Federal Communications Commission v. Fox Television Stations, No. 10-1293
LOWER COURT DECISION The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York, struck down broadcast indecency regulations as unconstitutionally vague.
QUESTION PRESENTED Does the First Amendment allow the government to regulate cursing and nudity on broadcast television?
United States v. Jones, No. 10-1259
LOWER COURT DECISION The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned the drug conviction of Antoine Jones, saying the government had violated his Fourth Amendment rights by collecting electronic information about his whereabouts.
QUESTION PRESENTED Do the police need a warrant to attach a tracking device to a car and monitor its movements over several weeks?
Hosanna-Tabor Church v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, No. 10-553
LOWER COURT DECISION The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati, ruled that Cheryl Perich, a commissioned minister who taught mostly secular subjects at a religious school, could pursue a discrimination lawsuit against the church that ran the school.
QUESTION PRESENTED Whether a “ministerial exception” bans suits between religious groups and employees whose work includes religious duties.
Golan v. Holder, No. 10-545
LOWER COURT DECISION The United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, in Denver, upheld a federal law that provided copyright protection to works that had entered the public domain, rejecting a challenge from orchestra conductors, teachers and film archivists now unable to use what had once been freely available materials.
QUESTION PRESENTED Whether the First Amendment and the Constitution’s copyright clause prohibit Congress from taking works out of the public domain.
Florence v. Board of Freeholders, No. 10-945
LOWER COURT DECISION The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in Philadelphia, ruled that Albert W. Florence, wrongly arrested for a minor offense, could not sue for being strip-searched.
QUESTION PRESENTED Does the Fourth Amendment allow jails to conduct strip-searches of all people detained for minor offenses without individualized suspicion?
Maples v. Thomas, No. 10-63
LOWER COURT DECISION The United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta, ruled that Cory R. Maples, a death row inmate in Alabama, lost his chance to appeal a decision against him because his lawyers had missed a filing deadline.
QUESTION PRESENTED Can the missed deadline, the result of a mix-up in a law firm’s mailroom, be suspended when the inmate was blameless and a court clerk who received a court order marked “return to sender” did nothing to set things right?
Perry v. New Hampshire, No. 10-8974
LOWER COURT DECISION The New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled that Barion Perry was properly convicted of theft based on eyewitness evidence that he said was unreliable.
QUESTION PRESENTED Do eyewitness identifications made in suggestive settings require judicial scrutiny when the police were not responsible for the suggestiveness?
Zivotofsky v. Clinton, No. 10-699
LOWER COURT DECISION The District of Columbia Circuit said it could not decide whether the parents of an American boy born in Jerusalem were entitled to have his United States passport say his birthplace was Israel because the issue was a political question.
QUESTION PRESENTED Is the State Department free to disregard a law allowing such notations in passports because the law impermissibly intrudes on the president’s constitutional power to recognize foreign governments?