Actualidad

Mini Resumenes Casos TSEU de 2006

12 de Julio de 2007

Se inclute breve resumen todos los casos relevantes resueltos por el TSEU durante en año 2006

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Criminal Law & Procedure, Habeas Corpus

Title:

Carey v. Musladin

Date:

12/11/06

Case Number:

05–785

Summary:

Grant of habeas relief in a first-degree murder case is vacated where the Ninth Circuit erred in concluding that a state appeals court's decision, that buttons displaying the victim's image worn by the victim's family during respondent's trial did not deny respondent his right to a fair trial, was contrary to or an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law as determined by the Supreme Court.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Administrative Law, Civil Procedure, Government Contracts, Oil & Gas Law

Title:

BP Am. Prod. Co. v. Burton

Date:

12/11/06

Case Number:

05–669

Summary:

The 6-year statute of limitations for government contract actions, as provided in 28 U.S.C. section 2415(a), applies only to court actions, not to the administrative payment orders issued by the Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service for the purpose of assessing royalty underpayments on oil and gas leases.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Criminal Law & Procedure, Immigration Law

Title:

Lopez v. Gonzales

Date:

12/05/06

Case Number:

05–547

Summary:

In the context of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and crimes falling under the term "aggravated felony," a state offense constitutes a "felony punishable under the Controlled Substances Act" only if it proscribes conduct punishable as a felony under that federal law.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Criminal Law & Procedure, Immigration Law, Per Curiam

Title:

Toledo-Flores v. US

Date:

12/05/06

Case Number:

05–7664

Summary:

The writ of certiorari is dismissed as improvidently granted.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Criminal Law & Procedure, Sentencing

Title:

Ayers v. Belmontes

Date:

11/13/06

Case Number:

05-493

Summary:

California's factor (k) jury instruction, a general and catchall jury instruction used at the sentencing phase, is consistent with the constitutional right to present mitigating evidence in capital sentencing proceedings.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Criminal Law & Procedure, Evidence, Health Law

Title:

Clark v. Arizona

Date:

06/29/06

Case Number:

05–5966

Summary:

Due process does not prohibit Arizona's use of an insanity test stated solely in terms of the capacity to tell whether an act charged as a crime was right or wrong. Further, Arizona does not violate due process in restricting consideration of defense evidence of mental illness and incapacity to its bearing on a claim of insanity, thus eliminating its significance directly on the issue of the mental element of the crime charged.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Constitutional Law, Criminal Law & Procedure, Government Law, Habeas Corpus, International Law, Military Law

Title:

Hamdan v. Rumsfeld

Date:

06/29/06

Case Number:

05–184

Summary:

In a challenge brought by a Guantanamo detainee, a judgment of a court of appeals reversing an earlier grant of habeas relief is reversed where the military commission convened to try petitioner lacks the power to proceed because its structure and procedures violate both the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and the Geneva Conventions.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Criminal Law & Procedure, Evidence, Government Law, International Law

Title:

Sanchez-LLamas v. Oregon

Date:

06/28/06

Case Number:

04–10566, 05–51

Summary:

In the context of detained foreign nationals, even assuming that the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations creates judicially enforceable rights, suppression is not an appropriate remedy for a violation of Article 36 of the Convention, and a state may apply its regular rules of procedural default to Article 36 claims.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Elections, Government Law

Title:

League of United Latin Am. Citizens v. Perry

Date:

06/28/06

Case Number:

05–204

Summary:

In the context of challenges to Texas' new congressional districting map, Texas' redrawing of a district's lines amounted to vote dilution violative of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Administrative Law, Civil Rights, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law & Procedure, Media Law

Title:

Beard v. Banks

Date:

06/28/06

Case Number:

04–1739

Summary:

