Supreme Court Docket
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November 2002
[
Download November 2002 Argument Calendar PDF]
[
Click here for 2001 Docket]
Monday, November 4
Pierce County v. Ignacio Guillen, Legal Guardian of Jennifer Guillen and Alma Guillen, Minors, et al.
No. 01-1229
Subject:
Federalism, Preemption, Federal-Aid Highway Act, Federal Privilege, Tenth Amendment
Question:
- Is 23 U.S.C. § 409, a federal statute which protects certain documents "compiled or collected" in connection with certain federal highway safety programs from being discovered or admitted in federal or state trials, a valid exercise of Congress's power under the supremacy, spending, commerce, or necessary and proper clauses of the Constitution?
- Do private plaintiffs have standing to assert "states' rights" under the 10th Amendment when their state's legislative and executive branches expressly approve and accept benefits and terms of the federal statute in question?
Decisions:
Resources:
Briefs:
Parties
- Petitioner (Petition) [PDF] [RTF] [WORD]
- Petitioner (Merits) [PDF]
- Respondents (Merits) [PDF]
- Petitioner - Reply (Merits) [PDF]
- United States (Merits) [PDF] [RTF] [TEXT]
- United States - Reply (Merits) [PDF] [RTF] [TEXT]
Amicus - Petitioner
- Association of American Railroads (Merits) [PDF]
- Product Liability Advisory Council, Inc. (Merits) [PDF] [WP]
Amicus - Respondents
- Association of Trial Lawyers of America (Merits) [PDF] [RTF] [WORD]
David Allen Sattazahn v. Pennsylvania
No. 01-7574
Subject:
Double Jeopardy, Death Penalty
Question:
- Whether the Double Jeopardy Clause precludes imposing a sentence of death in a retrial, when, in the initial trial, a sentence of life imprisonment was imposed as a matter of law after the capital sentencing jury deadlocked and was unable to reach a verdict.
- Whether the Due Process Clause prohibits imposing a sentence of death on a defendant who, after being sentenced to life imprisonment as a matter of law following the sentencing jury's inability to reach a verdict, obtained reversal of his conviction on appeal and is convicted again of capital murder in a retrial.
Decisions:
Resources:
Briefs:
parties
- Petitioner (Petition) [PDF] [RTF] [WORD]
- Respondent (Petition) [PDF] [RTF] [WORD]
- Petitioner (Merits) [PDF]
- Respondent (Merits) [PDF] [WP]
- Petitioner - Reply (Merits) [PDF]
Amicus - Respondent
- United States (Merits) [PDF] [RTF] [TEXT]
Tuesday, November 5
Gary Albert Ewing v. California
No. 01-6978
Bill Lockyer, Attorney General of California, et al. v. Leandro Andrade
No. 01-1127
Subject:
Three Strikes Law, Eighth Amendment, Cruel and Unusual Punishment
Question:
- Whether California's three-strikes law,
providing for a twenty-five years to life prison term
for a third strike conviction, violates the Eighth
Amendments prohibition against cruel and unusual
punishment when applied to a defendant whose
third strike conviction is for petty theft with a prior
theft-related conviction.
- Whether, in light of the Supreme Courts
existing jurisprudence concerning the Eighth
Amendment and proportionality in noncapital cases,
the judgment of the California Court of Appeal,
holding Andrade's consecutive twenty-five years to
life sentences for convictions on two counts of petty
theft with a prior, involved an unreasonable
application of clearly established federal law as
determined by this Court within the meaning of 28
U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1).
- Whether the Ninth Circuit or the
Fourth Circuit is correct, concerning the necessity
for a habeas court analyzing a claim under the
Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of
1996, Pub. L. No. 104-132, 110 Stat. 1214, to first
decide if the state court's determination was
erroneous before deciding whether the
determination was contrary to, or involved an
unreasonable application of, clearly established
federal law as determined by this Court.
