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In a fractured opinion authored by Justice Elena Kagan, the Supreme Court sided with Kansas in a battle over water rights in the Republican River Basin. Kagan, along with the Court’s four liberals, signed on to the whole opinion. Chief Justice Roberts agreed, but only to parts I and III. Justice Scalia concurred and dissented separately, and Justice Thomas concurred and dissented in part, joined by Justice Alito, Roberts, and Scalia....

On Wednesday, July 19, 2017, SCOTUS denied President Trump’s lawyers’ motion seeking clarification of the Court’s recent order lifting the injunction that stopped the controversial travel ban from being enforced. The Court issued a short, two-paragraph, three-sentence, order denying the motion, primarily explaining that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals needs to rule before the High Court will rule again on this issue. Curiously, the second paragraph to the order is a single sentence that states: “Justice Thomas, Justice Alito, and Justice Gorsuch would have stayed the District Court order in its entirety....

Despite the joyful refrain of “innocent until proven guilty,” the government usually has the upper hand in a legal battle. Need proof? Look no further than yesterday’s Supreme Court decision in the FISA wiretapping case. Amnesty International, along with several other plaintiffs, challenged a federal law permitting the government to use electronic surveillance to monitor the international communications of people suspected of having ties to terrorist groups. The majority agreed with the government that the plaintiffs lacked standing because they couldn’t show that they suffered an injury....

In an action by the SEC seeking civil penalties for securities fraud, judgment for plaintiff is affirmed where: 1) the district court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that, at the time of the transaction at issue, the government official whose fraud defendants allegedly abetted was a fiduciary with respect to the transaction; 2) the district court did not abuse its discretion in determining that the fee paid to one defendant as part of that transaction was material; and 3) there was substantial evidence that defendant knowingly aided and abetted the official in violating section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5....

Civil Rights Action In Smith v. Almada, No. 09-55334, an action for false arrest, malicious prosecution, and suppression of exculpatory evidence, and raising a substantive due process claim for deprivation of familial relations, the court affirmed summary judgment for defendant where 1) the changes suggested by plaintiff to defendant’s warrant application did not compel the conclusion that “a neutral magistrate would not have issued the warrant”; and 2) even after correcting for the allegedly false and omitted information in defendant’s warrant application, probable cause supported plaintiff’s arrest for arson....

Miguel Angel Pena-Rodriguez was guilty because ‘he’s Mexican and Mexican men take whatever they want,’ a juror in Pena-Rodriguez’s misdemeanor sexual harassment trial declared during deliberations. Then that jury convicted Pena-Rodriguez, a conviction that requires him to register as a sex offender. Yet when two jurors came forward to reveal the openly racist comments, there was little Pena-Rodriguez could do. Colorado, where he was convicted, prohibits the use of juror testimony during an inquiry into the validity of a verdict or indictment....

Prisoners can be a litigious bunch. Facing years of imprisonment and a dearth of engaging activities, scores of jailhouse lawyers file scores of (often pro se) claims, from civil rights suits, to writs of habeas corpus, to claims that Michael Vick stole their dogs. But, pursuing those claims isn’t easy. There are significant barriers set up to keep prisoners out of federal courts, not the least of which is the Prison Litigation Reform Act’s administrative exhaustion requirement....

A backup quarterback for the Tennessee Titans, Chris Simms, was arrested and accused of operating a vehicle under the influence of marijuana. Chris Simms, a son of former New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms, says that the police misconstrued his comments when he was pulled over. Originally, he confessed to cops that he smoked a joint inside his 2009 Mercedes-Benz earlier in the night, but now he says he was just talking about cigarettes, the Associated Press reports....

In an action against certain waterfront homeowners for common law trespass and violations of the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act of 1899 and the Clean Water Act, because the ambulatory tideland property boundary came to intersect shore defense structures the homeowners erected, judgment for plaintiff is affirmed in part where: 1) the U.S. owned the tidelands at issue and held them in trust for an Indian tribe; 2) because both the upland and tideland owners had a vested right to gains from the ambulation of the boundary, the homeowners could not permanently fix the property boundary, thereby depriving the Indians of tidelands that they would otherwise gain; and 3) the intent requirement for common law trespass was satisfied because the government requested that the encroaching parts of the structures be removed, but the homeowners failed to do so....

