State Court Docket Watch
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Fisher v. Hagett and Lay v. Goins
Docket Watch 2020 By Jason Torchinsky & Dennis W. Polio In Fisher v. Hagett and Lay v. Goins, a majority of the Supreme Court of Tennessee vacated an injunction which had temporarily forced the State of Tennessee to provide any eligible Tennessee voter, who applied to vote by mail in order to avoid transmission or […]
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Rafaeli, LLC v. Oakland County
Docket Watch 2020 By Thomas J. Rheaume & Gordon J. Kangas When Rafaeli, LLC underpaid its property tax bill by $8.40, the county auctioned off the property for $24,500 and kept the surplus proceeds. The process was proper under Michigan’s General Property Tax Act, and the lower courts held that the application of the statute […]
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Kelly v. Legislative Coordinating Council
Docket Watch 2020 By Brad Schlozman Since the November 2018 election of Democrat Laura Kelly as governor of Kansas, the state’s Republican-controlled legislature has found itself in an increasing number of battles with the leader of the executive branch. One of the most recent controversies—a high-stakes separation of powers dispute in April over the legislature’s […]
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HWCC-Tunica, Inc. v. Mississippi Dep’t of Revenue
Docket Watch 2020 By Daniel Ortner Most discussions of judicial deference to administrative agencies center on federal doctrines like those established in the Chevron and Auer cases. But there have been a lot of recent developments regarding deference and the separation of powers at the state level. Over the past several years, seven state supreme […]
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State v. Nettles
Docket Watch 2020 By Zachery Keller The Ohio Supreme Court’s decision in State v. Nettles[1] concerns what happens when decades-old laws meet modern-day technology. More precisely, the court addressed the question of where police “intercept” a cellular call under Ohio’s wiretap statutes. Nettles held that an interception occurs in at least two places: both at […]
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People v. R.D.
Docket Watch 2020 By Anthony (Tom) Caso The U.S. Supreme Court has long acknowledged that “true threats” are not protected speech under the First Amendment.[1] But the question of what constitutes a true threat, especially in the age of social media, has sparked a split of judicial opinion.[2] First Amendment scholars expected the Supreme Court […]
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Wisconsin Legislature v. Palm
Docket Watch 2020 By Rick M. Esenberg In May, Wisconsin became the only state to emerge from a gubernatorial “stay-at-home” order by judicial decision. The decision was not based on a claim of individual liberty or, for that matter, any constitutional claim at all. Rather, it focused on statutory limits on the power of government, […]
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Elkhorn Baptist Church v. Brown
Docket Watch 2020 By GianCarlo Canaparo On June 12, 2020, the Oregon Supreme Court struck down a preliminary injunction that had been granted by a lower court to Elkhorn Baptist Church, which had challenged Governor Kate Brown’s COVID-19 executive orders.[1] Like many governors, Brown implemented a series of emergency executive orders to respond to the […]
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Bailey v. South Carolina State Election Commission
Docket Watch 2020 By Jason Torchinsky & Drew Watkins In Bailey v. South Carolina State Election Commission, the Supreme Court of South Carolina, accepting original jurisdiction, dismissed an action that sought to expand South Carolina’s absentee ballot provisions in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.[1] The plaintiffs in Bailey were candidates in the South Carolina […]
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Myers v. Yamato Kogyo Co.
Docket Watch 2020 By Nicholas Bronni When should courts defer to an agency’s interpretation of a statute? At the federal level, the law is clear: When reviewing an agency’s interpretation of a statute that it is charged with administering, courts apply the two-step test from Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.[1] Under […]