Category: Judicial Decisions
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This is My Own Private Domicile, and I Will Not Be Harassed: Undue Expansion of Warrantless Entry Exceptions in Case v. Montana
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On January 14, 2026, the United States Supreme Court decided Case v. Montana, in which it affirmed its precedent of the emergency aid exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement.[1] However, the Court also expanded the authority of law enforcement officers to enter private residences without a warrant in the case of an emergency. The…
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NIL In College Sports: The SCORE and SAFE Acts Go Head-To-Head
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In the summer of 2021, the world of college sports shifted dramatically when the United States Supreme Court held in National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston that the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (“NCAA”) limits on student-athlete compensation violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act.[1] In response to the decision, the NCAA initiated an interim policy…
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Can Activism Survive SLAPPs in the United States? Greenpeace’s Use of the European Union’s Anti-SLAPP Directive Against Energy Transfer Lawsuit
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In the 1980s, scholars George W. Ping and Penelope Canan began researching a troubling new trend taking root in the United States’ legal system. They warned that this phenomenon, known as Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs), posed a substantial risk to the future of democratic participation.[1] SLAPPs are used to dissuade citizens from engaging…
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Vacations & Verdicts: Supreme Court Highlights from Summer 2025
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Bondi v. VanDerStok Opinion March 26, 2025 – Ruling 7-2 In Bondi v. VanDerStok, the Court upheld a 2022 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (“ATF”) regulation treating ghost guns and unfinished frames or receivers as “firearms” under the Gun Control Act of 1968.[1] The plaintiffs brought a facial challenge arguing that the kits…
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Moore v. United States: The Supreme Court’s Quiet Earthquake in Tax Law
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The Supreme Court’s 2024 decision in Moore v. United States didn’t exactly break the internet, but in the world of tax law, it might as well have. On its face, the ruling is a narrow affirmation of the Mandatory Repatriation Tax (MRT), which lets Congress tax certain foreign corporate earnings even if U.S. shareholders haven’t seen a…
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Juveniles in the Adult World of Crime
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The United States dominates the world of incarceration, jailing more individuals than any other country.[1] At any given time, there are approximately two million people suffering behind bars and struggling to endure the many harms associated with the legal system.[2] Laws surrounding the criminal justice system greatly impact how people are treated, charged, and prosecuted.[3]…
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No Dice: North Carolina Courts Hold Popular Electronic Sweepstakes Games Illegal
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N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-306.4 bans the operation of electronic machines to “[c]onduct a sweepstakes through the use of an entertaining display, including the entry process or the reveal of a prize.”[i] The statute defines “sweepstakes” as “any game, advertising scheme or plan, or other promotion, which, with or without payment of any consideration, a…
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Cruel and Unusual Camping: How the U.S. Supreme Court Reopened the Door to Status Crimes
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On June 28, 2024, the United States Supreme Court took a wrecking ball to a Ninth Circuit holding and stopped just shy of overturning one of the Court’s most famous opinions: Robinson v. California. Robinson held the government cannot criminalize the status of drug addiction because “status crimes” constituted cruel and unusual punishment under the…