. Supreme Court ruling they say strips workers and consumers of their right to redress against powerful corporations Tuesday, lawmakers in both houses reintroduced the Arbitration Fairness Act, which would bar pre-dispute mandatory arbitration clauses in consumer and employment contracts and in civil rights disputes.

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On April 27, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its much-awaited decision in AT&T Mobility, LLC v. Concepcion, No. 09-893. In Concepcion, AT&T’s contract provided for arbitration and required claims to proceed on an individual basis.

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The enforceability of class action waivers and mandatory arbitration clauses in consumer contracts is stuck in limbo.

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In two decisions this year, the U.S. Supreme Court made it tougher for state prisoners to obtain habeas corpus relief in federal court.

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Boston MA - The U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling that oral complaints about workplace conditions made to a company supervisor are covered by the anti-retaliation provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act has employment lawyers taking notice.

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The timeline for filing a petition for writ of habeas corpus in federal court challenging a state conviction is governed by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA). Recently, the United States Supreme Court addressed whether a state inmate’s challenge to his sentence tolls the deadline.

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Little Rock, ARK (AP) – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer argued Tuesday that judges need to apply the Constitution’s values with an eye toward the changing times as he talked about the past successes and missteps of the nation’s ...

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When the U.S. Supreme Court rules in the case Wal-Mart Stores v. Dukes, it will not only decide whether more than 1.5 million female Wal-Mart workers can proceed as a class in a lawsuit alleging that the company systemically paid them less than male employees.

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Federal law doesn’t preempt state tort suits alleging seatbelts were negligently designed.

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The abuse of eminent domain in the United States is at least as old as the U.S. Supreme Court's opinion in Berman v. Parker, 348 U.S. 26 (1954), in which the court shamelessly held that confiscating the property of homeowners and business owners, in order to transfer it to politically-connected cronies, was a valid public use, comparable to building a public road.

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This month, the U.S. Supreme Court granted cert in two related plea cases addressing ineffective assistance of counsel, Lafler v. Cooper (No. 10-2009) and Missouri v. Frye (No. 10-444).

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Washington - At the U.S. Supreme court, 2010 was an historic year that brought not only some of the most significant rulings in decades in areas such as the Sixth Amendment and labor law, but also saw historic changes to the court itself.

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Washington - The U.S. Supreme Court is considering a case that will decide what notice credit card companies must give to consumers about interest rate increases under a now-changed federal regulation.

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Washington - A unanimous (except for the recused Justice Elena Kagan) Supreme Court has held that plaintiffs bringing sec. 1983 actions against a municipality must show that their injury was caused by a municipal policy or custom, regardless of whether the action is for monetary, injunctive or declarative relief.

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The U.S. Supreme Court appears ready to strike a key provision of Arizona’s Clean Elections Act, leaving the future of state and national public campaign financing programs, including Wisconsin’s, in limbo.

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Does the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule apply to a search authorized by caselaw that has since been overruled?

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Washington - In the 17th century, writer Jean de La Fontaine wrote a fable about a clever monkey who persuaded a cat to fetch chestnuts from a hot fire. The cat's paws got burned, but the monkey got what he wanted - fresh roasted snacks.

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