A Puerto Rican Parley: Weekly Brief for June 1

This week, the Supreme Court decided five cases. In Financial Oversight & Mgmt. Bd. for Puerto Rico v. Aurelius Investment, it held that appointments to the board overseeing Puerto Rico’s financial recovery were constitutional. In Banister v. Davis, it concluded that a defendant’s motion under Rule 59(e) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure does not count as a “second or successive” habeas petition. In Nasrallah v. Barr, it determined that 8 U.S.C. §1252(a)(2)(C) does not cabin federal appellate courts’ jurisdiction over factual challenges to a finding of removal under the Convention Against Torture. In Thole v. U.S. Bank, it ruled that a certain participant in U.S. Bank’s defined-benefit pension plan lacks standing to sue U.S. Bank for fiduciary misconduct. And in GE Energy Power Conversion France SAS, Corp. v. Outokumpu Stainless USA, LLC, the Court held that the New York Convention does not conflict with equitable estoppel doctrines permitting a nonsignatory to compel arbitration. Here’s your recap of this past week at the Supreme Court.

This Week’s Brief: December 2

The Supreme Court’s December sitting began this week with oral arguments in six cases. One of those cases concerns the first Second Amendment challenge to reach the Court in ten years. However, much of the discussion at oral argument pertained to mootness—that is, whether the case should be dismissed since it’s no longer really a live case. The Court also denied a stay of execution, added to its docket an intriguing First Amendment case out of Delaware, and declined to grant the Trump administration’s request to resume executing federal prisoners. Finally, Justice Ginsburg entered a one-week administrative stay in one of President Trump’s tax returns cases—the third one to reach the Supreme Court. Here’s your recap of what happened at the Supreme Court this past week.