Statutory Interpretation
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Hewitt v. United States
US Sup.Ct. Slip Op. of June 26, 2025 Ruling: The First Step Act, enacted by Congress in 2018, substantially reduces sentences that can be imposed for certain crimes that were committed before enactment, as long as final sentencing does not occur until after enactment. If a sentence for a pre-enactment crime has been vacated, either… Continue reading
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McLaughlin Chiropractic Assoc. v. McKesson Corp.
US Sup.Ct. Slip Op. of June 20, 2025 Ruling: The validity of a Federal Communications Commission order that formally interprets a statute within that agency’s jurisdiction may be challenged in a federal District Court proceeding to enforce that statute, despite language in the Hobbs Act, at 28 U.S.C. §2342(1), giving federal Courts of Appeal “exclusive… Continue reading
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Perttu v. Richards
2024 Term of Court: The federal Prison Litigation Reform Act (“the PLRA”) requires the inmates of state prison or other confinement facilities to exhaust the administrative remedies their state offers to them for rectifying allegedly illegal conditions of their confinement before the inmate may file a federal court lawsuit against those conditions. 42 U.S.C. §1997e(a).… Continue reading
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Feliciano v. Dept. of Transportation
Decided April 30,2025 Two federal statutes, 5 U.S.C. §5538(a) and 10 U.S.C. §101(a)(13)(B), together require federal agencies that employ military reservists in civilian occupations to make up the difference between the reservist’s civilian pay and his or her reduced military pay when the reservist is called up for active military duty “during a national emergency.”… Continue reading
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Advocate Christ Medical Center v. Kennedy
decided April 29, 2025 The lengthy statute that governs the federal Medicare program contains an obscure formula for calculating enhanced Medicare payments to hospitals for treating a “disproportionate” number of patients who receive “income benefits” under the federal government’s separate Supplemental Security Income {“SSI”) program. See 42 U.S.C. §1395ww(d)(5)(F)(vi)(I). The enhancement formula requires, among other… Continue reading
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United States v. Miller
decided March 26, 2025 A provision of the federal Bankruptcy Code, 11 U.S.C. §106(a)(1), waives the federal government’s “sovereign immunity” from lawsuits that can be brought against it under the Bankruptcy Code, including lawsuits brought against the government under 11 U.S.C. §544. A subsection of Section 544 reads as follows: [T]he trustee may avoid any… Continue reading
RECENT RULINGS 