A team of Cornell Law students craft these Supreme Court Bulletin Previews, covering every case on the docket. Their goal is to provide you with objective summaries of the issues and arguments pertinent to each case the Supreme Court hears, and to do so in straightforward language. Long after the Court issues its decisions, these Previews remain one of the best sources on the internet for learning about a Supreme Court case.
From this page, you can:
$LII_Function";
exit(". Failed to connect to the database");
}
}
define (EARLIEST, 19960101);
extract($_REQUEST);
if ( $when == 'thisterm' )
{
$today = strtotime('now');
$month = date("m", $today);
$year = date("Y", $today);
$year = ( 10 <= $month ) ? $year : $year - 1;
$begin = "$year" . '1001';
}
if ( strlen($begin) < 1 && strlen($end) < 1 )
{
$begin = date("Ymd");
}
else
{
if ( ( $begin < EARLIEST ) || ( ereg("[^[:digit:]]", $begin) ) )
{
echo 'Bad start date';
exit;
}
if ( ereg("[^[:digit:]]", $end) ) {
echo 'Bad end date';
exit;
}
}
$start_date = date("j F Y", strtotime($begin));
$end_date = date("j F Y", strtotime($end));
if ($end) {
$date_range .= " from $start_date to $end_date";
} else {
$date_range .= "starting $start_date";
}
$qtx_blurb = "SELECT CaseID.CASEID
, Blurb
FROM ArgumentCalendar
, CaseID
, Preview
WHERE CaseID.DocketNumber = ArgumentCalendar.Docket
AND Preview.CASEID = CaseID.CASEID
AND '$begin' <= ArgumentCalendar.Date
";
if ( 8 == strlen($end) )
{
$qtx_blurb .= "AND ArgumentCalendar.Date <= '$end'";
}
$qtx_blurb .= 'ORDER BY CASEID';
$qr_blurb = mysql_query($qtx_blurb);
if ( !$qr_blurb )
{
echo "\MySQL ERROR: " . mysql_error();
exit;
}
$blurbs = array();
while ( $rw_blurb = mysql_fetch_array($qr_blurb) )
{
$blurbs[$rw_blurb[CASEID]] = $rw_blurb[Blurb];
}
$qtx_main = "SELECT ArgumentCalendar.Docket
, ArgumentCalendar.Date
, DATE_FORMAT(ArgumentCalendar.Date, '%W, %M %e, %Y') AS formatted_date
, CaseID.CASEID
, CONCAT(Party1, ' v. ', Party2) AS name
FROM ArgumentCalendar
, CaseID
, Parties
WHERE CaseID.DocketNumber = ArgumentCalendar.Docket
AND Parties.CASEID = CaseID.CASEID
AND '$begin' <= ArgumentCalendar.Date
";
if ( 8 == strlen($end) )
{
$qtx_main .= "AND ArgumentCalendar.Date <= '$end'";
}
$qtx_main .= " ORDER BY Date, Docket";
$qr_main = mysql_query($qtx_main);
if (! $qr_main )
{
echo "\MySQL ERROR: " . mysql_error();
exit;
}
?>
"; } ?>
The Court has long held that § 101 of the Patent Act, which defines the subject matter eligible for patent protection, contains an implicit exception for “laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas.” In applying that rule, the Court looks to whether a patent claims the “building blocks of human ingenuity,” which are ineligible for patent protection, or integrates those building blocks into something more.
This term, the one case most likely to affect the lives of ordinary citizens is probably ABC v. Aereo, Inc., a copyright case with broad implications for the technology and entertainment industries.
In a case closely tied to the concept of proximate cause—that perennial topic of every first-year torts class—the Court considered in Paroline v. United States the extent of restitution damages available to the victims of child pornography.
In 2008, the Court ruled in District of Columbia v. Heller, that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to possess a firearm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home. In 2010, the Court extended Heller to apply to the states in McDonald v. Chicago.
Ordinarily the President must obtain “the Advice and Consent of the Senate” before appointing an “Office[r] of the United States.” But the Recess Appointments Clause of Article II, § 2 creates an exception.
We here at the Legal Information Institute's Supreme Court Bulletin are excited about the upcoming term, and we wanted to share with our more than 15,000 subscribers some brief thoughts about the Court's docket as it now stands. Because the Court has yet to slate the entire session (or even enough cases to get through the end of the calendar year!), theorizing about any sort of pattern or theme in the cases the Court has chosen to hear or the larger implications of the coming term would be premature.