Supreme Court Docket – 1999-2000 Term



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April 2000

Monday, April 17, 2000

Thomas E. Raleigh, Chapter 7 Trustee for Estate of William J. Stoecker, v. Illinois Department of Revenue (No. 99-387)

Subject:
Bankruptcy, sales tax, burden of proof

Question:
Should tax claims in bankruptcy cases be given the advantage of placing the burden of persuasion on an objecting trustee, in contrast to the rule applicable to the claims of other creditors?

Decisions:

Briefs:

Harris Trust and Savings Bank v. Salomon Smith Barney Inc. (No. 99-579)

Subject:
ERISA, pensions, brokers, fiduciary duty

Question:
Whether a non-fiduciary party in interest with respect to an employee benefit plan that engages in a prohibitied transaction, as defined in 406(a)(1) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 ("ERISA"), 29 U.S.C. 1106(a)(1), with the plan can be sued under ERISA 502(a)(3), 29 U.S.C. 1132(a)(3), for "appropriate equitable relief," including restitution.

Decisions:

Briefs:

Tuesday, April 18, 2000

United States v. Richard A. French, et al. (No. 99-582)

Subject:
Prison Litigation Reform Act, state prisons, federal oversight

Question:

  1. Whether a district court has authority to suspend the automatic stay under traditional equitable standards.

  2. Whether the automatic stay provision violates constitutional separation-of-powers principles.
Decisions: Briefs:

Charles B. Miller, Superintendent, Pendleton Correctional Facility et al. v. Richard A. French, et al. (No. 99-224)

Subject:
Prison Litigation Reform Act, state prisons, federal oversight

Question:

  1. Does a district court have authority to suspend 18 U.S.C. 3626(e) under traditional equitable standards?

  2. Does 18 U.S.C. 3626(e) violate separation-of-powers principles by legislatively specifying a rule of decision or legislatively annulling a judgment?
Decisions: Briefs:

Bobby Lee Ramdass, Petitioner v. Ronald J. Angelone, Director, Virginia Department of Corrections (No. 99-7000)

Subject:
Capital punishment, juries, sentencing, life without parole

Decisions:

Briefs:

Wednesday, April 19

Charles Thomas Dickerson, Petitioner v. United States (No. 99-5525)

Subject:
Fifth Amendment, self-incrimination, Miranda warning

Question:
Whether a voluntary confession may be admitted into evidence in the government's case-in-chief under 18 U.S.C. 3501, nothwithstanding that the confession was taken in violation of the requirements of Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966).

Decisions:

Briefs:

Floyd J. Carter, Petitioner v. United States (No. 99-5716)

Subject:
Lesser offense, jury, bank robbery, bank larceny

Question:
Whether federal bank larceny, 18 U.S.C. 2113(b), is a lesser included offense of federal bank robery, 18 U.S.C. 2113(a), as a matter of law.

Decisions:

Briefs:

Monday, April 24, 2000

California Democratic Party, et al. v. Jones, California Secretary of State (No. 99-401)

Subject:
First Amendment, Freedom of Association, voting, open primaries

Question:

  1. Whether California's new blanket primary law - which allows voters of any political affiliation to cross party lines at will and to vote in other parties' primaries - violates the First Amendment rights of political parties to associate and to choose their own nominees.

  2. Whether the associational rights of political parties are afforded less protection under the First Amendment than the associational rights of other private associations.
Decisions: Briefs:

Jaime Castillo, et al., Petitioners v. United States (No. 99-658)

Subject:
Sentence enhancement, machine gun, 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1), Branch Davidian, Waco

Question:

  1. Whether the specified firearm type is an element of an offense under 18 U.S.C. 924(c)(1) which must be alleged in the indictment and found by the jury beyond a resonable doubt, or is a sentencing factor to be found by the judge by a preponderance of evidence.

  2. Whether equivocal "legislative history" overrides the doctrine of constitutional doubt set forth in Jones v. United States, 526 U.S. 227(1999), that a statute must be interpreted to avoid possible unconstitutionality under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments.
Decisions: Briefs:

Tuesday, April 25, 2000

Don Stenberg, Attorney General of Nebraska, et al., Petitioners v. Leroy Carhart (No. 99-830)

Subject:
Abortion, undue burden, dilation and extraction, partial birth abortion

Question:
Whether Nebraska's "partial birth abortion" statute creates an undue burden on the right to abortion.

Decisions:

Briefs:

Arizona v. California (No. 8, Original)

Subject:
Colorado River water rights

Question:
Whether this Court's decision in Arizona v. California, 373 U.S. 546 (1963) (Arizona I), and Arizona v. California, 460 U.S. 605 (1983) (Arizona II), preclude the United States and the Quechan Tribe from asserting water rights claims in this proceeding.

Decisions:

Briefs:

Wednesday, April 26, 2000

Boy Scouts of America and Monmouth Council, et al. v. James Dale (No. 99-699)

Subject:
First Amendment, Freedom of Association, Boy Scouts, public accommodation, sexual orientation

Question:
Whether a state law requiring a Boy Scout Troop to appoint an avowed homosexual and gay rights activist as an Assistant Scoutmaster responsbile for communicating Boy Scouting's moral value to youth members abridges First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and freedom of association.

Decisions:

Briefs:

Florida Dept. of Corrections v. Dickson, Wellington, et al. (No. 98-829)

Subject:
Eleventh Amendment, ADA, state and local government, disabilities, immunity

Decisions:
Eleventh Circuit: No. 96-2788, 3773, 6947, Decided: 08/17/1998

Briefs:
None

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