Decisions:
Resources:
Briefs:
parties
- Petitioner Gary Albert Ewing (No. 01-6978) (Petition) [TEXT]
- Respondent Leandro Andrade (No. 01-1127) (Merits) [PDF] [RTF] [WORD]
Amicus - Petitioner Gary Albert Ewing (No. 01-6978)
- Families Against Mandatory Minimums (Merits) [PDF]
Amicus - Respondent State of California (No. 01-6978)
- California District Attorneys Association (Merits) [PDF] [RTF] [WORD]
- California Justice Legal Foundation, et al. (Merits) [PDF]
- States of Alabama, Indiana, et al. (Merits) [PDF]
- United States (Merits) [PDF] [RTF] [TEXT]
Amicus - Petitioner Bill Lockyer, et al. (No. 01-1127)
- California District Attorneys Association (Merits) [PDF] [RTF] [WORD]
- California Justice Legal Foundation, et al. (Merits) [PDF]
Amicus - Respondent Andrade (No. 01-1127)
- Donald Ray Hill (Merits) [PDF] [RTF] [WORD]
- National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (Merits) [PDF] [RTF] [WORD]
Wednesday, November 6
Norfolk & Western Railway Company v. Freeman Ayers, et al.
No. 01-963
Subject:
Asbestos, Railroads, Emotional Distress, Federal Employers' Liability Act
Question:
- Was it error for the court below, in conflict with decisions of federal courts of appeals, state supreme courts, and prevailing common-law principles, to award emotional distress damages under the Federal Employers' Liability Act to retired employees who alleged workplace exposure to asbestos and other dusts, but who presented no evidence of physical manifestation or other corroboration of injury related to their alleged fear of cancer?
- Was it error for the court below, in conflict with decisions of federal courts of appeals, state supreme courts, and evolving common-law principles, not to apportion damages under the FELA among tortfeasors?
Decisions:
Resources:
Briefs:
Parties
- Petitioner (Petition) [PDF]
- Petitioner - Reply (Petition) [PDF]
- Petitioner (Merits) [PDF]
- Respondents (Merits) [PDF]
- Petitioner - Reply (Merits) [PDF]
Amicus - Petitioner
- American Insurance Association (Merits) [PDF] [RTF] [WORD]
- Chamber of Commerce of the United States (Merits) [PDF]
- Coalition for Asbestos Justice, Inc., et al. (Merits) [PDF] [RTF] [WORD]
- United States (Merits) [PDF] [RTF] [TEXT]
- Washington Legal Foundation (Merits) [PDF]
Amicus - Respondents
- Trial Lawyers for Public Justice (Merits) [PDF] [TEXT]
Abu-Ali Abdur'Rahman v. Ricky Bell, Warden
No. 01-9094
Subject:
Death Penalty, Effective Assistance of Counsel
Question:
- Whether the Sixth Circuit erred in holding, in square conflict with decisions of this
Court and of other circuits, that every Rule 60(b) Motion constitutes a prohibited "second or
successive" habeas petition as a matter of law.
- Whether a court of appeals abuses its discretion in refusing to permit consideration of
a vital intervening legal development when the failure to do so precludes a habeas petitioner
from ever receiving any adjudication of his claims on the merits.
Supplemental Questions:
Did the Sixth Circuit have jurisdiction to review the district court's order, dated November 27, 2001, transferring Petitioner's Rule 60(b) Motion to the Sixth Circuit pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1631? Does this Court have jurisdiction to review the Sixth Circuit's order, dated February 11, 2002, denying leave to file a second habeas corpus petition?
Decisions:
Resources:
Briefs:
parties
- Petitioner (Petition) [PDF]
- Respondent (Petition) [PDF]
- Petitioner - Reply (Petition) [PDF]
- Petitioner (Merits) [PDF]
- Respondent (Merits) [PDF]
- Petitioner - Reply (Merits) [PDF]
- Petitioner - Supplemental Brief [PDF]
Amicus - Petitioner
- Former Prosecutors James F. Neal, et al. (Merits) [PDF]
- National Association of Criminal Defense Counsel (Merits) [PDF]
Amicus - Respondent
- Criminal Justice Legal Foundation (Merits) [PDF]
- States of Alabama, et al. (Merits) [PDF]
Tuesday, November 12
United States v. Francisco J. Recio, et al.
