Sample Daily Opinion Summaries
U.S. Supreme Court

Table of Contents

LATEST SUMMARIES

ADMINISTRATIVE LAW, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, GOVERNMENT LAW, SECURITIES LAW
• Free Enterprise Fund v. Pub. Co. Accounting Oversight Bd.

COMMERCIAL LAW, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, PATENT
• Bilski v. Kappos

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, CRIMINAL LAW & PROCEDURE, GOVERNMENT LAW
• McDonald v. City of Chicago

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, EDUCATION LAW, GOVERNMENT LAW
• Christian Legal Soc'y v. Martinez

LATEST SUMMARIES

ADMINISTRATIVE LAW, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, GOVERNMENT LAW, SECURITIES LAW
Free Enterprise Fund v. Pub. Co. Accounting Oversight Bd., No. 08-861
In an action against the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and its members, seeking, inter alia, a declaratory judgment that the Board was unconstitutional and an injunction preventing the Board from exercising its powers, the D.C. Circuit's affirmance of summary judgment for defendants is affirmed in part where the Board's appointment was consistent with the Appointments Clause. However, the judgment is reversed in part where: 1) the dual for-cause limitations on the removal of Board members contravene the Constitution's separation of powers; and 2) the unconstitutional tenure provisions were severable from the remainder of the statute.Read more...

COMMERCIAL LAW, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, PATENT
Bilski v. Kappos, No. 08-964
In a patent application seeking protection for a claimed invention explaining how commodities buyers and sellers in the energy market could protect, or hedge, against the risk of price changes, the denial of the application is affirmed where: 1) the machine-or-transformation test is not the sole test for patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C. section 101; 2) Section 101 precluded a reading of the term "process" that would categorically exclude business methods; and 3) even though petitioners' application was not categorically outside of section 101 under the two atextual approaches the Court rejected today, that did not mean it was a "process" under section 101.Read more...

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, CRIMINAL LAW & PROCEDURE, GOVERNMENT LAW
McDonald v. City of Chicago, No. 08-1521
In an action against the City of Chicago alleging that the City's handgun ban left plaintiffs vulnerable to criminals, judgment for defendants is reversed where the Fourteenth Amendment incorporates the Second Amendment right, recognized in Heller, to keep and bear arms for the purpose of self-defense.Read more...

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, EDUCATION LAW, GOVERNMENT LAW
Christian Legal Soc'y v. Martinez, No. 08-1371
In an action against Hastings College of Law, a public law school, alleging that Hastings' refusal to grant a Christian group "Registered Student Organization" status violated its First and Fourteenth Amendment rights to free speech, expressive association, and free exercise of religion, the Ninth Circuit's affirmance of summary judgment for defendant is affirmed where: 1) the Court considered only whether a public institution's conditioning access to a student organization forum on compliance with an all-comers policy violated the Constitution; and 2) the all-comers policy was a reasonable, viewpoint-neutral condition on access to the RSO forum.Read more...