Legal Cases

The Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act does not expressly or impliedly pre-empt state-law claims regarding fraudulent advertising practices, allowing consumers to pursue claims under state unfair trade practices laws.

The burden of persuasion in an impartial due process hearing under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) lies with the party seeking relief.

The Controlled Substances Act does not authorize the Attorney General to prohibit physicians from prescribing regulated drugs for use in physician-assisted suicide when such prescriptions are permitted under state law, as the federal government cannot interfere with state laws that allow this practice.

A patent licensee does not need to terminate or breach its license agreement in order to seek a declaratory judgment that the underlying patent is invalid, unenforceable, or not infringed, as long as an actual controversy exists.

Administrative payment orders issued by the Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service for assessing royalty underpayments on oil and gas leases do not fall within the 6-year statute of limitations for Government contract actions set out in 28 U.S.C. §2415(a).

The Federal Sentencing Guidelines are unconstitutional as applied in a manner that requires judges to find facts by a preponderance of the evidence that increase a defendant's sentence beyond the statutory maximum, violating the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial.

The electoral system established by New York, which requires political parties to select their nominees for Supreme Court Justice through a convention of delegates rather than direct primary elections, does not violate the First Amendment rights of prospective party candidates.

The term "proceeds" in the federal money-laundering statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1), refers specifically to "profits" from illegal activities rather than merely "receipts.

A state offense that is classified as a felony under state law but is a misdemeanor under the Controlled Substances Act does not qualify as a "felony punishable under the Controlled Substances Act" for the purposes of determining whether it constitutes an aggravated felony under immigration law.

A capital defendant's right to present mitigating evidence during sentencing is not violated when the jury is instructed to consider specific aggravating and mitigating factors, as long as the jury is not precluded from considering relevant evidence that may influence their decision.

The application of the Kansas motor fuel tax to fuel received by non-Indian distributors, which is subsequently delivered to a gas station on the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation's reservation, does not violate the Nation's sovereignty because the tax arises from a transaction that occurs off the reservation, and thus the Bracker interest-balancing test does not apply.

Time spent by employees walking between the changing area and the production area, as well as time spent waiting to don protective gear, is compensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) if such activities are integral and indispensable to the employees' principal activities.

State courts are not constrained by the Teague rule and may provide broader retroactive effect to new rules of criminal procedure than is required by federal law.

A state application for post-conviction relief is not considered "pending" for the purposes of tolling the one-year statute of limitations for federal habeas corpus relief once the state courts have entered a final judgment on the matter, even if a petition for certiorari has been filed in the Supreme Court.

A jury may not base a punitive damages award on its desire to punish a defendant for harm caused to individuals not before the court, as doing so would violate the Due Process Clause by constituting a taking of property without due process.

Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 33's deadline for filing motions for a new trial is a claim-processing rule rather than a jurisdictional one, meaning that noncompliance with the deadline can be waived and is not a bar to the district court's ability to consider the motion.

Congress has the authority to abrogate state sovereign immunity in bankruptcy proceedings, allowing a bankruptcy trustee to pursue actions against state agencies to recover preferential transfers made by a debtor.

The Robinson-Patman Act does not apply to price discrimination claims involving specially ordered products sold through a customer-specific competitive bidding process unless there is evidence of discrimination between dealers competing to resell to the same retail customer.

The Supreme Court held that the right to self-representation established in Faretta v. California does not imply a constitutional right for a pro se defendant to have access to a law library, and thus a lack of such access does not constitute a basis for federal habeas relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2254.

The "civil rights restored" exemption in 18 U.S.C. §921(a)(20) does not apply to state-court convictions that did not result in a loss of civil rights, meaning that offenders who retained their civil rights at all times are not eligible for relief from the consequences of their convictions under this provision.