Supreme court cert

Today the Supreme Court declined to hear Limelight’s petition for cert. on the question of whether an accused infringer may be held liable for direct infringement of a claim to a method where multiple parties perform the steps of the method.On August 13, 2016, the S. Ct. remanded the en banc decision of the Fed. Cir. that set forth the law of divided infringement under s. 271(a), and found that Limelight directly infringed U.S. Pat. No. 6,108,703. The court held that an entity will be found responsible for others’ performance of method steps “(1) where that entity directs or controls others’ performance, [or] (2) where the actors form a joint enterprise.” As well as in the case of agency or contractual direct infringement, the court concluded that liability under s.271(a) can also be found what an infringer “conditions participation in an activity or receipt of a benefit upon performance of a step or steps of a patented method and establishes … [Read more...] about Limelight Networks v. Akamai Tech. – Supreme Court Cert. Denied

Reuters, the New York Times, Courthouse News Service and Bloomberg News covered the cert grant.The 2013 case, Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, had held that there is a presumption that the law does not reach human rights violations committed in other countries. The presumption can be overcome, however, if the claims sufficiently touch and concern the United States, the court said in Kiobel.When the Supreme Court accepted Kiobel, it had said it would decide whether corporations can be sued but then opted to decide the broader issue.The plaintiffs in the new case claimed (PDF) that Arab Bank, specifically its New York branch, distributed hundreds of millions of dollars to international terrorists to finance suicide bombings and reward their families.The bank said that, to the contrary, it has worked with the United States in the fight against terrorism financing, according to the Reuters account. There were only four transactions out of 500,000 involving terrorists designated by the U.S. … [Read more...] about Supreme Court to consider whether corporations may be liable for overseas human rights violations

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday to decide the constitutionality of a federal statute banning states from authorizing sports betting.The issue in the two consolidated cases before the court is whether the federal law impermissibly commandeers the regulatory power of the states in violation of the Constitution’s federal structure and the 10th Amendment, according to the cert petitions here and here (PDF). SCOTUSblog reported on the cert grant.Last August, the en banc Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had upheld the federal law, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, in the consolidated New Jersey cases.New Jersey had repealed its ban on sports wagering and contended it didn’t violate the federal law because it wasn’t affirmatively authorizing sports gambling. The 3rd Circuit didn’t buy the argument.“The presence of the word ‘repeal’ does not prevent us from examining what the provision actually … [Read more...] about Supreme Court to decide whether Congress can bar states from authorizing sports gambling

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether the University of California’s Hastings College of Law violated the Constitution when it refused to recognize the Christian Legal Society as a sanctioned student group.The law school refused funding and other benefits to the group because it does not admit nonbelievers as officers or members, according to SCOTUSblog and the Associated Press.The legal society opposes homosexuality and “unrepentant participation in or advocacy of a sexually immoral lifestyle,” USA Today’s On Deadline blog reports.The legal society contends the law school violated its First Amendment right of free association. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had upheld the law school’s decision in a ruling that conflicts with the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.The Supreme Court has been considering whether to grant the cert petition since its Sept. 29 conference, according to The BLT: The Blog of … [Read more...] about Supreme Court to Decide if Law School Can Ban Christian Legal Society

Updated: The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether death-row inmates with mental health problems are entitled to delays in their habeas proceedings.The court granted cert today in two cases raising the issue, the Associated Press reports. SCOTUSblog links to the cert petition (PDF) filed by Arizona in one of the cases, Ryan v. Gonzales. The inmate, Ernest Valencia Gonzales, was sentenced to death for a 1990 murder in Phoenix. Gonzales’ lawyer, who was appointed under a federal law providing counsel for indigent capital inmates, had claimed his client was unable to assist him and thus entitled to a delay.The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the case to determine competency. According to the cert petition, “The 9th Circuit has essentially rewritten the [appointment of counsel] statute to impliedly create two additional rights: to be competent to assist counsel during a capital federal habeas proceeding and to obtain a stay of the … [Read more...] about Supreme Court to Decide on Competency Delays in Death-Row Habeas Cases