Supreme Court

The Law Reporter's "Summary U.S. Supreme Court Actions" section contains summaries of cases that the Supreme Court has vacated or has denied, granted, or dismissed certiorari.

Sample of Cases from U.S. Supreme Court from July /August 2009 Issue

Review Granted

United States v. Comstock, No. 08-1224, ruling below, 551 F.3d 274 (4th Cir. 2009), 33 MPDLR 259, cert. granted, 2009 WL 908431 (June 22, 2009) . The Court agreed to review whether Congress had the constitutional authority to enact 18 U.S.C. §4248 (2006)—a provision of the Adam Walsh Act that authorizes court-ordered civil commitment by the federal government of sexually dangerous persons who (1) are already in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons, but are coming to the end of their prison sentence, and (2) are in the custody of the Attorney General because they have been found mentally incompetent to stand trial. The Fourth Circuit struck down §4248 as unconstitutional.

Wood v. Allen, 08-9156, ruling below, 542 F.3d 1281 (11th Cir. 2008), 32 MPDLR 908, cert. granted, 129 S. Ct. 2389 (2009) . The Court decided to review whether (1) a state court’s post-conviction decision—that habeas corpus petitioner’s defense counsel made a strategic decision during the penalty phase not to call a psychologist to testify about petitioner’s borderline intellectual functioning—was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts, where the court ignored evidence to the contrary in the record, and (2) focusing on whether clear and convincing evidence existed in the state court record to rebut certain subsidiary factual findings, rather than on the entire state court record, abdicates the court’s judicial review function under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, 28 U.S.C. §2254(d). The Eleventh Circuit had found that counsel did not render ineffective assistance.

 

Review Denied

Best W. Encina Lodge & Suites v. D’Lil, No. 08-993, ruling below, D’Lil v. Best W. Encina Lodge & Suites, 538 F.3d 1031 (9th Cir. 2008), 32 MPDLR 792, cert. denied, 2009 WL 273213 (June 22, 2009) . The Court let stand a Ninth Circuit ruling that a plaintiff had standing to seek injunctive relief under the Americans with Disabilities Act Title III, 42 U.S.C. §§12181-189, against a hotel due to inaccessibility to persons with disabilities, even though the district court found that she had not proven any intent to return to the hotel at the time she filed her complaint.

Brown v. North Carolina Dep’t of Health & Human Servs., No. 08-1146, ruling below, Andrews ex rel. Andrews v. Haygood, 669 S.E.2d 310 (N.C. Sup. Ct. 2008), 33 MPDLR 215, cert. denied, 129 S. Ct. 2792 (2009) . The Court denied review of a North Carolina Supreme Court decision that the state’s statutory framework governing the state’s subrogation claim for medical expenses on a Medicaid recipient’s tort claim settlement—defining the portion of the settlement that represents payment for medical expenses as the lesser of the state’s actual past medical expenditures or one-third of the plaintiff’s total recovery—is reasonable and comports with the Medicaid law.

Mendia v. Hawker Beechcraft Corp., No. 08-1386, ruling below, 303 Fed. Appx. 622 (10th Cir. 2008), 33 MPDLR 321, cert. denied, 129 S. Ct. 2804 (2009) . The Court let stand a Tenth Circuit decision affirming summary judgment for an employer under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title I, 42 U.S.C. §§12111-117, on the ground that a former employee was not disabled under the ADA because he failed to show that his neck injury and memory problems substantially limited him in the major life activity of working.

 

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