Yet another opinion from the SCt, this time addressing a situation that is fairly solid in civil law (at least I remember studying something similar way back in law school).  It's unfortunate that the State doesn't need to expressly address the Federal claim, but given that the defendant would have lost his claim, it's easy to presume that the State also found the Federal claim to be insufficient Johnson v. Williams (9-0 Opinion by Justice Alito on February 20, 2013) Summary: ...

The Supreme Court is on a roll with criminal decisions this week.  Here is the latest and greatest: Henderson v. United States (6-3 Opinion by Justice Breyer on February 20, 2013.

Here is an interesting decision from the U.S. Supreme Court.  Double Jeopardy applies if the Judge grants a directed verdict of acquittal for an element the prosecution failed to prove, that it didn't have to prove.

Not a big surprise on this one.  I think it was fairly unlikely that the U.S. Supreme Court was going to hold that Padilla (the case holding that defense attorneys must inform their clients of possible deportation) would be retroactive.

Here is a recent decision from the U.S. Supreme Court. It looks like everybody makes mistakes, even drug-detection dogs.

Here is another U.S. Supreme Court opinion, discussing the limits on detention when executing a search warrant.  Yeah, you can detain someone when executing a search warrant.