Notice of Appeal

U.S. Supreme Court today

Turning to the nation's highest court, SCOTUS issued 3 signed opinions today, including

• a ruling that establishes a deferential standard on review of a trial court's decision whether to remove a potential juror from a death case based on his or her views of capital punishment,
• another ruling that reverses the Eleventh Circuit (in a case involving a nude peace sign display), holding that attorneys' fees under Section 1988 cannot be awarded if the plaintiff wins the preliminary injunction battle, but loses the lawsuit war,
• and an opinion holding that the standard for finding a "willful" violation of the notice obligation under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (which entitles the plaintiff to additional damages, including punitives) includes not just knowing violations, but also reckless disregard of the notice obligation.

The Ninth Circuit was on the losing end of both the capital punishment case and the FCRA case (even though the court correctly interpreted the willfulness standard).

The Court also...

U.S. Supreme Court today

Five opinions were just issued -- SCOTUSBlog has the details. (None involve review of an 11th Circuit decision, however.)

More Eleventh Circuit News

First, the Supreme Court today issued an opinion with the style Scott v. Harris which, interestingly, reverses the Eleventh Circuit (not usually known for being hard on police) in a Fourth Amendment police chase case, Harris v. Coweta County [and Scott], finding that ramming into the fleeing car to cause a wreck is justified because the chase itself is dangerous to the public. (The opinion reviewed by the Supreme Court was issued in place of the original opinion, which was vacated sua sponte by the panel.)

As SCOTUSBlog notes, this is the first time the Supreme Court has provided a link to a video (the police dashboard video, a la 'Cops') related to the opinion. Read other interesting commentary about the issues in this case (including, whether the rule that courts should rule on the underlying constitutional issue first, before determining whether it was clearly established, in qualified immunity cases should be overturned) as SCOTUSBlog here.

In other news, today, the Eleventh Circuit issued an opinion in Hanley v. Roy resolving an international child custody dispute under the Hague Convention on Child Abduction and the International Child Abduction Remedies Act.