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As the U.S. Supreme Court closes this term, Justice Anthony Kennedy will retire. After years of speculation about his retirement, it is not surprising. But it comes at a time that many Court-watchers feared. The vacancy gives President Trump the chance to reshape the Court more than any president in recent history. Trump has already left his mark on the federal bench, and the next Supreme Court justice will wield power long after Trump leaves office....

While celebrities are known for getting away with all manner of legal trouble that ordinary folks get busted for, one Real House Husband of New Jersey, Joe Giudice, certainly isn’t getting any special treatment. After serving over three years in jail, on his release, he was taken into custody by ICE for deportation. It turns out that reality TV star Teresa Giudice’s husband, though he lived in the U.S. since he was a child, never actually became a citizen....

In plaintiff’s section 43(a)(1)(B) of the Lanham Act suit against defendants involving oral laxative drug and over-the-counter versions of the drug manufactured by defendants, district court’s dismissal of plaintiff’s complaint without prejudice is affirmed as the FDA is conducting a proceeding to determine whether defendants’ drugs are misbranded now that there is an over-the-counter version of the drug. Read Schering-Plough Healthcare Prod., Inc. , No. 09-1438 Appellate Information Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin...

The U.S. Supreme Court weighed in last week on a bankruptcy issue that had come up in a 2010 Third Circuit Court of Appeals Chapter 11 ruling, and the justices didn’t see eye to eye with the Third Circuit. The Supreme Court ruled, in a unanimous decision, that when setting out a Chapter 11 reorganization plan, debtors may not sell their property free and clear of liens without providing lienholders the opportunity to credit bid....

Judge Lucy Koh won’t be asking attorneys if they’re smoking crack from her seat on the District Court of the Northern District of California much longer. That’s because Judge Koh is on her way up – up to the Ninth Circuit. Koh, who has been one of the most important and entertaining judges in Silicon Valley for years, was moved out of the Senate Judiciary Committee today by a vote of 13 to 7, several months after she was originally nominated in February....

Last week, the Senate confirmed Wyoming Attorney General Gregory Alan Phillips for a seat on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. “The Senate overwhelmingly confirmed Phillips because he is highly qualified [and] non-controversial, and had the strong support of the Wyoming senators,” said law professor Carl Tobias to the Casper Star-Tribune. Phillips is a Democrat and was nominated by President Obama, but was also strongly supported by Wyoming’s two Republican senators, Mike Enzi and John Barrasso....

Monday, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in Wisconsin Education Association v. Scott Walker, a case challenging the constitutionality of the Wisconsin Act 10 limits on collective bargaining among public employees. The clauses at the center of the lawsuit halt automatic withdrawal of union dues from public paychecks and require that unions hold elections annually to reconfirm their official status, The Associated Press reports. In March, District Judge William Conley held that both provisions were illegal....

The official first day of Summer is still weeks away, but we’re already dreaming about beach vacations, cookouts, and fireworks. And while we’re planning to have a lot of fun, we should also plan on knowing the legal limits of that fun. After all, the less involved the police are in our day, the more fun we can have. So, here’s a quick review of some summer fun activities, whether they’re legal, and what you need to know to stay out of trouble this summer....

Under New Jersey law, an individual who wants to carry a gun in public must submit a special application, that among other things shows that the applicant “has a justifiable need to carry a handgun.” The District Court for the District of New Jersey found the law constitutional, and the Third Circuit affirmed. On Monday, the Supreme Court denied cert. Let’s take an in depth look at the issues, and the Court’s reluctance to hear similar cases....

‘Rats. This case is about rats.’ And so begins Seventh Circuit Judge Frank Easterbrook’s finest judicial opinion, his Marbury v. Madison, his Brown v. Board of Ed., his Fisher v. Lowe. Well, maybe that’s going a bit far. But for a case about rats, this one from Easterbrook is pretty good. What entered the Seventh Circuit as a dispute over gray, pock-marked, grimacing, inflatable rats, exited a shining example of judicial writing....

