PER CURIAM . This case arises from five related lawsuits that challenge a determination adopted by the Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The determination, announced by the Acting Secretary, is to take immediate steps to rescind a program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, by March 5, 2018. The Acting Secretary stated that her determination was based in part on the Attorney General's conclusion that DACA is unlawful and likely would be...
The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied. Justice THOMAS , with whom Justice GORSUCH joins, dissenting from the denial of certiorari. The Second Amendment to the Constitution guarantees that "the right of the people to keep and bear Arm[s] shall not be infringed." At issue in this case is whether that guarantee protects the right to carry firearms in public for self-defense. Neither party disputes that the issue is one of national importance or that the courts of appeals have...
The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied and the pending motions for leave to file briefs as amici curiae are granted. Statement of Justice GORSUCH , with whom Justice THOMAS joins, respecting the denial of certiorari. When a State negotiates an easement limited to one purpose but later uses the land for an entirely different purpose, can the State limit, by operation of statute, the compensation it must pay for that new taking The Mississippi Supreme Court held that it may do...
Justice THOMAS delivered the opinion of the Court. Federal habeas courts reviewing convictions from state courts will not consider claims that a state court refused to hear based on an adequate and independent state procedural ground. A state prisoner may be able to overcome this bar, however, if he can establish "cause" to excuse the procedural default and demonstrate that he suffered actual prejudice from the alleged error. An attorney error does not qualify as "cause" to excuse a...
Justice KENNEDY delivered the opinion of the Court. The suit giving rise to the case before the Court was filed by a plaintiff who was a member of a putative class in a class action but who later elected to withdraw and proceed in this separate suit, seeking recovery for the same illegalities that were alleged in the class suit. The class-action suit had been filed within the time permitted by statute. Whether the later, separate suit was also timely is the controlling question. I A...
PER CURIAM . These cases involve challenges to Executive Order No. 13780, Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States. The order alters practices concerning the entry of foreign nationals into the United States by, among other things, suspending entry of nationals from six designated countries for 90 days. Respondents challenged the order in two separate lawsuits. They obtained preliminary injunctions barring enforcement of several of its provisions,...
Chief Justice ROBERTS delivered the opinion of the Court, except as to footnote 3. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources offers state grants to help public and private schools, nonprofit daycare centers, and other nonprofit entities purchase rubber playground surfaces made from recycled tires. Trinity Lutheran Church applied for such a grant for its preschool and daycare center and would have received one, but for the fact that Trinity Lutheran is a church. The Department had a...
PER CURIAM . This case involves a tragic cross-border incident in which a United States Border Patrol agent standing on United States soil shot and killed a Mexican national standing on Mexican soil. The three questions presented concern whether the parents of the victim of that shooting may assert claims for damages against the agent under Bivens v. Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents, 403 U.S. 388 , 91 S.Ct. 1999, 29 L.Ed.2d 619 (1971); whether the shooting violated the victim's Fourth...
Justice KENNEDY delivered the opinion of the Court. The classic example of a property taking by the government is when the property has been occupied or otherwise seized. In the case now before the Court, petitioners contend that governmental entities took their real property — an undeveloped residential lot — not by some physical occupation but instead by enacting burdensome regulations that forbid its improvement or separate sale because it is classified as substandard in size. The...
Justice KENNEDY delivered the opinion of the Court. During petitioner's trial on state criminal charges, the courtroom was occupied by potential jurors and closed to the public for two days of the jury selection process. Defense counsel neither objected to the closure at trial nor raised the issue on direct review. And the case comes to the Court on the assumption that, in failing to object, defense counsel provided ineffective assistance. In the direct review context, the underlying...
Justice BREYER delivered the opinion of the Court. In Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 , 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), this Court held that the government violates the Constitution's Due Process Clause "if it withholds evidence that is favorable to the defense and material to the defendant's guilt or punishment." Smith v. Cain, 565 U.S. 73, 75, 132 S.Ct. 627 , 181 L.Ed.2d 571 (2012) (emphasis added) (summarizing Brady holding). In 1985 the seven petitioners in these cases...
Justice ALITO delivered the opinion of the Court. More than 600 plaintiffs, most of whom are not California residents, filed this civil action in a California state court against Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMS), asserting a variety of state-law claims based on injuries allegedly caused by a BMS drug called Plavix. The California Supreme Court held that the California courts have specific jurisdiction to entertain the nonresidents' claims. We now reverse. I A BMS, a large...
Justice KENNEDY delivered the opinion of the Court, except as to Part IV-B. After the September 11 terrorist attacks in this country, and in response to the deaths, destruction, and dangers they caused, the United States Government ordered hundreds of illegal aliens to be taken into custody and held. Pending a determination whether a particular detainee had connections to terrorism, the custody, under harsh conditions to be described, continued. In many instances custody lasted for days...
Justice GORSUCH , delivered the opinion of the Court. Disruptive dinnertime calls, downright deceit, and more besides drew Congress's eye to the debt collection industry. From that scrutiny emerged the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, a statute that authorizes private lawsuits and weighty fines designed to deter wayward collection practices. So perhaps it comes as little surprise that we now face a question about who exactly qualifies as a "debt collector" subject to the Act's rigors....
Justice GINSBURG , delivered the opinion of the Court. This case concerns options open to plaintiffs, when denied class-action certification by a district court, to gain appellate review of the district court's order. Orders granting or denying class certification, this Court has held, are "inherently interlocutory," Coopers & Lybrand v. Livesay, 437 U.S. 463 , 470, 98 S.Ct. 2454, 57 L.Ed.2d 351 (1978), hence not immediately reviewable under 28 U.S.C. 1291, which provides for appeals...
Justice THOMAS delivered the opinion of the Court. These cases involve 42 U.S.C. 262( l ), which was enacted as part of the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009 (BPCIA), 124 Stat. 808. The BPCIA governs a type of drug called a biosimilar, which is a biologic product that is highly similar to a biologic product that has already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Under 262( l ), an applicant that seeks FDA approval of a biosimilar must provide its...
Justice KAGAN delivered the opinion of the Court. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) exempts "church plan[s]" from its otherwise-comprehensive regulation of employee benefit plans. 88 Stat. 840, as amended, 29 U.S.C. 1003(b)(2). Under the statute, certain plans for the employees of churches or church-affiliated nonprofits count as "church plans" even though not actually administered by a church. See 1002(33)(C)(i). The question presented here is whether a...
Justice ALITO delivered the opinion of the Court. If law enforcement officers make a "seizure" of a person using force that is judged to be reasonable based on a consideration of the circumstances relevant to that determination, may the officers nevertheless be held liable for injuries caused by the seizure on the ground that they committed a separate Fourth Amendment violation that contributed to their need to use force The Ninth Circuit has adopted a "provocation rule" that imposes...
Justice THOMAS delivered the opinion of the Court. The question presented in this case is where proper venue lies for a patent infringement lawsuit brought against a domestic corporation. The patent venue statute, 28 U.S.C. 1400(b), provides that "[a]ny civil action for patent infringement may be brought in the judicial district where the defendant resides, or where the defendant has committed acts of infringement and has a regular and established place of business." In Fourco Glass Co....
Justice ALITO delivered the opinion of the Court. This case concerns the scope of the Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil and Commercial Matters, Nov. 15, 1965 (Hague Service Convention), 20 U.S.T. 361, T.I.A.S. No. 6638. The purpose of that multilateral treaty is to simplify, standardize, and generally improve the process of serving documents abroad. Preamble, ibid.; see Volkswagenwerk Aktiengesellschaft v. Schlunk, 486 U.S. 694 , 698,...