A circuit court judgment holding that a prison policy, forbidding certain inmates any access to newspapers, magazines, and photographs violated the First Amendment, could not be supported as a matter of law is reversed and the case is remanded.
Court:U.S. Supreme Court
Topic:Criminal Law & Procedure
Title:US v. Gonzalez-Lopez
Date:06/26/06
Case Number:05–352
Summary:A trial court's erroneous deprivation of a criminal defendant's choice of counsel is not subject to harmless-error analysis and entitles the defendant to reversal of his conviction.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Criminal Law & Procedure, Sentencing

Title:

Kansas v. Marsh

Date:

06/26/06

Case Number:

04–1170

Summary:

Kansas' capital sentencing statute, which requires the imposition of the death penalty when the sentencing jury determines that aggravating evidence and mitigating evidence are in equipoise, is constitutional.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Criminal Law & Procedure, Sentencing

Title:

Washington v. Recuenco

Date:

06/26/06

Case Number:

05–83

Summary:

In the context of criminal sentencing, failure to submit a sentencing factor to the jury is not structural error.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Constitutional Law, Corporation & Enterprise Law, Elections, Government Law

Title:

Randall v. Sorrell

Date:

06/26/06

Case Number:

04–1528, 04–1530, 04–1697

Summary:

A decision by a court of appeals holding that a Vermont campaign finance statute's contribution limits were constitutional and that its expenditure limits may be constitutional is reversed and the matter remanded for further proceedings.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Administrative Law, Attorney's Fees, Education Law, Government Law, Health Law

Title:

Arlington Cent. Sch. Dist. Bd. of Educ. v. Murphy

Date:

06/26/06

Case Number:

05–18

Summary:

An Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) provision that permits a court to "award reasonable attorneys' fees as part of the costs" to prevailing parents, does not authorize prevailing parents to recover expert fees.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Criminal Law & Procedure

Title:

Dixon v. US

Date:

06/22/06

Case Number:

05–7053

Summary:

A conviction for receiving a firearm while under indictment and making false statements in connection with the acquisition of a firearm is affirmed over a claim that a trial judge's instructions to the jury erroneously required her to prove duress by a preponderance of the evidence instead of requiring the government to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she did not act under duress.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Administrative Law, Immigration Law

Title:

Fernandez-Vargas v. Gonzales

Date:

06/22/06

Case Number:

04–1376

Summary:

In the context of reinstatement of orders of removal on illegal entrants, Immigration and Nationality Act section 241(a)(5) applies to those who reentered the U.S. before the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act's (IIRIRA) effective date and does not retroactively affect any right of, or impose any burden on, the violator of the INA before the Court.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Civil Rights, Labor & Employment Law, Transportation

Title:

Burlington N. & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. White

Date:

06/22/06

Case Number:

05–259

Summary:

The anti-retaliation provision of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act does not confine the actions and harms it forbids to those that are related to employment or occur at the workplace. The provision covers those, and only those, employer actions that would have been materially adverse to a reasonable employee or job applicant.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Administrative Law, Civil Procedure, Civil Rights, Criminal Law & Procedure, Habeas Corpus

Title:

Woodford v. Ngo

Date:

06/22/06

Case Number:

05–416

Summary:

The Prison Litigation Reform Act's (PLRA) exhaustion requirement requires proper exhaustion of administrative remedies.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Drugs & Biotech, Intellectual Property, Patent, Per Curiam

Title:

Lab. Corp. of Am. Holdings v. Metabolite Labs., Inc.

Date:

06/22/06

Case Number:

04–607

Summary:

A writ of certiorari is dismissed as improvidently granted.
Court:U.S. Supreme Court
Topic:Administrative Law, Commercial Law, Construction, Criminal Law & Procedure, Environmental Law, Government Law, Property Law & Real Estate
Title:Rapanos v. US
Date:06/19/06
Case Number:04–1034
Summary:In cases involving certain state wetlands lying near ditches or man-made drains that eventually empty into traditional navigable waters, judgments against petitioners-landowners are vacated and remanded for further proceedings as to whether the specific wetlands at issue possessed a significant nexus with navigable waters for purposes of regulation under the Clean Water Act (CWA).

