Padilla v. Kentucky, 559 U. S. 2 ___ (2010)
R037; No. 08-651; 3/31/10. Because counsel must inform a noncitizen criminal client whether
his plea carries a risk of deportation, petitioner has sufficiently alleged that his counsel
was constitutionally deficient under the Sixth Amendment's effective-assistance-of-counsel
guarantee; but whether petitioner is entitled to relief depends on whether he has been
prejudiced, a matter not addressed by this Court.
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Shady Grove Orthopedic Associates, P. A. v. Allstate Ins. Co., 559 U. S. 2 ___ (2010)
R038; No. 08-1008; 3/31/10. The Second Circuit's holding that, despite Federal Rule
of Civil Procedure 23's class action provisions, federal courts sitting in diversity
must apply N. Y. Civ. Prac. Law Ann. §901(b), which precludes a class action to
recover a "penalty" such as statutory interest, is reversed, and the case is
remanded.
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United States v. Stevens, 559 U. S. 2 ___ (2010)
R039; No. 08-769; 4/20/10. Title 18 U. S. C. §48--which criminalizes
the commercial creation, sale, or possession of certain depictions of
animal cruelty--is substantially overbroad, and therefore invalid under
the First Amendment.
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Conkright v. Frommert, 559 U. S. 2 ___ (2010)
R040; No. 08-810; 4/21/10. The District Court, on remand, should have applied a
deferential standard of review to a pension plan administrator's interpretation of a
retirement plan covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, even though
the administrator's initial interpretation had been found unreasonable under ERISA.
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Perdue v. Kenny A., 559 U. S. 2 ___ (2010)
R041; No. 08-970; 4/21/10. Under 42 U. S. C. §1988, which authorizes a
"reasonable" attorney's fee for prevailing parties in civil rights actions,
the fee calculation based on the "lodestar," i.e., the number of hours worked by
the attorneys and their employees multiplied by the prevailing hourly rates, may be increased
due to superior performance, but only in extraordinary circumstances.
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Jerman v. Carlisle, McNellie, Rini, Kramer & Ulrich LPA, 559 U. S. 2 ___ (2010)
R042; No. 08-1200; 4/21/10. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act's bona
fide error defense, 15 U. S. C. §1692k(c)--which relieves a debt collector of liability
for prohibited acts if it "shows by a preponderance of the evidence that the violation
was not intentional and resulted from a bona fide error notwithstanding the maintenance of
procedures reasonably adapted to avoid any such error"--does not apply to a violation
resulting from a debt collector's mistaken interpretation of the FDCPA's legal
requirements.
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Merck & Co. v. Reynolds, 559 U. S. 2 ___ (2010)
R043; No. 08-905; 4/27/10. Under 28 U. S. C. §1658(b), which provides that a
securities fraud action is timely if filed no more than "2 years after the discovery of
the facts constituting the violation," a cause of action accrues (1) when the plaintiff
did in fact discover, or (2) when a reasonably diligent plaintiff would have discovered, "the
facts constituting the violation"--whichever comes first; the relevant facts include
scienter; here, respondents' complaint alleging that Merck knowingly misrepresented the
heart attack risks of Vioxx was timely.
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Stolt-Nielsen S. A. v. AnimalFeeds Int’l Corp., 559 U. S. 2 ___ (2010)
R044; No. 08-1198; 4/27/10. Imposing class arbitration on parties who have not agreed
to authorize class arbitration is inconsistent with the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U. S. C.
§1 et seq.
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Salazar v. Buono, 559 U. S. 2 ___ (2010)
R045; No. 08-472; 4/28/10. The Ninth Circuit's judgment affirming an injunction
prohibiting implementation of §8121(a) of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2004,
which directs the Secretary of the Interior to transfer a Latin cross and the federal land on which
it stands within the Mojave National Preserve to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in exchange for
privately owned land elsewhere in the Preserve, is reversed, and the case is remanded.
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Renico v. Lett, 559 U. S. 2 ___ (2010)
R046; No. 09-338; 5/3/10. Because the Michigan Supreme Court's decision
that the judge in respondent Lett's trial had not abused her discretion in declaring
a mistrial because of a deadlocked jury was not "an unreasonable application of . . .
clearly established Federal law" under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty
Act of 1996, 28 U. S. C. §2254(d)(1), the Sixth Circuit erred in granting Lett habeas
relief.
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Hui v. Castaneda, 559 U. S. 2 ___ (2010)
R047; No. 08-1529; 5/3/10. The immunity provided by 42 U. S. C. §233(a)--which
specifies that "[t]he remedy against the United States provided by [28 U. S. C. §§]1346(b)
and 2672] . . . for damage for personal injury, including death, resulting from the performance of
medical . . . or related functions . . . by any commissioned officer or employee of the Public Health
Service while acting within the scope of his . . . employment, shall be exclusive of any other civil
action or proceeding by reason of the same subject-matter against the officer or employee"--
precludes actions under Bivens v. Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents, 403 U. S. 388, against individual
PHS officers or employees for harms arising out of constitutional violations committed while acting
within the scope of their employment.
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