In a conviction of defendant for transporting child pornography, district court’s imposition of two guideline enhancements for use of a computer and distribution of material that involved the sexual exploitation of a minor is affirmed as, the district court did not engage in “double counting” as the enhancement for distributing material that involved the sexual exploitation of a minor was not based on the same factual predicate as the offense of transporting child pornography under section 2252A(a)(1) to which defendant pleaded guilty....

What does the word ‘renewal’ mean? The answer to that question could have greater legal import that you might expect. In fact, that question essentially sums up the legal issue that was the core of Indian Harbor Insurance v. F&M Equipment, Ltd. The 3rd Circuit Ruled on October 15 that “renewal” – at least in the context of insurance terms – means “more of the same.” To many lay people, the word “renewal” is encountered regularly in the context of their auto insurance, phone plan, or medical plan....

Jury instructions regarding the “direct threat” affirmative defense in an employment discrimination case required an employer to prove more than legally necessary, the Tenth Circuit ruled on Monday. An employer must only show that he had a reasonable belief that an impaired worker’s job performance would pose a significant risk of substantial harm in order to avoid liability. Contrary to the district court instructions, a jury need not determine if such a threat actually existed....

The EPA will not be allowed to enforce its Clean Water Rule after the Sixth Circuit issued an order to stay the rule on Friday. The new rule sought to clarify which waters are protected under the Clean Water Act, something which has proven surprisingly difficult in the past. Eighteen states sued to stop the rule, leading to the Sixth Circuit’s order, which applies nationwide. The Clean Water Rule seeks to extend pollution protections, and EPA jurisdiction, to bodies of water such as streams and wetlands....

A whistleblowing employee is not protected from retaliation under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act if a reasonable person, in his position and with his same training and experience, would not have believed there was a securities violation to report, the Eighth Circuit ruled this week. The ruling makes the Eighth Circuit the fourth federal appellate court to endorse the so-called Sylvester standard, first adopted by the Department of Labor’s Administrative Review Board in 2012....

Aereo is an Internet-based service that transmits recorded broadcast television programs to subscribers while the programs are airing on broadcast television. The New York Times explains that it “essentially turns a subscriber’s phone, computer or tablet into a small television set, but without the rabbit ears that would normally be needed.” The company doesn’t have a license from copyright holders to record or transmit those programs; a fact not lost on the broadcasters that rely on fees to stay afloat....

Try as it may, Arkansas is having a hard time executing death row inmates. Pressured by expiring prescriptions for legal injections, the state had scheduled eight inmates for execution in ten days. The plan was to start with two-a-day, but that fell through on the first day. Had Arkansas succeeded, it would have been America’s biggest cluster-kill in 40 years. Judge Jane Kelly, a lone dissenter in a U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in McGehee v....

Last October, California became the first state in the nation to prohibit mental health providers from engaging in sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) with minors. The “conversion” therapies attempt to “cure” individuals of their homosexual and transgender leanings, and have been labeled by many as “quakery,” including the state legislature and Governor Brown, who, when signing SB 1172, stated, Proponents of the bill, however, argued that it was a restriction on their free speech rights and the rights of parents to choose appropriate medical treatment....

In a retaliation and employment discrimination action against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, district court did not err: 1) in finding that DHS did not discriminate against the plaintiff because of her age; 2) in finding that plaintiff was not constructively discharged as her working conditions were not objectively intolerable; and 3) in concluding that plaintiff’s retaliation claims were time-barred as she was sufficiently familiar with the 45-day time requirement....

A federal appeals court reinstated a lawsuit against a pharmaceutical company that allegedly got kickbacks from nursing homes to get more lucrative business. In United States of America v. Omnicare, Inc., plaintiff Mar Silver blew the whistle on PharMerica Corporation in the alleged kickback scheme. He claimed the company defrauded the government by giving below-cost medications to Medicare patients in exchange for better-paying Medicaid patients. It’s called “swapping” in the business, if you haven’t read about it....

Tarla Makaeff is an angry, angry woman. She attended a seminar presented by Trump University that focused on investing in foreclosed properties. At the seminar, they convinced her to sign up for more “education,” which given the rise in tuition across the United States, was a relative bargain at its $34,995 price tag. Two Steps to SLAPP In order to prevail in a SLAPP motion, the movant must make a prima facie showing that the suit arises from an act in furtherance of the defendant’s constitutional right to free speech....