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Criminal Law & Procedure, Evidence

Title:

Davis v. Washington

Date:

06/19/06

Case Number:

05–5224, 05–5705

Summary:

In the context of determining whether statements are testimonial for hearsay purposes, statements are nontestimonial when made in the course of police interrogation under circumstances objectively indicating that the primary purpose of the interrogation is to enable police assistance to meet an ongoing emergency. They are testimonial when the circumstances objectively indicate that there is no such ongoing emergency, and that the primary purpose of the interrogation is to establish or prove past events potentially relevant to later criminal prosecution.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Criminal Law & Procedure, Evidence

Title:

Samson v. California

Date:

06/19/06

Case Number:

04–9728

Summary:

The Fourth Amendment does not prohibit a police officer from conducting a suspicionless search of a parolee.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Criminal Law & Procedure, Evidence, Per Curiam

Title:

Youngblood v. W. Virginia

Date:

06/19/06

Case Number:

05–6997

Summary:

In a sexual assault case, a petition for certiorari is granted and a judgment of a state supreme court affirming a denial of a new trial for defendant is vacated and remanded for further procedings where defendant had clearly presented a federal constitutional Brady claim to the state supreme court.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Criminal Law & Procedure, Evidence

Title:

Hudson v. Michigan

Date:

06/15/06

Case Number:

04–1360

Summary:

Petitioner's conviction for drug possession is affirmed over his claim that evidence seized following police's premature entry of his home should have been suppressed since a violation of the "knock-and-announce" rule does not require suppression of evidence found in a search.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Civil Procedure, Class Actions, Securities Law

Title:

Kircher v. Putnam Funds Trust

Date:

06/15/06

Case Number:

05–409

Summary:

The Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998 does not exempt remand orders from 28 U.S.C. section 1447(d) and its general rule of non-appealability.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Bankruptcy Law, Debt Collection, ERISA, Injury And Tort Law, Insurance Law, Labor & Employment Law, Workers' Compensation

Title:

Howard Delivery Serv., Inc. v. Zurich Am. Ins. Co.

Date:

06/15/06

Case Number:

05–128

Summary:

In the context of bankruptcy law, premiums owed by an employer to a workers' compensation carrier do not fit within 11 U.S.C. section 507(a)(5), which accords priorities, among unsecured creditors' claims, for unpaid contributions to "an employee benefit plan."

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Administrative Law, Civil Procedure, Contracts, ERISA, Government Law, Injury And Tort Law, Insurance Law

Title:

Empire Healthchoice Assurance, Inc. v. McVeigh

Date:

06/15/06

Case Number:

05–200

Summary:

Dismissal, for want of subject-matter jurisdiction, of petitioner-carrier's suit seeking recovery from the proceeds of state-court litigation for a beneficiary's medical care is affirmed since 28 U.S.C. section 1331, authorizing jurisdiction over "civil actions arising under the...laws...of the United States," did not encompass the carrier's action.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Civil Rights, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law & Procedure, Habeas Corpus, Sentencing

Title:

Hill v. McDonough

Date:

06/12/06

Case Number:

05–8794

Summary:

Dismissal of petitioner's challenge to the constitutionality of a three-drug sequence the state of Florida likely would use to execute him by lethal injection is reversed as his claim did not have to be brought as an action for a writ of habeas corpus, but instead could proceed as an action for relief under 42 U.S.C. section 1983 in accordance with Nelson v. Campbell.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Criminal Law & Procedure, Evidence, Habeas Corpus, Sentencing

Title:

House v. Bell

Date:

06/12/06

Case Number:

04–8990

Summary:

