RECENT RULINGS

by the United States Supreme Court

2025

  • Bufkin v. Collins

    (decided March 5, 2025) Claimants for veterans’ benefits in proceedings before the Veteran’s Administration (the “VA”) are entitled to a “benefit of the doubt” presumption of entitlement, if the evidence presented to the VA is found to be in “an approximate balance of positive and negative evidence.” 38 U.S.C. § 5107(b). In this case, the Continue reading

  • San Francisco v. Environmental Protection Agency

    (decided March 4, 2025) The federal Clean Water Act authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency (the “EPA”) to set “effluent limitations” on discharges into a body-of-water by authorized permittees, for the purpose of maintaining established water quality standards in that body-of-water. 33 U.S.C. Section 1331(b). In this case, the Court ruled 5-4 that that statute did Continue reading

  • Lackey v. Stinnie

    (decided February 25, 2025) A federal statute, 42 U.S.C. Section 1988(b) gives trial judges “discretion” to award the prevailing party” in federal civil rights lawsuits the attorneys’ fees the party incurred in prosecuting the lawsuit. In this case, the Court ruled, 7-2, that the winner of a preliminary injunction in a federal civil rights lawsuit Continue reading

  • Waetzig v. Halliburton Energy Services

    (decided February 26, 2025) The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure allow a plaintiff whose federal court lawsuit has not yet been answered, to voluntarily dismiss his or her lawsuit without court approval, by simply filing a “notice of dismissal.” In this case, the Court unanimously ruled that a first-time “notice of dismissal” operates as a Continue reading

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  • Dewberry Group, Inc. v. Dewberry Engineers, Inc.

    (decided February 26, 2025) The federal Lanham Act protects a business’s trademark, including its trademarked names, in part by authorizing the victim of a trademark infringement to recover its damages, in the form of its lost profits, from the infringing party. In this case, howevwer, the Court unanimously ruled that the trial court in an Continue reading

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  • Glossip v. Oklahoma

    (decided February 25, 2025) In this case, the Court vacated the twenty -year-old state court murder conviction of Mr. Glossip, and ordered the state court that convicted him to retry his case. In doing so, the Court relied on one of its caselaw precedents that construed the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment as Continue reading

  • Wisconsin Bell v. United States, ex.rel. Heath

    (decided February 21, 2025) The federal False Claims Act allows the federal government, and sometimes private bounty hunters, to sue people who have made “false claims” against the government. In this case, the Court unanimously ruled that a request for money addressed to a private contractor for the federal government can qualify as a “false Continue reading

  • HUNGARY V. SIMON

    (decided February 21, 2025) The federal Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act generally immunizes foreign countries, and their agents, from private lawsuits brought in the United States, except when the foreign country has illegally obtained property within the United States, or when its agent is using such property in its commercial activities within the United States. “Property” Continue reading

  • WILLIAMS V. REED

    (decided February 21, 2025) The federal civil rights statute at 42 U.S.C. Section 1983, is currently understood to allow lawsuits in state courts, based on allegations that state laws have been violated. In this case, the Court ruled 5-4 that a state court must hear and decide such a lawsuit, despite any state law immunities Continue reading

  • ANDREW V. WHITE

    (decided January 21, 2025) The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (“AEDPA”), at 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1), prohibits federal courts from overruling a criminal judgment of a state court unless the judgment was “contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States Continue reading

  • TIKTOK V. GARLAND

    (decided January 17, 2025) In this case, the Court ruled that a federal statute requiring the divestiture of TikTok, Inc., from its parent corporation, Bytedance, Ltd., before TikTok could continue operating its unique, and extremely popular social media platform in the United States, did not violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Continue reading

  • ROYAL CANIN U.S.A. v. WULLSCHLEGER

    (decided January 15, 2025) Federal statutes authorize the defendant in a state court lawsuit to “remove” the lawsuit to a federal trial court if the lawsuit alleges a claim against that defendant “arising under” a federal law. 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331,1441. When the state court lawsuit also alleges a claim against the defendant arising only Continue reading

  • E.M.D. SALES V. CARRERA

    decided January 15, 2025 In a unanimous Opinion, the Court ruled that employers defending a federal wage-and-hour lawsuit by their employees on the ground of a wage-and-hour law exclusion of those employees’ activities from the law’s requirements, need only prove the factual grounds for the exclusion by a “preponderance-of-the-evidence” instead of “clear and convincing evidence.” Continue reading