No. 01-1184
Subject:
Question:
Whether a conspiracy ends as a matter of law when the government frustrates its objective.
Decisions:
Resources:
Briefs:
parties
- Petitioner (Petition) [PDF] [TEXT] [RTF]
- Petitioner - Reply (Petition)[PDF] [TEXT] [RTF]
- Petitioner (Merits) [PDF] [TEXT] [RTF]
Amicus - Petitioner
- American Center for Law and Justice, et al. (Merits) [PDF]
Victor Moseley, et al. v. V Secret Catalogue, Inc., et al.
No. 01-1015
Subject:
Federal Trademark Dilution Act of 1995, Economic Injury
Question:
- Whether a plaintiff seeking an injunction under the Federal Trademark Dilution Act of 1995, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(c)(1), must establish present dilution or whether a showing of a likelihood of future dilution is sufficient.
- Whether a showing that consumers mentally associate the defendant's mark with the plaintiff's mark because of their similarity is sufficient to establish actionable dilution.
- Whether a showing that the defendant's mark has caused economic harm to the plaintiff is necessary to establish actionable dilution.
Decisions:
Resources:
Briefs:
Parties
- Respondents (Merits) [PDF]
Amicus - Petitioners
- Professor Malla Pollack (Merits) [PDF] [WP]
- Public Knowledge, et al. (Merits) [PDF]
Amicus - Respondents
- American Bar Association (Merits) [PDF]
- American Intellectual Property Law Association (Merits) [PDF]
- Best Western International, Inc., et al. (Merits) [PDF] [RTF] [WORD]
- Intel Corporation (Merits) [PDF] [RTF] [WORD]
- Intellectual Property Law Professors (Merits) [PDF]
- Intellectual Property Owners Association (Merits) [PDF]
- International Trademark Association (Merits) [PDF]
- Ringling Bros.-Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows, Inc., et al. (Merits) [PDF] [RTF] [WORD]
- United States (Merits) [PDF] [TEXT] [RTF]
Wednesday, November 13
Delbert W. Smith and Bruce M. Botelho v. John Doe I, et al.
No. 01-729
Subject:
Megan's Law, Internet Registries, Sex Offenders
Question:
Does Alaska's Sex Offender Registration Act, on its face or as implemented, impose punishment for the purposes of the Constitution's ex post facto clause, as applied to sex offenders whose crimes were committed before the statute's enactment?
Decisions:
Resources:
Briefs:
Parties
- Petitioners (Petition) [PDF]
- Respondents (Petition) [PDF]
- Petitioners (Merits) [PDF] [RTF] [WORD]
- Respondents (Merits) [PDF]
- Petitioners - Reply (Merits) [PDF] [RTF] [WORD]
Amicus - Petitioners
- States of California, Alabama, et al. (Petition) [PDF]
- The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (Merits) [PDF] [RTF] [TEXT]
- States of California, Colorado, et al. (Merits) [PDF] [RTF] [WORD]
- United States (Merits) [PDF] [RTF] [TEXT]
Amicus - Respondents
- American Civil Liberties Union, et al. (Merits) [PDF]
- Electronic Privacy Information Center (Merits) [PDF]
- Public Defender of New Jersey, et al. (Merits) [PDF]
Connecticut Dept. of Public Safety v. John Doe, et al.
No. 01-1231
Subject:
Fourteenth Amendment, Due Process, Sex Offender Registry
Question:
Whether the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prevents a State from listing convicted sex offenders in a publicly disseminated registry without first affording such offenders individualized hearings on their current dangerousness.
Decisions:
Resources:
Briefs:
parties
- Respondents (Merits) [PDF]
Amicus - petitioners
- United States (Petition) [PDF] [TEXT] [RTF]
- Center for Community Interest (Merits) [TEXT]
- Criminal Justice Legal Foundation (Merits) [PDF]
- Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (Merits) [PDF] [TEXT]
- United States (Merits) [PDF] [TEXT] [RTF]
Amicus - Respondents
- Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, et al. (Merits) [PDF]
Oct
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