The Trump administration won a significant victory for its immigration policy from an unexpected source – the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In Innovation Law Lab v. McAleenan, the Ninth Circuit said the administration can make asylum seekers wait in Mexico for immigration proceedings while they challenge his policy in court. The appeals panel reversed a trial court order that would have kept them in the U.S., pending the litigation....

In an ERISA action for breach of a collective bargaining agreement requiring advertising agencies to make contributions to certain benefit plans for actors, summary judgment for defendants is reversed where ERISA allows employee benefit plans to recover unpaid contributions from an employer who is not a party to the applicable collective bargaining agreement. Read Trustees of the Screen Actors Guild-Producers Pension & Health Plans v. NYCA, Inc., No. 08-55409 Appellate Information...

If you’re looking for a free, high quality, mobile-friendly source for New York codes, FindLaw’s got you covered. Whether you’re researching New York family law, litigating wage deductions, or need to cite the code governing amateur wrestling taxes, you’ll find what you need at FindLaw. FindLaw’s updated New York Codes section has what you need, when you need it, how you need it. And it doesn’t cost a dime. FindLaw’s updated New York Codes section brings you more than a quarter million pages of New York laws, all through our partnership with Thomson Reuters Westlaw, FindLaw’s sister company....

Sixth Amendment Does Not Apply to Supervised Release Proceedings In US v. Spangle, No. 09-50508, defendant’s appeal from the twenty-four-month term of imprisonment imposed upon revocation of his supervised release, the court affirmed where 1) because the revocation of supervised release is indistinguishable from the revocation of parole, the Sixth Amendment had no application to supervised release proceedings; 2) in any event, any error in the revocation order was harmless because defendant admitted to violating the terms of his supervised release; and 3) the context of defendant’s threat did not necessitate the conclusion that there was an objective basis for recusal....

When the United States Congress subpoenas a person to testify or to produce a document or other evidence and they refuse, Congress may issue a contempt order. When this happens, usually the person on the receiving end will want to comply with whatever order they are being held in contempt for violating. However, sometimes that person really doesn’t have much say in whether or not they comply, even though they may ultimately be the one to have to pay any price for not complying....

Currently, all 50 states have begun reopening their economies after COVID-19 closures, which means small businesses across the county — from restaurants to gyms to hair salons — have reopened or are preparing to reopen. Business owners know they need their employees to return in order to get back to business, but some are finding that not all employees are willing to return to work, often out of fear of being exposed to COVID-19....

The First Amendment comes before the Fourteenth Amendment, and sometimes trumps it. At least that’s what happened in Penn v. New York Methodist Hospital. A black chaplain sued the Methodist hospital for racial discrimination, but a federal court rejected his case. The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals said there is a “ministerial exception” against discrimination claims. In other words, religions can discriminate. “Ministerial Exception” Methodist minister Mark Penn, a duty chaplain for the hospital’s Department of Pastoral Care, complained that he was not promoted to a full-time position....

It sounds like Shepard Fairey should have fought back. During the 2008 election cycle, Fairey used a 2006 Associated Press photograph to create his Barack Obama “Hope” design. The AP sued Fairey, who initially claimed fair use. He later settled the matter out of court, according to Photo District News. Today, however, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision in a similar copyright infringement lawsuit, which suggests that Fairey was actually right about the fair use doctrine....

It’s been a bad week for free speech, with censured shirts and prior restraints on speech. We were all ready to lambast the Ninth Circuit’s opinion in Dariano v. Morgan Hill, where the court allowed a school district to ban t-shirts with the American Flag on them (for safety!). Then, the court topped itself, with a idiotic takedown order of the infamous and also idiotic “Innocence of Muslims” video on YouTube, due to an actress’s copyright claim over her fifteen seconds of footage....

Busy Monday. This morning, the court released an orders list with quite a few surprises, including the Court’s response to the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s certified question answers in the medical abortion (RU-486 “off-label”) dispute, a per curium reversal of a Ninth Circuit decision (the fun starts early, apparently), and finally, with a Schwarzenegger-esque, “we’ll be back” sort-of-statement, Chief Justice Roberts announced the denial of certiorari in Mark v. Lane, a Facebook class-action settlement case....