The Court rules Supreme.

City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health.

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional an Akron, Ohio, ordinance regulating abortions because it interfered with a woman's right to obtain an abortion. The ordinance required that all abortions after the first trimester of pregnancy be performed in a hospital, prohibited physicians from performing abortions on unmarried minors under the age of 15 without parental consent or a c...

Sequestration of lay witnesses and experts.

The rule on sequestration (exclusion) of witnesses is designed to avoid fabrication and collusion and has traditional roots in the Old Testament. Special rules apply regarding expert witnesses and "support persons." The contours of such special rules are explored within the Federal Rules of Evidence, state rules of evidence, state appellate and supreme court decisions, and U.S. Supreme Court de...

How Can the Supreme Court Not “Understand” Patent Law?

The Supreme Court does understand patent law. This invited Essay responds to Federal Circuit Judge Dyk’s remarks at the Chicago-Kent Supreme Court IP Review, in particular, his observation that the patent “bar and the academy have expressed skepticism that the Supreme Court understands patent law well enough to make the governing rules” (a view Judge Dyk did not endorse). The idea that the Supr...

Supreme Court Effectiveness and the Police Organization

This article emphasizes the limits of the effectiveness of Supreme Court-imposed restraints on police behavior. It argues that such effectiveness is mitigated by the milieu in which the police officer operates, by the characteristics of the police decisionmaking process, and by the relationship police have with their reference groups. The focus is not upon the Supreme Court, nor upon any single...

Polygraphy revisited: U.S. v. Scheffer.

U.S. v. Scheffer is a case that poses two questions. First, must a defendant who wishes to place polygraphic evidence before the court be allowed to do so for fear that refusal will create a Constitutional issue by depriving him of due process? Second, is polygraphic evidence admissible evidence at all, as defined by the Military Rule of Evidence or the Federal Rules of Evidence? The case, orig...

California Supreme Court Rules for Same-sex Marriage; Declares Sexual Orientation a “suspect Classification”