Denial of habeas relief for petitioner in a death penalty murder case pursuant to a finding that his claims were procedurally defaulted is reversed where defendant made the stringent showing required by the actual-innocence exception to procedural default, and defendant's federal habeas action could proceed.
Court:U.S. Supreme Court
Topic:Civil Procedure, Commercial Law, Corporation & Enterprise Law, Evidence, Government Law, Tax Law
Title:Anza v. Ideal Steel Supply Corp.
Date:06/05/06
Case Number:04–433
Summary:A judgment reversing dismissal of respondent's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) claims against a competing company is reversed in part where a 18 U.S.C. section 1962(c) claim did not satisfy the requirement of proximate causation with regards to a claim that respondent lost sales due to petitioners' decreased prices, which allegedly resulted from their tax fraud.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Criminal Law & Procedure

Title:

Zedner v. US

Date:

06/05/06

Case Number:

05–5992

Summary:

A defendant may not prospectively waive the application of the Speedy Trial Act. For purposes of the Speedy Trial Act, when a district court makes no findings on the record to support an "ends of justice" continuance under 18 U.S.C. section 3161(h)(8), harmless-error review is not appropriate.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Administrative Law, Aerospace & Defense, Civil Procedure, Government Law, Labor & Employment Law, Per Curiam

Title:

Whitman v. Dep't of Transp.

Date:

06/05/06

Case Number:

04–1131

Summary:

A judgment holding that there was no jurisdiction to consider claims brought by an employee alleging that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) tested him for drug and alcohol in a nonrandom manner in violation of his constitutional rights and the Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA) is vacated and remanded for further consideration of issues of jurisdiction and preclusion.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Commercial Law, Corporation & Enterprise Law, Per Curiam

Title:

Mohawk Indus. v. Williams

Date:

06/05/06

Case Number:

05–465

Summary:

A writ of certiorari limited to Question 1 presented by the petition is dismissed as improvidently granted, the petition for a writ of certiorari is granted, and the judgment vacated for further consideration in light of Anza v. Ideal Steel Supply Corp., 547 U.S. ____ (2006).

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law & Procedure, Government Law, Labor & Employment Law

Title:

Garcetti v. Ceballos

Date:

05/30/06

Case Number:

04–473

Summary:

When public employees make statements pursuant to their official duties, they are not speaking as citizens for First Amendment purposes, and the Constitution does not insulate their communications from employer discipline.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Criminal Law & Procedure, Evidence

Title:

Brigham City v. Stuart

Date:

05/22/06

Case Number:

05-502

Summary:

Police may enter a home without a warrant when they have an objectively reasonable basis for believing that an occupant is seriously injured or imminently threatened with such injury.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Civil Procedure, Commercial Law, Constitutional Law, Government Law, Manufacturing, Tax Law

Title:

DaimlerChrysler Corp. v. Cuno

Date:

05/15/06

Case Number:

04–1704

Summary:

In a suit brought by taxpayers alleging that their local and state tax burdens were increased by certain taxbreaks for a car manufacturer, a judgment finding that a state tax credit violated the Commerce Clause is vacated where plaintiffs had no standing to challenge the state franchise tax credit.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

ERISA, Injury And Tort Law, Insurance Law, Remedies

Title:

Sereboff v. Mid Atlantic Med. Servs., Inc.

Date:

05/15/06

Case Number:

05–260

Summary:

Judgment in favor of a health insurance plan administrator in its suit brought under ERISA seeking to collect medical expenses it had paid on defendants' behalf from a tort recovery they subsequently received is affirmed where, under the circumstances, section 502(a)(3) of ERISA authorized recovery as the relief requested by the administrator was "equitable" under the provision.

 

Court:

U.S. Supreme Court

Topic:

Administrative Law, Environmental Law, Government Law, Water Law

Title:

S.D. Warren Co. v. Maine Bd. of Envtl. Prot.

Date:

05/15/06

Case Number:

04–1527

Summary:

Operating a dam to produce hydroelectricity raises a potential for a discharge into the navigable waters of the United States. Thus, hydroelectric dams require state certification that water protection laws will not be violated for purposes of federal licensing under section 401 of the Clean Water Act.